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HISTORY OF IRELAND, 



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FROM THE 



TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE PRESENT TIME : 



A CONTINUATION 



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HISTORY OF THE ABBE MACGEOGIIEGAN 



OOUPILKD BY 



JOHN M I T C II E L. 



NEW Y R K : 
D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. 

MONTREAL i 

CORNER NOTRE-DAME AND BT. FRANCIS XAVIER STREETS. 
UUS. IIUKICY, 10 111(111 8TUEKT, BOSTON. 






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Entered a< rdtng t" Act of Congress, In tin' year 1Srts, t 

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in the Clerk's Office of ii... Dlstrlol Court of ill" United States Bar the Southern Wstrlot 

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In preparing a Continuation of the valuable History of Ireland l>y the Abbe 
Macflooghegan, the coinpilur has aimed only to reduce and condense into a co- 
in rent narrative the materials which exist in abundance in a great number of 
publications of every date within the period included in the Continuation. 

That period of a century and a half embraces a scries of deeply interesting 
events in the annuls of our country — the deliberate Breach of the Treaty of 
Limerick— the long series of Penal Laws — the exile of the Irish soldiery to France 
— their achievements in the French and other services — the career of Dean Swift — 
the origin of a Colonial Nationality among the English of Ireland— the Agitations 
of Lucas — the Volunteering — the Declaration of Independence — the history of the 
Independent Irish Parliament — the Plot to bring about the Union — the United 
Irishmen — the Negotiations with France — the Insurrection of 1798 — the French 

Expeditions to Ireland — the "Union" (so called) — the decay of Trade — the fraudu- 
lent Imposition of Debt upon Ireland — the Orangemen — the beginning of O'Con- 
nell's power — the Veto Agitation — the Catholic Association — Clare Election — 
Emancipation — the series of Famines — the Repeal Agitation — the Monster Meet- 
ings — the State Trials — the Great Famine — the Death of O'Connell — the Irish Con- 
federation — the fate of Smith O'Brien and his comrades — the Legislation of the 
United Parliament for Ireland — Poor-Laws — National Education — the Tenant- 
Right Agitation — the present condition of the country, etc. 

The mere enumeration of these principal heads of the narrative will show 
how very wide a field has had to be traversed in this Continuation ; and what 
a huge number of works — Memoirs, Correspondence — Parliamentary Debates — 
Speeches and local histories must have been collated, in order to produce a 
continuous story. There exist, indeed, some safe and useful guides, in the works 
of writers who have treated special parts or limited periods of the general History ; 
and the compiler has had no scruple in making very large use of the collections 



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INTRODUCTION 1 . 



of certain diligent writers who may be said to have almost exhausted their re- 
spective parts of the subject. 

Ii may aid the reader who desires to make a more minute examination of any 
part of the History, if we here set down the titles of the principal works which 
have been nsed in preparing the present: Doctor John (lurry's "Historical Review 
of the Civil Wars,'' and "State of the Irish Catholics" — Mr. Francis Plowden's 
elaborate and conscientious " Historical Review of tlic State of Ireland," before 
the Union : -the same author's " History of Ireland" from the Union till 1810— die 
Letters and Pamphlets of Dean Swift -Harris's "Life of William the Third"— 
Arthur Young's "Tour in Ireland"— the Irish " Parliamentary Debates"— Mr. Scul- 
ly's excellent "Slate of the Penal Laws" Thomas MacNevin's " History of the 
Volunteers," in the - Library of Ireland"— Hardy's "Life of Lord Charlemont"— 
the Pour Series of Dr. Madden's collections on the "Lives and Times of (he 
United Irishmen" — Hay's " History of the Rebellion in Wexford"— the Rev. Mr. 
Cordon's " History of the Irish Rebellion" [the work of Sir Richard Musgrave, 

as being wholly untrustworthy, is purposely excluded] — The "Papers ami Corre- 

1 1 dence" of Lord Cornwallis— and of Lord Oastlereagh ; — the " Memoirs of Miles 

Byrne, an Irish Exile in France," and a French officer of rank, lately deceased— 

ihe Lives and Speeches of Grattan and Ciirran — Sir Jonah Harrington's "l.'i a 
and Fall of the Irish Nation" -Memoirs and .Journals of Theobald Wolfe Tone — 
Richard Lalor Shiel's " Sketches of the Irish Bar"— Wyse's " History of the Catho- 
lic Association" — O'Oonnell's Speeches and Debates in the United Parliament. 

These are the chief authorities for all the time previous to the Catholic Relief 
_\,t As to the sketch which follows, of transactions still later, it would he 

obviously impossible to enumerate Ihe multifarious authorities : hut the speeches 
of O'Oonnell ami of William Smith O'Brien are still, for the Irish history of their 
own time, wdiat the orations of Grattan were for his ; and what tin' vivid writings 
Of Swifl were for the earlier part of the eighteenth century. The newspapers and 
Parliamentary Blue Boohs also come in, as essential materials (though sometimes 
questionable) for this later period : and for the Repeal Agitation, the State Trials, 

the terrible scenes of the Famine, ami the consequent extirpation of millions of tho 

Irish people, we have, without scruple, made use (along with other materials) of 
the facts contained in "The Last Conquest of Ireland (perhaps) 1 '— excluding gen- 
erally the inferences and opinions of the writer, and his estimate of his contempo- 
raries. Indeed, the reader will find in the present work very few Opinions or 
theories put forward at all ; the genuine object of the writer being simply to 



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present a clour narrative of the eventa as they evolved themselves one out of 
the others. 

Neither does this History need comment; and indignant declamation would 
but weaken the effect of the dreadful facts we shall have to tell. If the writer has 
succeeded — as he has earnestly desired to do — in arranging those facts in good 
order, and exhibiting the naked truth concerning English domination since the 
Treaty of Limerick, as our fathers saw it, and felt it ; — if he has been enabled to 
picture, in some degree like life, the long agony of the Penal Days, when the pride 
of the ancient Irish race was stung by daily, hourly humiliations, and their passions 
goaded lo madness by brutal oppression ;— and further to picture the still more 
destructive devastations perpetrated upon our country in this enlightened nine- 
teenth century; then it is hoped that every reader will draw for himself such 
general conclusions as the facts will warrant, without any declamatory appeals to X, /^/k.f ,> 
patriotic resentment, or promptings to patriotic aspiration : — the conclusion, in 
short, that, while England lives and flourishes, Ireland must die a daily death, and 
suffer an endless martyrdom ; and that if Irishmen are ever to enjoy the rights of 
human beings, the British Empire must first perish. 

As the learned Abbo MacGeoghegan was for many years a chaplain to the Irish 
Brigade in France, and dedicated his work to that renowned corps of exiles, whose 
dearest wish and prayer was always to encounter and overthrow the British power 
upon any field, it is presumed that the venerable author would wish his work to be 
continued in the same thoroughly Irish spirit which actuated his noble warrior- 
congregation ; — and he would desire the dark record of English atrocity in Ire- 
land, which h<; left unfinished, to be duly brought down through all its subse- 
quent scenes of horror and slaughter, which have been still more terrible after his 
day than they were before. And this is what the present Continuation professes 
to do. 







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CHAPTER I. 

FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE END OF 1691. rxau 

Treaty of Limerick — Violated or not? — Arguments of Macaulaj — Doctor Dopping, Bitihop of 
Meath — No faith to be kept with Papists— First act in violation of the treaty — Situation of ihe 
Catholics — Charge agaiust Surslield 1 

CHAPTER II. 

1692—1693. 

William III. not bigoted— Practical toleration for four years— First Parliament in this reign- 
Catholics excluded by a resolution — Extinction of civil existence for Catholics — Irish Protes- 
tant Nationality — Massacre of Glencoe — Battle of Steinkirk — Court of St. Germaius — " Dec- 
laration " — Battle of Landen, and death of Sarsfleld 7 

CHAPTER III. 

1693—1698. 

Capel Lord-Lientenant — War in the Netherlands— Capture of Namur— Grievances of the Protes- 
tant Colonis*" — Act for disarming Papists — Laws against education — Against priests — 
Against intermarrying with Papists — Act to " confirm " Articles of Limerick — Irish on the 
Continent 13 

CHATTER IV. 

1G98— 1702. 

Predominance of the English Parliament — Molyneux — Decisive action of the English Parliament 
— Court and country parties — Suppression of woolen manufacture — Commission of confiscated 
estates — Its revelations — Vexation of King William — Peace of Kyswick — Act for establish- 
ing the Protestant succession — Death of William 17 

CHAPTER V. 

1702—1704. 

Queen Anne— Rochester Lord-Lieutenant— Ormond Lord-Lieutenant— War on the Continent- 
Successes under Marlborough -Second formal breach of the Treaty of Limerick — Bill to 
prevent the further growth of Popery — Clause against the Dissenters— Catholic lawyers 
heard against the bill — Pleading of Sir Toby Butler — Bill passed — Object of the Penal laws 
— To get hold of the property of Catholics — Recall of the Edict of Nantes — Irish on the 
Continent — Cremona 22 

CHAPTER VI. 

1704—1714. 

Enforcement of the Penal Laws — Alaking informers honorable — Pembroke Lord-Lieutenant — 
Union of England and Scotland — Means by which it was carried — Irish House of Lords in 
favor of an Union — Laws against meeting at Holy Wells — Catholics excluded from Juries — 
Wharton Lord-Lieutenant — Second act to prevent growth of Popery — Rewards for "discov- 
erers "— Jonathan Swift — Nature of his Irish Patriotism — Papists the •■ common enemy" — 
The Dissenters— Colony of the Palatines — Disasters of the French, and Peace of Utrecht — 
The ■• Pretender " 34 

CHAPTER VII. 

171 1— 1723. 

George I. — James in. — Perils of Dean Swift — Tories dismissed — Ormond, Oxford, and Boling- 
broke impeached — Insurrection In Scotland — Calm in Ireland — Arrests — Irish Parliament — 
"Loyally " of the Catholics — '• No Catholics exist in Ireland " — Priest catchers — Bolton Lord- 
Lieutenant— Cause of Sherlock and Annesley— Conflict of jurisdiction — Declaratory act 
establishing dependence of the Irish Parliament -Swift's pamphlet — State of l 
GraftOD Lord-Lieutenant — Courage of the priests — Atrocious Bill 



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CHAPTER VIII. 

1723—1727. 

Swift and Wood's Copper — Drapier's Letters — Claim of Independence — Primate Boulter — Swift 
popular with the Catholics — His feeling towards Catholics — Desolation of the Country — 
Rack-rents — Absenteeism — Great Distress — Swift's modest proposal — Death of George I 4U 









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1727—1741. 



IX 



Lord Carteret Lord-Lieutenant,— Primate Boulter ruler of Ireland— His policy— Catholic Address 
— Not noticed — Papists deprived of elective franchise — Insolence of the "Ascendancy" — 
Famine— Emigration— Dorset Lord-Lieutenant— Agitation of Dissenters— Sacramental Test 
—Swift's virulence against the Dissenters— Boulter's policy to extirpate Papists— Rage 
against the Catholics— Debates on money bills — " Patriot Party" — Duke of Devonshire 
Lord-Lieutenant— Corruption— Another famine — Berkeley — English commercial policy in 
Ireland 54 

CHAPTER X . 

1741—1745. 

War on the Continent— Doctor Lucas— Primate Stone — Battle of Dettingen— Lally— Fontenoy — 
The Irish Brigade 61 

CHAPTER XI. 

1745—1753. 

Alarm in England — Expedition of Prince Charles Edward — "A Message of Peace to Ireland "— 
Viceroyalty of Chesterfield — Temporary toleration of the Catholics — Berkeley — The Scottish 
Insurrection — Culloden — " Loyalty of the Irish— Lucas and the Patriots — Debates on the 
Supplies — Boyle and Malone — Population of Ireland * . . . . 



68 



X I I 



CHAPTER 

1753— 17G0. 

Unpopularity of the Duke of Dorset — Earl of Kildare — nis address — Patriots in power — Pen- 
sion List — Duke of Bedford Lord-Lieutenant — Case of Saul — Catholic meeting in Dublin — 
Commencement of Catholic agitation — Address of the Catholics received — First recognition 
of the Catholics as subjects — Lucasian mobs — Project of Union — Thurot's expedition — Death 
of George II. — Population — Distress of the country — Operation of the Penal Laws — The 
Geoghehans — Catholic Petition — Berkeley's '• Querist " 75 

CHAPTER XIII. 

1700— 17G2. 

George III. — Speech from the Throne — "Toleration" — France and England in India — Lally's 
campaign there — State of Ireland — The Revenue — Distress of Trade — Distress in the Coun- 
try — Oppression of the Farmers — White-Boys — Riots — "A Popish Conspiracy" — Steel-Boys 
and Oak-Boys — Emigration from Ulster — Halifax. Viceroy — Flood and the Patriots— Extra- 
vagance and Corruption — Agitation for Septennial Parliaments 85 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1762— 17CS. 

Tory Ministry — Failures of the Patriots — Northumberland. Viceroy — Mr. Fitzgerald's speech on 
Pension List — Mr. Perry's address on same subject — Effort for mitigation of the Penal Laws 
— Mr. Mason's argument for allowing Papists to take mortgages — Rejected — Death of Stone 
and Karl of Shannon — Lord Hartford, Viceroy — Lucas and the Patriots— Their continued 
failures — Increase of National Debt — Townshend. Viceroy — New system — The "Under- 
takers" — Septennial bill changed into Octennial — And passed — Joy of the people— Conse- 
quences of this measure' — Ireland still "standing on her smaller end " — Newspapers of Dub- 
lin— Grattan 



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CHAPTER XV. 

1762—1767. 



Reign of Terror in Munster— Murder of Father Sheehy— " Toleration." under the House of nan- 
over— Precarious condition of Catholic clergy— Primates in hiding— Working of the Penal 
Laws — Testimony of Arthur Young 




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CHAPTER XVI. 

1767-1773. paok 

Townshend. Viceroy— Augmentation of the army — Embezzlement— Parliament prorogued — 
Again prorogued — Towpsbend buys li is majority — Triumph of the "English Interest" — New 
attempt to bribe the Priests— Townshend's •' Golden Drops'' — Bill to allow Papists to re- 
claim bogs — Tnwnshend recalled— Harcourt, Viceroy — Proposal to tax absentees — Defeated 
■ — Degraded condition of the Irish Parliament — American revolution, and new era 107 

CHAPTER XVII. 

1774—1777. 

American affairs — Comparison between Ireland and the Colonies — Contagion of American opin- 
ions in Ireland — Paltry measure of relief to Catholics— Congress at Philadelphia — Address 
of Congress to Ireland — Encouragement to Fisheries — Four thousand " armed negotiators" 
— Financial distress— First Octennial Parliament dissolved— Grattan — Lord Buckingham, 
Viceroy — Successes of the Americans 114 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

1777—1779. 

Buckingham, Viceroy— Misery, and Decline of Trade— Discipline of Government Supporters- 
Lord North's first measure in favor of Catholics — Passed in England — Opposed in Ireland — 
What it amounted to— Militia bill— The Volunteers— Defenceless state of the country — 
Loyalty of the Volunteers— Their uniforms— Volunteers Protestant at first— Catholics de- 
Birous to join— Volunteers get the Militia arms— Their aims— Military system — Numbers 
in 1780 120 

CHAPTER XIX. 

1779—1780. 

Free Trade and Free Parliament— Meaning of "Free Trade"— Non-importation agreements- 
Rage of the English— Grattan 's motion for free trade — Hussey Burgh— Thanks to the Vol- 
unteers—Parade iu Dublin— Lord North yields— Free Trade act— Next step— Mutiny bill — 
The 19th of April— Declaration of Right— Defeated in Parliament, but successful in the 
country— General determination— Organizing — Arming— Reviews — Charlemont— Briberies 
of Buckingham — Carlisle, Viceroy 128 

CHAPTER XX. 

1781—1782. 

Parliament — Thanks to the Volunteers— Habeas Corpus— Trade with Portugal — Grattan's finan- 
cial expose— Gardiner's measure for Catholic relief— Dnngannon— The 15th of February, 
1782— Debates on Gardiner's bill— Grattan's speech— Details of this measure— Burke's opin- 
ion of it— Address to the King asserting Irish independence — England yields at once— Act 
repealing the 6th George I.— Repeal of Poyuings' law — Irish independence 139 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1783—1784. 

Effects of independence— Settlement not final— English plots for the Union— Corruption of Irish 
Parliament— Enmity of Flood and Grattan— Question between them— Renunciation act- 
Second Dnngannon Convention — Convention of delegates in Dublin— Catholics excluded 
from all civil rights— Lord Kcnmare— Lord Kenmare disavowed— Lord Temple— Knights of 
St. Patrick— Portland, Viceroy— Judicature bill— Hapeas Corpus— Bank of Ireland— Repeal 
of Test act— Proceedings of Convention— Flood's Reform bill— Rejected— Convention dis- 
solved— End of the Volunteers— Militia 152 

CHAPTER XXII. 

1784—1786. 

Improvement of the country— Political position anomalous— Rutland, Viceroy — Petitions for 
Parliamentary reform— Flood's motion— Rejected— Grattan's bill to regulate the revenue — 
Protective duties demanded — National Congress — Dissensions as to rights of Catholics — 
Charlemont's intolerance— Orde's commercial propositions — New propositions of Mr. Pitt 
— liurke and Sheridan— Commercial propositions defeated - Mr. Conolly— The national 
debt — General corruption — Court majorities — Patriots defeated — Ireland after five years 
"independence 1G8 




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CHAPTER XXIII. 

1787—1789. paob 

Alarms and rumors of disturbances— Got up by Government — Act against illegal combinations 
— Mr. Grattan on tithes — Failure of his efforts — Death of Duke of Rutland— Marquis of 
Buckingham, Viceroy— Independence of Mr. Curran — Mr. Forbes and the Pension list — Fail- 
ure of his motion — Triumph of corruption— Troubles in Armagh County — '-Peep of Day 
lioya "— " Defenders "—Insanity of the King— The Regency 177 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

1789. 

Unpopularity of Buckingham— Formation of an Irish character— Efforts of Patriots in Parlia- 
ment— All in vain — Purchasing votes — Corruption — Whig Club — Lord Clare on Whig Club 
— Buckingham leaves Ireland— Pension list — Peep of Day Boys and Defenders — Westmore- 
land, Viceroy— Unavailing efforts against corruption — .Material prosperity — King William's 
birthday — French revolution 188 

CHAPTER XXV. 

1790—1791. 

New election — New peers — Sale of peerages — Motion against Police bill— Continual defeats of 
patriots — Insolence of the Castle — Progress of French revolution — Horror of French prin- 
ciples — Burke — Divisions amongst Irish Catholics — Wolfe Tone — General Committee of 
Catholics — Tone goes to Belfast — Establishes first United Irish Club — Parliamentary patriots 
avoid them- Progress of Catholic Committee — Project of a Convention — Troubles in 
County Armagh 199 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

1791-1792. 

Principles of United Irish Society — Test — Addresses — Meeting of Parliament — Catholic relief 
— Trilling measure of that kind— Petition of the Catholics — Rejected — Steady majority of 
two thirds for the Castle — Placeholding members — Violent agitation upon the Catholic claims 
. — Questions put to Catholics Universities of the Continent — Their answers — Opposition to 
project of Convention — Catholic question in the Whig Club—Catholic Convention in Dublin 
National Guard 211 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

1792—1793. 

The Catholic Convention — Reconciliation of differences amongst the Catholics — Their deputa- 
tion to the King — Successes of the French fortunate for the Catholics — Dumouriez and Je- 
mappes— Gracious reception of the Catholic deputation — Belfast mob draw the carriage of 
Catholic delegates— Secret Committee of the Lords — Report on Defenders and United Irish- 
men — Attempt of committee to connect the two — Lord Clare creates ••alarm among the bet- 
ter classes" — Proclamation against unlawful assemblies — Lord Edward Fitzgerald — French 
republic declares war against England — Large measure of Catholic relief immediately pro- 
posed — Moved by Secretary Hobart — Act carried — Its provisions — What it yields, and what 
it withholds — Arms and Gunpowder act— Act against conventions — Lord Clare the real 
author of British policy in Ireland as now established Effect and intention of the "Conven- 
tion act" — No such law in England— Militia bill — Catholic Committee — No reform — Close 
of session 220 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

1793—1795. 



Small results of Catholic Relief bill— Distinctions still kept up- 
lics — Trials of Defenders — Packing Juries — Progress of 

1 Catholic Bishops — Arrests nt Bund and Butler — I'roseculic 
effort for Parliamentary reform— Defeated -United Irish me 
police — Rev. William Jackson and Wolfe Toue — Rowan 



-Excitement against the Catho- 
Uniled Irishism — Opposed by 
u of A. Hamilton Rowan— Last 
■ting in Dublin dispersed by the 
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escapes — Tone allowed to cpnt the country— Vow ol the Cave Hill - Fitzwilliam's adminis- 
tration— Fitzwilliam deceived by Pitt — Dismissal of Mr. liereslord — Plan of Mr. Pitt — Insur- 
rection first — " Union " afterwards— Fitzwilliam recalled — Great despondency — " The 
" Orangemen " — Beginning of coercion and anarchy 231 



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CHAPTER XXIX. 

1793-1797. 

Hell or Connaught" — " Vigor boyond the Law " — Lord Carhampton's Vigor — Insurrection 
Act — Indemnity Act — The latter an invitation to Magistrates to break the law — Mr. Grattan 
on the Orangemen — Ilis resolution — The Acts Passed — Opposed by Grattan. Parsons, and 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald— Insurrection Act destroys Liberty of tbo Press— Suspension of 
Habeas Corpus— U. I. Society— New Members — Lord E. Fitzgerald — MaoNeven — Emmet — 
Wolfe Tone at Paris — His Journal — Clarke — Carnot — Hoche — Bantry Bay Expedition — 
Account of, in Tone's Journal — Fleet Anchors in Bantry Bay — Account of the affair by 
Secret Committee of the Lords — Government fully Informed of all the Projects 




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CONTENTS. 




210 



CHAPTER 

1797. 



XXX. 



Reign of Terror in Armagh County — No Orangemen ever Punished—" Defenders" called Ban- 
ditti — •• Faulkner's Journal." Organ of the Castle — Cheers on the Orangemen — Mr. Curran's 
■Statement of the Havoc in Armagh — Increased Rancor against Catholics and U. I. after the 
Bantry Hay Affair — Efforts of Patriots to Establish Permanent Armed Force — Opposed by 
Government — And Why — Proclamation of Counties — Bank Ordered to Suspend Specie Pay- 
ments—Alarm — Dr. Duig<nan— Secession from Parliament of Grattan. Cut-ran, <tc. — General 
Lake it: the North—" Northern Star" — Office Wrecked by Troops — Proclamation — Outrages 
in the Year 1797 — Salutary Effect of the United Irish System on the Peace of the Country — 
Armagh Assizes — Slanderous Report of a Secret Committee — Good Effects of United Irishism 
in the South— Miles Byrne — Wexford County 257 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

1797—1798. 

<Volf(* Tone's Negotiations in France and Holland— Lewins — Expedition of Dutch Government 
Destined for Ireland — Tone at the Texel— His Journal — Tone's Uneasiness about Admitting 
Foreign Dominion over Ireland — MacXeven's Memoir— Discussion as to Proper Point for a 
Landing — Tone on Board the Vryheid — Adverse Winds — Rage and Impatience of Tone — 
Disastrous Fate of the Batavian Expedition — Camperdown 2C8 



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CHAPTER XXXII. 

1798. 

Spies — Secret Service Money — Press Prosecution — "Remember Orr!"— Account of Orr — 
Curran's Speech — His Description of Informers — Arts of Government — Sowing Dissensions 
— Forged Assassination List — "Union" Declines' — Addresses of "Loyalty" — Maynooth 
Grant Enlarged— Catholic Bishops " Loyal " — Forcing a " Premature Explosion '— Camden 
and Carbampton — Outrages on the People, to Force Insurrection — Testimony of Lord Moira 
— Inquiry Demanded in Parliament — Repulsed and Defeated by Clare and Castlereagb — 
Insolence and Unlimited Power of Ministers— General Abercrombie Resigns — Remarkable 
General Order — Pelham Quits Ireland — Castleroagh's Secretary — The Hessians' Free Quarters 
— The Ancient Britons — Proclamation of .Martial Law— Grattan's Picture of the Times — 
Horrible Atrocities in Wexford — Massacres — The Orangemen — Their Address of Loyalty — 
All these Outrages before any Insurrection 277 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

1798. 

Reynolds, the Informer — Arrests of U. I. Chiefs in Dublin— The Brothers Sheares— Their Efforts 
to Delay Explosion — Clare and Castlereagb Resolve to Hurry it — Advance of the Military — 
Half Hanging — Pilch Caps— Scourging Judkin Fitzgerald— Sir John Moore's Testimony — 
llis Disgust at the Atrocities— General Napier's Testimony— Catholic Bishop's and Peers 
Profess their " Loyalty "— Armstrong, informer— Arrest of the Sheares — Arrest and Death 
of Lord Edward — Mr. Emmet's Evidence before Secret Committei — insurrection Breaks Out 
— The 2nd of May — N.ias -Prosperous Kilcullen — Proclamation of Lake — Of the Lord 
Mayor of Dublin — Skirmishes at Carlow — Hacketstown. &c. — Insurgents have the Advantage 
at Dunboyne — Attack on Carlow — Executions — Sir E. Crosbie — Massacre at Gibbet Rath of 
Kildare — Slaughter ou Tara Hill— Suppression of Insurrection in lvildare, Dublin and Mealh 




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CHAPTER 

1798. 

Wexford a Peaceable County— Lord Castlereagh's Judicious Measures— Catholics Driven out of 
Yeomanry Corps— Treatment of Mr. Fitzgerald— United Irish in Wexford— The Priests Op- 
pose that Society — How they were Requited — Miles Byrne— Torture in Wexford — Orangemen 
in Wexford— North Cark Militia— Hay's Account "of the Ferocity of the Magistrates — 
Massacre of Carnew— Father John Murphy— Burning of his Chapel— Miles Byrne's Account 
of First Rising— Oulard— Storm of Enniscorthy— Wexford Evacuated by the King's Troops 
—Occupied by Insurgents — All the County now iu Insurrection — Estimated .Numbers of 
Insurgents— l'opulation of the County 307 






CHAPTER XXXV 



Camp on Vinegar Hill— Actions at Ballycannoo— At Newtownbarry— Tubberneering— Fall of 
Walpole— Two Columns— Bagcual Harvey Commands Insurgents — Summons New Boss to 
Surrender — Battle of New Ross — Slaughter of Prisoners — Retaliation— Scullabogue— 
Bagenal Harvey shocked by Affair of Seullybogue — Resigns Command— Father Philip Roche 
General.— Fight at Arklow— Claimed as a Victory by King's Troops — Account of it by Miles 
Byrne — The Insurgents Execute some Loyalists iu Wexford Town — Dixon— Retaliation — 
Proclamation by •■ People of Wexford" — Lord Kingsborough a Prisoner — Troops Concen- 
trated round Vinegar Hiil — Battle of Vinegar Hill — Enniscorthy and Wexford Recovered — 
Military Executions — Ravage of the Country— Chief* Executed in Wexford — Treatment of 
Women — Outrages in the North of the County — Fate of Father John Murphy's Column — 
Of Antonv Perry's— Combat at Ballyellis— Miles Byrne's Account of it— Extermination of 
Ancient Britons — Character of Wexford Insurrection — Got up by the Government 310 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

1798. 

Rising in Ulster — Antrim — Saintfield— Ballinahinch— Insurgents Defeated— McCracken and Mon- 
roe Hanged — Skirmish in Cork County— Courts-Martial — Many Executions — Hanging of 
Father Redmond — Surrender of Fitzgerald and Aylmer — Compact between Prisoners and 
Government— In order to Save the Lives of Byrne and Bond— Compact Violated by 
Government - Byrne Hanged — Bond Dies Suddenly in Prison— Reign of Terror in Dubliu — 
Brothers Sheares 'fried — Hanged— Other State Trials — Oman in Court — •■ The Three Majors" 
— Sirr, Swan, and Sandys— The '-Major's People"— John Claudius Beresford— Tortures in 
Dublin — Country in Wild Alarm — Spiked Heads— Fit Time to Propose Legislative Union — 
Marquis Cornwallis comes as Viceroy — To bring about the Union — "Impression of Horror" 
— Apparent Measures to End the Devastations- (tilers of " Protection " — Not Efficacious — ■ 
Testimony of Lord Camden himself— True Account of the "Compact" — United Irishmen 
Bent to Fort George 332 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

1798. 

Parliament — The Acts of Attainder — French Landing under Humbert— Killala— Conduct of the 
little Fr»nch Army — Ballina — The Races of Castlebar— Panic and Rout of the British Force 
— French give a Ball — Lord Cornwallis Collects a Great Army- Marches to meet the French 
— Encounters them at Ballinamuck— Defeat and Capture of the French — Recovery of Ballina 
— Slaughter — Courts-Martial, Ac. — End of the Insurrections of 1798 — New French Expedi- 
tion — Commodore Bompart — T. W. Tone — Encounter British Fleet at mouth of Lough 
Swilly — Battle — The Uoche Captured— Tone a Prisoner— Recognized by Sir George Hill — 
Carried to Dublin in Irons— Tried by Court-Martial— Condemned to be Hanged— His Address 
to the Court— Asks as a Favor to be Shot— Refused by Cornwallis— Suicide in Prison 318 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

179S— 1799. 
Examination of O'Connor, Emmet, and MacNeven — Lord Enniskillen and his Court-Martial- 



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Project of Union — Bar Meeting — Speech from the Throne— Union Proposed- 
the Lords — Iu the Commons— Ponsonby — Fitzgerald— Sir Jonah Barrington- 



Reception in 
Castlereagh's 



of Plunket— First Division on the Union— Majority of One— Mr. 
Trench and Mr. Fox— Methods of Conversion to Unionism— First Contest a drawn Battle- 
Excitement in Dublin 




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CHAPTER XXXIX. 

17110. 

Second Debate on Union — Sir Lawrence Parsons — Air. Smith— ronsonby and Plnnket — Division 
— Majority Against Government — Ponsonby's Resolution Tor Perpetual Independence — De- 
fection of Eortescue and Others— Resolution Lost — "Possible Circumstances" — Tumult — 
Danger of Lord Clare — Second Debate in the Lords— Lord Clare Triumphant — "Loyalists' 
Claim-Bill" — '• Rebels Disqualification Bill " — "Flogging Fitzgerald" — Asks Indemnity — 
Regency Act — Opposed by Castlereagh 374 

CHAPTER XL. 

1709. 

Union Proposed in British Parliament — Opposed by Sheridan— Supported by Canning— Great 
Speech of Mr. Pitt— Ireland to be Assured of English Protection— Of English Capital — 
Promises to the Catholics— Mr. Pitt's Resolutions for Union — Sheridan — Dundas — Resolu- 
tions Passed — In the House of Lords — Labors of Comwallis and Castlereagh — Corruption — 
Intimidation — Onslaught of Troops in Dublin — Lord Cornwallis makes a Tour — Lord Down- 
Bhire Disgraced — Handoock of Athlone— His Song and Palinode— Opposition Inorganic — 
The Orangemen — The Catholics— Arts to Delude Them— Dublin Catholics against Union— 
O'Connell— System of Terror — County Meeting Dispersed by Troops— Castlereagh's An- 
nouncement of •• Compensation " 881 



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CHAPTER XLI. 

1799—1800. 

Progress of Union Conspiracy — Grand Scale of Bribery — Castlereagh Organizes " Fighting Men " 
— Dinner at his House — Last Session of the Irish Parliament — Warm Debate the First Day — 
Daly Attacks Bushe and Plunket — Reappearance of Grattan — His Speech — Corry Attacks 
\ Him— Division— Majority for Government— Castlereagh Proposes "Articles" of Union — 
His Speech — Promises Great Gain to Ireland from Union— Ireland to " Save a Million a 
Year" — Proposed Constitution of United Parliament- Irish Peerage -Ponsonby — Grattan — 
Again a Majority for the Castle — Lord (.'hire's Famous Speech Hurl of Grattan and Corry 
— Torpor and Gloom in Dublin — The Catholics — "Articles " finally Adopted — By Commons 
—By Lords 391 







CHAPTER 

1800 



XLII. 



The Union in English Parliament— Opposed by Lord Holland— Mr. Grey— Sheridan— Irish Act 
for Electors — Distribution of Seats— Castlereagh brings in bill for the Union — Warm Debates 
— Union Denounced by Plnnket, Bushe, Saurin, Grattan— Their Earnest Language— Last 
Days of the Parliament — Last Scene — l'asses the Lords— The Protesting Peers— The Com- 
pensation Act — The King Congratulates the British Parliament— Lord Cornwallis — The Irish 
—Union to date from January 1, 1801 — Irish Debt— History of it 401 



CHATTER X L 1 1 1 . 

1800—1803. 

The Catholics Duped— Resignation of Pitt— Mystery of this Resignation— First Measure of Unit- 
ed Parliament— Suspension of Habeas Corvus — Report of Secret Committee— Fate of Lord 
Clare — Lord Hardwicke. Viceroy — Peace of Amiens — Treaty Violated by England— Malta — 
War again Declared by England— Mr. Pitt Resumes Office— Coalition against France 410 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

1802—1803. 

First Year of the Union— Distress in Ireland — Riot in Dublin— Irish Exiles in France — Renewed 
Hopes of French Aid — The two Emmets, MacNcven, and O'Connor in France — Apprehen- 
sions of Invasion in England — Robert Emmet comes from Fiat to Ireland His Associates 

— His Plans — Miles Byrne — Despard's Conspiracy in England -Emmet's Preparations— Ex- 
plosion in Patrick Street — The 23d of July Failure— Bloody Riol Murder of Lord Kil- 
warden— Emmet sends Miles Byrne to France— Retires to Wicklow- Returns to Dublin- 
Arrested — Tried— Convicted- -Hanged— Fate of Russell 417 




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CHAPTER XLV. 

1803—1804. 

Reason to believe that Government was all the time aware of the Conspiracy — " Striking Terror " 
— Martial Law — Catholic Address— Arrests — Informers — Vigorous Measures — In Cork — In 
Belfast — Hundreds of Men Imprisoned without Charge— Brutal Treatment of Prisoners — 
Special Commission — Eighteen Persons Hung — Debate in Parliament— Irish Exiles in France 
— First Consul Plane a New Expedition to Ireland— Formation of the "Irish Legion" — 
Irish Legion in Bretagne— Official Reply of the First Consul to T. A. Emmet — Designs of 
the French Government — Buonaparte's .Mistake— French Fleet again Ordered Elsewhere — 
The Legion goes to the Rhine, and to Walcheren— End of the AddingtOD Ministry — Mr. Pitt 
Returns to Office — Condition of Ireland — Decay of Dublin — Decline ot Trade — Increase of 
Debt — Ruinous Effects of the Uuiou — Presbyterian Clergy Pensioned, and tho Reason 427 

CHATTER X L V I . 

1804— 1805. 
Mr. Pitt in Office — Royal Speech — No Mention of Ireland — Alarm about Invasion — Martello 
Towers — Reliance of the Irish Catholics on Mr. Pitt — Treatment of the Prisoners — Mr. 
James Tandy — Mr. Pitt Raises a Storm against the Catholics — Catholic Meeting in Dublin— 
Habeas Cbrpus Act again Suspended- Ireland "Loyal"— Duplicity of Lord Bardwioke — ■ 
Catholic Deputies go to Mr. Pitt — A "Sincere Friend "---Mr. Pitt Refuses to I 'resent Catholic 
Petition — Declares he will Resist Emancipation— Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox Present it — 
Debate in the Louis in the Commons- Speeches of Fox, Doctor Dnigenan, Grattan — Per- 
ceval, Pitt, Sir John Newport— Emancipation Refused, both by Lords and Commons — Great 
Majorities .' 434 

CIAPTEB X L V 1 1 . 

1804-180G. 
Prosecution of Judge Fox — His Offence, Enforcing Law on Orangemen — Prosecution of Judge 
Johnson — His Offence, Censuring the Irish Government — Decline of Pitt's Power — Castle- 
reagh Defeated in Down County Successes of Buonaparte— Cry for Peace — Death of Mr. 
Pitt — Whig Ministry — Mr. Fox— His Opinion of the Union — First WhiBper of ■• Repeal"" — 
Release ol Stale Prisoners — Dismissal of Lord Kedesdale as Chancellor — Duke of Bedford, 
Viceroy -The Catholics ('healed Again — Equivocation of the Viceroy — l'onsonby — Curran's 
Promotion — The Armagh Orangemen — Mr. Wilson the Magistrate 442 

CHAPTER XLV1II. 

180G— 1807. 
Revenue and Debt of Ireland — Rapid Increase of Debt — Drain of Wealth from Ireland— Charac- 
ter of the Imports and Exports Rackrents, Tithes, Ac. — Distress of the People — The 
" Threshers "—Threshers Hung— Catholic Meetings-Increase of Maynooth Grant— From 
Apprehension of the Irish College in France Catholic Officers' Bill — To Promote Depopu- 
lation — Bill Abandoned— Change of Ministry— The King Demands a No-1'opery Pledge— 
DuUe of Cumberland— Perceval Administration— Camden and Castlereagh in Office — No- 
Popery — Recruiting in Ireland— John Keogh on Catholic Officers' Bill -O'Connell — Too- 
Easy Gratitude of the Irish towards Whigs — Populace Draw the Duke of Bedford's Coach. 

CHAPTER XL1X. 

1807—1808. 
Duke of Richmond, Viceroy — Sir A. Wellesley, Secretary— Their System— Depression of Catho- 
lics—Insolence of Orangemen — Government Interference in Flections — Ireland (Jets a New 
Insurrection Act — And an Anus Act —Grattan Advocates Coercion Acts— Sheridan Opposes 
Them — Acts Passed — The Bishop ot Quimper -Means Used io Create Exasperation against 
Catholics — "Shanavests" and "Caravats" — ••('lunch in Danger "—Catholic Petition — In 
fluence of O'Connell — Lord F'ingal— Growing Liberality amongst Protestants — Maynooth 
Grant Curtailed — Doctor Dnigenan Privy-Councillor — Catholic Petition Presented — The 

•■ Vita" Offered— Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. Grattan They Urge the Pirfo as a Security— Peti- 
tion Rejected — Controversies on the Vdo — Bishops' Resolutions — No Catholics in Bank of 
Ireland— Dublin Police 457 

CHAPTER L . 

1808—1809. 

The Duke of Richmond's Anti-Catholic Policy — The Orangemen Flourish — Their Outrages and 
Murders- Castlereagh and Perceval Charged with Selling Seats — Corruption— Sir Arthur 
Wellesley — Tithes— Catholic Committee Reorganized — lohn Keogh on Petitioning Parlia- 
ment— O'Connell and the Convention Act — Orange n also Reorganized — Orange Conven- 
tion — More Murders by Orangemen — Crooked Policy of the Castle Defection of the Bandou 
Orangemen — Success of the Castle Policy iu Preventing Union with Irishmen 467 





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CHAPTER LI. 

1810—1812. 

Duke of Richmond's "Conciliation" — Orange Oppression — Treatment of Catholic Soldiers — 
The Veto again— Debate on Veto in Parliament — Catholic Petition Presented by Grattan — 
Bejecteil O'Connell's Leadership — New Organization of Catholics— Repeal of the Union 
First Agitated — Insanity of the King — Treachery of the Regent — Prosecution of the Catho- 
lic Committee — Convention Act -Suppression of the Committee — New Weasurea of O' 
Council — Mr. Curran at Newry Election — Effects of the Union 47S 

CHAPTER L I I . 

1813—1821. 

Grattan 's Emancipation Hill— More Peto— Quarantotti— Unanimity in Ireland against Veto — 
Mr. Peel and his New Police — Stipendiary Magistrates— Close of the War — Restoration of 
the Bourbons — Waterloo Evil Effects on Ireland— The Irish Legion in France — Its Fate — 
Miles Byrne and his Friends— Effects of the Peace in impoverishing the Irish — Cheap Eject- 
ment Eaw Passed — Beginning of Extermination — "Surplus Population" — Catholic Claims 
Ruined by the Peace— O'Connell and Catholic Board — Board Suppressed — O'Connell in 
Court His Audacity — His Scorn of the Dublin Corporation — Duel with D'Esterre — Distress 
in Ireland -Famine of 1817 — Coercion in Ireland — "Six Acts" in England — Mr. Plunket'g 
Emancipation Bill— Peel and the Duke of York — Royal Visit to Ireland— Catholics Cheated 
Again 481 

CHAPTER LI II. 

1822—1825. 

Famine of 1822 — Its Causes — Financial Frauds upon Ireland — Horrors of the Famine— Extermi- 
nation — Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act — Castlereagh Cuts his Throat — Marquis Wellesley, 
Viceroy — Sir Harcourt Lees — The Bottle Riot — Catholic Association Formed — Dr. Doyle ; 
"J. K. L." — Progress of Catholic Association — "Catholic Rent" — Maynooth Professors 
" Loyal" — Rage of the Orangemen — "O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil" — Passiveness of 
the Dissenters — O'Connell's Appeals to Them — Intellectual and Literary Power of the 
Movement — Act to Suppress " Unlawful Associations''— First Attempt to Cheat the Catho- 
lics — A Relief Bill, with "Wings" — Defeated — Catholic Deputation in Loudon — O'Connell 
aud the Whigs — Strong Feeling in Ireland against " Wings " 490 

CHAPTER LIV. 

1825—1829. 

Action of the Catholic Association — Waterford Election — Louth Election — Change of Ministry — 
Canning, Premier — Lord Anglesea, Viceroy — The "New Reformation " — Pope and Maguire 
— Death of Canning— Goderich Cabinet — Catholic Petition for Repeal of Test and Corpora- 
tion Acts — Acts Repealed — Clare Election — O'Connell Returned — Its Results— Suppression 
of Catholic Association— Peel and Wellington Prepare Catholic Relief Bill — Rage of the 
Bigots — Reluctance of the King — O'Connell at the Bar of the House— Passage of the Eman- 
cipation Act — Disfranchisement of the Forty-Shilling Freeholders — Abstract of the Relief 
Act — The New Oath— Meaning aud Spirit of the Relief Act 499 

CHAPTER L V. 

1829—1840. 

Results of the Relief Act — O'Connell Reelected for Clare— Drain of Agricultural Froduce— 
Educated Class of Catholics Bought— The Tithe War — Lord Anglesea, Viceroy — O'Connell's 
Associations — Anglesea's Proclamations — Prosecution of O'Connell — National Education — 
Tithe-Tragedies — Newtownbarry — Carrickshock — Change of Dynasty in France — Reform 
Agitation in England — What Reform Meant In Ireland — Cholera — Resistance to Tithe — Lord 
Grey's Coercion Act — Abolition of Negro Slavery — Church Temporalities Act — Repeal De- 
bate—Surplus Population — Surplus Produce — Tithe-Carnage at Kathconnack — Queen Vic- 
toria's Accession — Three Measures Against Ireland — Poor Law — Tithe Law — Municipal 
Reform— Castle-Sherifl's 610 

CHAPTER LVI. 

1840-1843. 

Spirit of Legislation for Ireland — More Spying in the Post Office' — Savings Banks— " Precursor 
Society " — Support to the Whigs — Whigs Go Out — Peel Comes In— Repeal Association — Ex- 
port of Food — Extermination — The Repeal Year — Corporation Debate — The Younger 
Nationalists— New "Arms Bill " — O'Brien Moves for Inquiry — Preparation's for Coercion- 
All England against Repeal— Monster Meetings — Mallow — Tara— Mullaghuiasl — Clontarf — 
Proclamation 522 



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CHAPTER LVII. 

1843—1844. 

Why England could not Yield — Cost to her of Repeal— Intention of Government at Clontarf— The 
" Projected Massacre " — Meeting Prevented — State Prosecution — O'Brien Declares for Re- 
peal—Packing of the Jury — Verdict of Guilty — Debate in Parliament— Russell and Macaulay 
on Packing of Juries — O'Connell in Parliament — Speculation of the Whigs — Sentence and 
Imprisonment of " Conspirators " — Effects on Repeal Association — Appeal to the House of 
Lords — Whig Law Lords — Reversal of the Sentence — Enthusiasm of the People — Their Pa- 
tience and Self-Deuial — Decline of the Association 635 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

1844. 

Decadence of Repeal Association — Land Tenure Commission — Necessity of exterminating " Sur- 
plus Population" — Report of the •'Landlord and Tenant Commission" — Tenant Right to 
be Disallowed — Farms to be Consolidated — People to be Extirpated — Methods of the Minis- 
ter to Divide Repealers — Grant to Maynooth — Queen's Colleges — Secret Agents at Rome — 
American Slavery— Distraction in Repeal Ranks — Bill for "Compensation to Tenants" — 
Defeated — Death of Thomas Davis — The Famine — Commission of Chemists to Gain Time — 
Demands of Ireland — Of the Corporations — Of O'Connell and O'Brien — Repudiation of Alms 
■ — Coercion Bill — Repeal of Corn Laws — Irish Harvests go to England — " Relief Measures "— 
Delays — Fraud — Havoc of the People — Peel's System of Famine-Slaughter Fully Established 
— Peel Resigns Office 543 

CHAPTER LIX. 

1846—1847. 

Progress of the Famine Carnage — Pretended Relief Measures — Imprisonment of O'Brien— Dis- 
sensions in Repeal Association — Break up of that. Body — Ravages of Famine — "Labor-Rate 
Act" — Useless Public Works— Extermination — Famine of 1847 — How they lived in Kng- 
land — Advances from the Treasury — Attempts of Foreign Countries to relieve the Famine — 
Defeated by British Government — Vagrancy Act — Parish Coffins— Constant Repudiation of 
Alms — An Englishman's Petition for Alms to Ireland— •• Ingratitude" of the Irish — Death 
of O'Connell — Preparations to Insure the Next Year's Famine — Emigration — British Famine 
Policy — New Coercion Act called for— Famine in Ireland 660 




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CHAPTER LX. 

1847—1848. 

Lord Clarendon Viceroy — His means of Insuring the Shipment to England of the Usual Tribute 
— Bribes the Baser Sort of Editors — Patronage for Catholic Lawyers — Another Coercion Act 
— Projects for Stopping Exports of Grain — Arming — Alarm of Government — Whigs active in 
Coercion — French Revolution of February — Confederate Clubs — Deputation from Dublin to 
Paris — O'Brien's Last Appearance in Parliament — Trials of O'Brien and Meagher — Trial of 
Mitchel — Packing of the Jury — Reign of Terror in Dublin 574 

CHAPTER LXI. 

1848—1849. 

Reconstitution of the Irish Confederation — New National Journals Established — The Tribune — 
The Felon — New Suspension of Habeas Corpus — Numerous Arrests — O'Brien attempts Insur- 
rection — Ballingarry — Arrest and Trial of O'Brien and Others — Conquest of the Island — ■ 
Destruction of the People — Incumbered Estates Act — Its Effects — No Tenant-Right — " Rate- 
in-Aid" — Queen's Visit to Ireland — Places given to Catholics — Catholic Judges— Their 
Office and Duty — Ireland " Prosperous " — Statistics of the Famine Slaughter — Destruction of 
Three Millions of Souls — Flying from " Prosperity " 585 

CHAPTER LXII. 

1850—1851. 

Depopulation — Emigration — "Plea for the Celtic Race" — Decay of the Irish Electoral Body — 
Act to Amend Representation — «• Papal Aggression " — Rage in England — Ecclesiastical Titles 
Bill — Never Enforced — And Why — Orange Outrage in Down County — " Dolly's Brae" — 
Style of Orange Processions — Condition of the Country — Further Emigration — Still more 
Extermination — Crime and Outrage — Plenty and Prosperity in England — Conclusion 697 

At .-ENDIX 611 

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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



CIIAPTER I. 

FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE END 
OF 1691. 

Treat; of Limerick.— Violated or not ?— Arguments 
of Macaulay.— Dr. Dopping, Bishop of Meath. — 
No faith to be kept with Papists.— First act in 
violation of the treaty. — Situation of the Catholics. 

— Charge against Sarsfiold. 

The Articles of Limerick were signed on 
the 3d October, 1691, and the city was Bur- 
rendered to the army of King William, who 
was then, for the first time, recognized by 
the body of the Irish nation as King of Ire- 
land : and when the Irish forces, wdio had 
•Id Limerick and Galway so gallantly, 
were shipped off to France, pursuant to the 
capitulation, there was not left in all Ire- 
ind (4ie slightest semblance of any power 
capable of resisting or troubling the new 
settlement of the kingdom. The timely 
surrender had also enabled William to bring 
to a close this most troublesome and costly 
war, at a moment when it was urgently 
needful for him to concentrate all his force 
against the great power of France. 

It is therefore evident, aud has always 
been admitted, that in return for the en- 
gagements of the treaty purporting to pro- 
tect Catholic rights, the king and the 
English colonists received most valuable 
consideration. " In Ireland there was 
peace : the domination of the colonists was 
absolute." These are the words of Lord 
Macaulay, who, of all modern historians, 
has uniformly exhibited the most inveterate 
malignity against the Irish nation. 

Before proceeding to narrate in detail 
the manner in which the articles were ob- 
terved on the part of the king and the 
doniinuut colony of English, it will bo well 



to exhibit some other facts proving what a 
very valuable consideration the Catholics 
gave for the poor guaranty they thought 
they were receiving on their side. At the 
beginning of October the winter was closely 
approaching, and the army of Ginkell was 
almost certain to be forced to raise the 
siege on that account alone. The same 
Macaulay, in his estimate of the chances of 
Ginkell's success, thus sums them up — 

"Yet it was possible that an attempt to 
storm the city might fail, as a similar at- 
tempt had failed twelve months before. If 
the siege should be. turned into a blockade, 
it was probable that the pestilence which 
had been fatal to the army of Schomberg, 
which had compelled William to retreat, 
aud which had all but prevailed even 
against the genius and energy of Marl- 
borough, might soon avenge the carnage of 
Aghrim. The rains had lately been heavy. 
The whole plain might shortly be an im- 
mense pool of stagnant water. It might be 
necessary to move the troops to a healthier 
situation than the banks of the Shannon, 
and to provide for them a warmer shelter 
than that of tents. The enemy would be 
safe till the spring. In the spring a French 
army might land in Ireland — the natives 
might again rise in arms from Donegal to 
Kerry — aud the war, which was now all 
but extinguished, might blaze forth fiercer 
than ever." 

This historian, whose work enjoys much 
more popularity than credit, does not men- 
tion a circumstance which made it, in fact, 
certain that the war would soon have 
blazed forth fiercer than ever, beyond all 
doubt. It is that, before the signing ot 
those articles, assurances had been sent from 
France to the defenders of Limerick that a 
considerable expedition was then on its way 



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lo their aid, under command of Chateau 
[{ennult ; which re-cnforoement did actually 
Hrrivo in Dingle Bay two days after the 
treaty was signed, " consisting," Bays Harris, 
in liis Life of King William, "as appears 
from the minutes of a letter from the lords- 
justices to the Icing, of eighteen ships of 
war, six fire-ships, and twenty great ships of 
burthen, and brought on board eight or ten 
thousand arms, two hundred officers, and 
three thousand men." Whether tlio Irish 
commanders were or were not justified in 
surrendering a city which they were still 
capable (if defending, ami while in daily cx- 
pectation of so powerful succor, is a ques- 
tion which need not here be discussed. The 
sequel of the story will show that they had 
si. on cause to regret not having held out to 
the lasi extremity, though they should have 
been buried in the ruins of their ancient 
city. 

It was afterwards known, too, that Wil- 
liam was himself bo sensible of the necessity 
of finishing; this struggle and bringing his 
troops to re-enforce his army on the conti- 
nent, that he had sent instructions to the 
lords-justices to issue a proclamation assur- 
ing the Irish of much more favorable con- 
ditions than they afterwards obtained by 
the Articles of Limerick. And the justices 
actually framed these instructions into a 
proclamation, afterwards called the secret 
proclamation, because, though primed, it 
was never published; for their lordships, 
learning that the defenders of Limerick 

were offering to capitulate, hastened to 

Ginkell's camp, that they might hold the 
Irish to as hard terms as could possibly he 1 
wrung from them. So that, as Lord 
Macaulay complacently observes, the Dutch 

general "had about him persons who wire 
competent to direct him." 

In return for this full and final surrender 
of the last fortress which held for King 
James, and of the whole cans,' of I hit 
monarch, the Irish Catholic leaders stipu- 
lated, it must he confessed, for hut a poor 
measure of civil and religious freedom when 
they put their hands to the clause engaging 
that "The Roman Catholics of this king- 
dom shall enjoy such privileges in the exer- 
cise of iheii religion as are consistent with 
the laws of Ireland ; or, as they did enjoy 




in the reign of King Charles the Sec nil." 
lint it is probable that, placing more re- 
aneo on the good faith of King Wilham 
than events afterwards justified, they U- 
ieved themselves secured by the remaining 
words of that, article — "And their majesties, 
as soon as their affairs will permit them to 
summon a parliament in this kingdom, will 
endeavor to procure the said Roman Catho- 
lics such further security in that particular 
as may preserve them from any disturbance 
upon the account of their said religion." 
All which was duly ratified by their majes- 
ties' letters-patent. Sarsfield and Wauchop 
then, with their French brother-officers, in 
marching out of Limerick, thought that 
they were leaving, as a barrier against op- 
pression of the Catholics, at least the honor 
of a king. 

The whole history of Ireland, from that 
day until the year 1793, consists of one long 
and continual breach of this treaty. 

But as there has been, both among Irish 
and English political writers, a goat dial 
of wild declamation and unwarranted state- 
ment on this subject, it seems needful to 
give a precise view of the real purport and 
limitations of the engagements taken to- 
wards the Irish Catholics upon this occa- 
sion. Independently, then, of the royal 

promise of future parliamentary relief to 
"protect Catholics from all disturbance," 
there was the general engagement tor such 
privileges to Catholics in the exercise ..f 
their religion "as were consistent with the 
laws of Ireland ; or, as they did enjoy in 
the reign of Charles II." And also the 
ninth article of the treaty, that " The oath 
to be administered to such Roman Catholics 
as submit to their niajesiies' government 
shall be the oath above-mentioned (namely, 

the oath of allegiance), and no other." 
L'hese provisions were applicable to all 
Catholics living in any part of Ireland. 
Oilier articles of the treaty, from the second 
t»i the eighth inclusive, related only, 'firtt, 
to the people of Limerick and other garri- 
sons then held by the Irish ; second, to offi- 
cers and soldiers then serving King James, 
in tin' counties of Limerick, Clare, Kerry, 
Cork, and Mayo; third, to "all such as 
were under their protection in ihc said 
counties," meaning all the inhabitants of 






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FROM Till: TEEATY OF LIMERICK TO THE END of 1001. 



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those counties. These ihree classes of per- 
sons were to be secured their properties and 
(heir lights, privileges, and immunities (us 
in tin- reign of Charles the Second), and to 
bo permitted to exercise their several call- 
ings as freely as Catholics were permitted 
to do in that reign. We need not, at this 
day, occupy ourselves at great length with 
these latter specific stipulations; bul attend 
to the general proviso in favor of all Catho- 
lics. What, then, were the rights of Cath- 
olics under King Charles the Second ? — for 
this seems to be what is meant by the other 
phrase, "consistent with the laws of Ire- 
land." 

Now it is true that penal laws against 
Catholic priests and Catholic worship did 
exist in Ireland during the reign of Charles 
the Second : Catholics, for example, could 
not be members of a corporation in Ireland, 
nor hold certain civil offices in that reign. 
But there was no law to prevent Catholic 
peers and commons from sitting in parlia- 
ment. There was also in practice so gen- 
eral a toleration as allowed Catholic lawyers 
arid physicians to practice I heir professions. 
At the very lowest, therefore, this practical 
toleration must have been what the Catho- 
lics thought they were stipulating for in the 
Articles of Limerick. Neither did there ex- 
ist in the reign of Charles the Second that 
long and sanguinary series of enactments 
concerning education, the holding of land, 
the owning of horses, and the like, which 
were elaborated by the ingenuity of more 
modern chiefs of the Protestant Ascen- 
dency. The first distinct breach of the 
Articles of Linn-rick was perpetrated by 
King William and his parliament in Eng- 
land, just two months after those Articles 
were signed. 

King William was in the Netherlands 
when he heard of the Surrender of Limerick, 

and at once hastened to London. Three 
days later he summoned a parliament. 
Very early in the session the English 
House of Commons, exercising its customary 
power of binding Ireland by acts passed in 

London, sent lip to the House of Lords a 
bill providing that no person should sit in 
the Irish parliament, nor should hold any 
Irish office, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, 
nor should practise law or medicine in Ire- 



land, till he had taken the oaths oi allegi- 
ance and supremacy and subscribed the de- 
claration against tratisubstantiation. The 
law was passed, only reserving the right oi 
such lawyers and physicians as had been 
within the walls of Gal way ami Limerick 
when those towns capitulated. Ami so it 
received the royal assent. This law has 
given rise to keen debates ; especially during 
the Catholic Belief Agitation ; the < latholics 
insisting that disabilities imposed by law on 
account of religion, arc an invasion of those 
privileges in the exercise of their religion, 
which purported to be secured by treaty; 
the Ascendency Party arguing that the fust 
article of the treaty meant only that Cath- 
olic worship should be tolerated. The Cath- 
olics pointed out that by Article Nine, only 
the oath of allegiance was to be imposed on 
them, while this new law required those who 
should practise law or sit in the House of 
Parliament, to take a certain other oath, 
which they could not do without perjuring 
themselves. The Ascendency Party replied 
that on taking the oath of allegiance alone, 
Catholics were tolerated in their worship, 
and that this was all they bad stipulated for ; 
that it still belonged to the Legislature to 
prescribe suitable formalities to he observed 
by those who aspired to exercise a public 
trust or a responsible profession. It is ap- 
parent that on this principle of interpreta- 
tion, parliament might require the oath of 
supremacy from a baker or a wine-merchant, 
as well as from a lawyer and doctor, and then 
it would lie lawful for a Catholic to go ami 
hear Mass, but it would be lawful for him to 
do nothing else. As might be expected, the 
Baron Mscanlay takes the Ascendency view 

of the question, as will appear from this 

specimen of his reasoning: 

"The champion* of Protestant ascendency 
were well pleased to see the debate diverted 
from a political question about which they 
were in the wrong, to a historical question 
about which they were in the right. They 
had no difficulty in proving that the first ar- 
ticle, as understood by all the contracting 
parties, meant only that the Roman Catholic 
worship should be tolerated as in time past. 
That article was drawn up by Ginkell ; and, 
just before he drew it up, he had declared 
that he would rather try the chance of arms 



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than isent that Iii^h Papists should be 

capable ofholding civil and military offices, 
of exercising liberal professions, and of be- 
coming members of municipal corporations. 

How is it possible to believe that bo would, 

of his own accord, have promised (bat the 
Bouse of Lords and the House of Commons 
should be open to men to whom he would 
not open a guild of skinners or a gnild of 
cordwainers! How, again, is it possible to 
believe that the English peers would, while 
professing the most punctilious respect for 
public faith, while lecturing the Commons 
on the duty of observing public faith, while 
taking counsel with the most learned and 
upright jurist, of the age as to the best mode 
of maintaining public faith, have committed 
a flagrant violation of public faith, and that 
not, a single lord should have been so honest 
or so factious as to protest against an act of 
monstrous perfidy aggravated by hypocrisj V 

Whereupon it may be remarked that mere 

toleral of < latholic worship was not under- 
stood, by all the contracting parties, as being 
all which was meant by the treaty, inasmuch 
as many Catholic peers and commoners did 
attend in their places in the Irish parliament 
the very next year alter this law was passed 
in London; and the slavish Irish parliament 
then, for the first time, excluded them by 
resolutions in obedience to the law enacted 
in the English Houses. As for the argument 

which seems intended to be conveyed in the 

string of questions contained in the above 
extract, we answer that " it. is possible to be- 
lieve" almost any thing of the men and the 
times we are now discussing; and that this 
narrative will tell of many Other things which 
will seem impossible to believe, and which 
any good man would wish it were impossible 
to believe. 

Macaulay, indeed, before quitting this 
question, does admit, as it were incidentally, 
and in the obscurity of a note, that although 
the Treaty of Limerick was not broken at 
that particular moment, nor by that particu- 
lar statute of the 3d William and Mary, c. 2, 
yt, " The Irish Roman Catholics complained, 
and with but too much reason, that at a later 
period the Treaty of Limerick wo* violated." 
And it is remarkable that this historian en- 
deavors to sustain his position by the author- 
ity of the Abb6 MacGeoghegan. He says, 



"The Abbe MacGeoghegan complains thai 
the treaty was violated some years after it 
was made, but he does not pretend that it 
was violated by Statute 3d, William and 
Mary, c. 2." This is extremely uncandid. 
The Abbe MacGeoghegan did not profess 
to continue bis History of Ireland beyond 
the Treaty of Limerick ; before quitting his 
Subject, however, the venerahlc author does 
incidentally mention that this treaty was 
afterwards violated by many statutes, which 
it was not bis province to arrange in chro- 
nological order; and after noticing some of 
the hardships thus inflicted upon the Irish 
people, he adds; "By other acts, the Irish 
nobility were deprived of their arms and 

horses; they were debarred from purchasing 
land, from becoming members of the bur, or 
filling any public ollicc ; and, contrary to the 

ninth article of the treaty, they were made 

subject, to infamous oaths."'''' 

Notwithstanding the very slender conces- 
sions which were apparently granted to the 
Catholic people by this memorable treaty, 
however, the Protestant English colony in 
Ireland was immediately agitated by thebit- 
terest indignation against both the general 

and the lords-justices. They thought the 
Irish entitled to no articles or conditions but 
wdiat would expose them to the severesl rig- 
ors of war; and the " I'lotestanl Interest," 
and "Ascendency" thought themselves de- 
frauded of a legitimate vengeance, to say 
nothing of their natural expectations of plun- 
der ; a most unfounded apprehension, as will 
presently appear. 

After the conclusion of the treaty, the 

lords- justices returned to Dublin; and on 
the. following Sunday attended service in 

( 'lirist Church Cathedral. The preacher was 

Doctor Doppiug, bishop of Meath; and be 

took for the subject of his sermon the late 
important, events at Limerick. He argued 
that no terms of peace ought to be observed 
with so perfidious a people ;f a fact which, 
if it were not notorious and well-attested, 
might seem incredible ; seeing that one of 
the worst charges brought against the Cath- 
olics at that peiiod was that they taught that 
faith was not to be kept with heretics. The 
doctrine of the Bishop of Meath, however, 

* Sec page 013 of Sivdlier'a Edition. 
t Harris's Lite of King William. 



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was not approved by all the divines of liis 
party, for on the next Sun. lay, in tbe same 
church, Doctor Moreton, bishop of Kildare, 
demonstrated the obligation of keeping pub- 
lic faith. It seems that this important ques- 
tion greatly occupied men's minds at that 
time ; for it was judged necessary to settle 
and qujet public opinion ; and to this end, 
on the third Sunday, in the same church, 
Dean Synge preached a conciliatory sort of 
discourse, neither absolutely insisting on ob- 
serving the treaty, nor distinctly advising 
that it should be broken. His text was, 
"Keep peace with all men, if it be possible.'' 
After this we hear no more of any discussions 
of the grand controversy in the pulpit ; but 
in Parliament and in Council the difference 
subsisted, until the English Act of Resump- 
tion of Estates quieted the disputants, who 
then saw tbcv lost nothing bv tbe articles, 
as the Catholics gained nothing. 

While these debates were proceeding in 
Dublin, tbe Protestant magistrates and sher- 
iffs had no doubt upon the point, whether 
faith was to be kept with Catholics or not ; 
they universally decided in the negative; 
and in less than two months after the capit- 
ulation was confirmed by the king, as we 
learn on the authority of William's own par- 
tial biographer, Harris, " the justices of peace, 
sheriffs, and other magistrates, presuming on 
their power in the country, did, in an illegal 
manner, dispossess several of their majesties' 
subjects, not only of their goods and chattels, 
but of their lands and tenements, to the 
great disturbance of the peace of the king- 
dom, subversion of the law, and reproach of 
their majesties' government." It is a much 
heavier reproach to their majesties' govern- 
ment that no pel son appears to have been 
prosecuted) nor in any way brought to jus- 
tice for these outrageous oppressions. It ap- 
pears by a letter of the lords-justices of the 
19th November, 1691 (six weeks after the 
surrender of Limerick), "that their lordships 
had received complaints from all parts of 
Ireland of the ill-treatment of the Irish who 
had submitted, had their majesties' protec- 
tion, or were included in articles; and that 
they were so extremely terrified with appre- 
hensions of the continuance of that usage, 
that some thousands of them who had quit- 
ted the Irish army, and bad gone home witl 




a resolution not to go for France, were then 
come back again [come back, it is presumed, 
to Cork, Limerick, and othei seaports], and 
pressed earnestly to go thither rather than 
stay in Ireland, where, contrary t«> the public 
faith (add these justices), as Welf AS law and 
justice, they were robbed of their pubstanee 
and abuse, 1 in their persons." But, still no 
effectual means were used by tbe govern- 
ment for repressing such wrong ; so thU we 
may well adopt the language of Dr. Curry, 
that these representations made by the lords- 
justices were only a "pretence." Indeed, 
Harris affirms, and every statement of thf* 
nature made by Harris is an unwilling ad 
mission, that Capel, one of these very lords 
justices, did, shortly after, proceed as far as 
it was in his power, to infringe the Articles 
of Limerick. 

The prospect which now opened before 
the Catholics of Ireland was gloomy indeed 
Already they were made to feel in a thou- 
sand forms all the bitterness of subjugation, 
and to perceive that in this reign of King 
William, so vaunted for its liberality, the 
blessings and liberties of the British Consti- 
tution, if any such there were, existed not for 
them ; that they had no security for even such 
remnants of property as had been left them, 
no redress by the laws of the land, and no 
refuge from their enemies even in the pledged 
faith of a solemn treaty. Yet we haveonlv 
arrived at the beginning of the system ot 
grinding oppression which was soon to be 
put in operation against them. This prelim- 
inary chapter is devoted to an account of the 
immediate breaches of the Articles of Lim- 
erick which were perpetrated within the 
three months after their signature. We tire 
next to trace the development of that great. 
code of Penal Laws, which Dr. Samuel 
Johnson described as more grievous than all 
the Ten Pagan persecutions of the Christians. 
Before finishing this chapter, it is proper 
to allude to one other instance of the deter- 
mined mendacity of Baron Macaulay. Re- 
specting the embarkation of Sarsfield and 
the Irish troops from Cork, that historian 
compiles from several sources the following 
narrative : 

"Sarsfield perceived that one chief cause 01 
the desertion which was thinning his army 
was the natural unwillingness of the men tr 






■ 








HISTORY OF TUicr.A xn. 




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leave their families in a state of destitution. 
Coik and i;s neighborhood were filled with 
the kindred of those who were going abroad. 
Greal numbers of women, many of them lead- 
ing, carrying, suckling their infants, cover- 
ed all the roads which led to the place of em- 
barkation. The Irish general, apprehensive 
of the effect which the entreaties and lamen- 
tations of these poor creatures could not fail 
to produce, put forth a proclamation, in which 
he assured his soldiers that they should be 
permitted to carry their wives and families to 
France. It would be injurious to the mem- 
ory of so brave and loyal a gentleman to sup- 
pose that when lie made this promise he meant, 
to break it. It, is much more probable that 
he had formed an erroneous estimate of the 
number of those who would demand a pas- 
sage, and that he found himself, when it was 
too late to alier his arrangements, unable to 
keep his word. After the soldiers had cm- 
barked, room was found for the families of 
many. But still there remained on the wa- 
ter-side a greal multitude, clamoring piteously 

to be taken on board. As the last boats put 
oil' there w:is a rush into the surf. Some wo- 
men caught hold of the ropes, were dragged 
out of their depth, clung till their fingers were 
cut through, and perished in the waves. The 

ships began to move. A wild and terrible 
wail rose from the shore, and excited un- 
wonted compassion in hearts steeled by ha- 
tred of the Irish race and of the Romish faith. 
Even the stern Cromwellian, now at length, 
alter a desperate struggle of three years, left 
the undisputed lord of the blood-stained and 
devastated island, could not hear unmoved 
that bitter cry, in which was poured forth all 
the rage and all the sorrow of a conquered na- 
tion." 

The sad scene hero related did really talie 
place; and in after-times, when those Irish 
soldiers were in the armies of France, and 
saw before them the red ranks of King Wil- 
liam's soldiery, that long, terrible shriek 
rung in their ears, and made their hearts 
like tire and their nerves like steel. We 
know that when their officers sought to 
rouse, their ardor for a charge, no recital of 
the wrongs their country had endured could 
kindle so fierce a flame of vengeful passion 
as the mention of " the women's parting 



cry." But the dishonesty of Lord Mnc- 
aulay's account is in ascribing that cruel 
parting to the noble Sarsfield, and in dis- 
tinctly charging him with breaking his word 
to the soldiers, though he did not mean to 
break it, when he gave it. 

Now, by referring back to the "Military 
Articles" of the Treaty, we see that it was 
not Sarsfield, but General Ginkell, on the 
part of King William, who was to furnish 
shipping for the emigrants ami their funii- 
lies — " all other persons belonging to them ;" 
— that it was not Sarsfield, but Ginkell, who 
was to "form an estimate" of the amount 
of shipping required; and that it was not 
Sarsfield, therefore, but Ginkell, who could 
"alter the arrangements'' at the last mo- 
ment. As to General Sarsfield's proclama- 
tion to the men, "that they should be per- 
mitted to cany their wives and families to 
France," he made that statement on the faith 
of the Fust and several succeeding articles 
of the treaty, not being vet awjfce of any 
design to violate it. But this is not all: 
the historian who could not let the hero go 
into his sorrowful exile without seeking to 
plunge tlii- venomous sting into his reputa- 
tion, had before him the Lite of King Wil- 
liam, by Harris, and also Curry's Historical 
Review of the Civil Wars, wherein he must 
have seen thai the lord— justices and General 

Ginkell are (dunged with endeavoring to 
defeat the execution of that, First Article. 
For, s.ivs Harris, "as great numbers of the 

officers and soldiers had resolved to enter 
into the service of France, ami to carry their 
families with them, Ginkell would not suffer 
their wives and children to be shipped oil' 
with the men; not doubling that by de- 
taining the former he would have prevented 
many of the latter from going into that ser- 
vice. This, 1 say, was confessedly an in- 
fringement of the Articles." 

To this we may add, that no Irish officer 
or soldier in France afterwards attributed 
the cruel parting at Cork to any fault of 
Sarsfield, but always and only to a breach 
of the Treaty of Limerick. And if he had 
deluded them in the manner represented by 
the English historian, they would not have 
followed him so enthusiastically on the 
fields of Steinkirk and Landen. 



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CHAPTER II. 
1688—1698. 

William tlit- Third not bigoted. — Practical toleration 
for four yean*. — First Parliament in this reign.— 
Catholics excluded by « resolution.— Extinction 
of civil existence for Catholics. — Irish Protestant 
Nationality. — Massacre ot' Glencoe. — Kuttle of 
Bteinkirk.— Court of St. Qermoins. — "Declara- 
tion.".— Battle of Luu Jen, and death of Sarsfleld. 

Kino William THE TmiiD was not per- 
sonally fanatical or illiberal ; and never de- 
sired to punish or mulct Ins subjects, whether 
in Ireland, in England, or in Holland, for 
mere differences of religion, about which 
this king eared little or nothing. But he 
was king by the support of the Protestant 
party ; was the recognized head of that 
party in Europe; was obliged to sustain 
that party, and avenge it upon its enemies, 
or it would soon have deserted his interests 
and his cause. For the first four years of 
his reign in Ireland, we have even the too 
favorable testimony of some Irish writers to 
the leniency and beneficence of his admin- 
istration, which the reader will find hard to 
conciliate n itfa the actual facts. Mr. Matthew 
O'Conor, a worthy member of the " Catholic 
Board," gives this very remarkable testi- 
nrcmy : 

" In matters of religion, King William was 
liberal, enlightened, and philosophic. Equal- 
ly a friend to religious as to civil liberty, he 
granted toleration to dissenters of all de- 
scriptions, regardless of their speculative 
opinions. In the early part of his reign, 
the Irish Catholics enjoyed the full and free 
exercise of their religion. They were pro- 
tected in their persons and properties; their 
industry was encouraged ; and under his 
mild and fostering administration, the deso- 
lation of the late war began to disappear, 
and prosperity, peace, and confidence to 
smile once mote on the country." 

To those who are disposed to be thankful 
for very small favors, the beginning of Wil- 
liam's reign in Ireland was certainly accept- 
able. There was a practical toleration of 
Catholic worship, though it \v:is against the 
law ; priests were not hunted, though by 
law they were felons; and for a short while 
it seemed as if "the Ascendency" would 
content itself with the forfeitures of rich 




estates, and the exclusion of Catholic gentle- 
men from Parliament, from the Ear, ami the 
practice of medicine, and Catholic traders 
fi'om the guilds of their trade, and from the 
corporate bodies of the towns they dwelt 
in. This was actually the amount of the 
toleration granted to the Irish Catholic na- 
tion during those early years of this reign. 

In 1692, the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Syd- 
ney, convened the first Irish Parliament of 
William's reign. It was the first Parliament 
in Ireland (except that convened by James) 
for twenty-six years. As there was then no 
Irish Act disqualifying Catholics from sitting 
in Parliament, certain peers and a few com- 
moners of that faith attended, and took 
their seats; but the English Parliament of 
the year before having provided against this, 
they were at once met by the oath of su- 
premacy, declaring the king of England 
head of the Church, and affirming the sacri- 
fice of the Mass to be damnable. The oath 
was put to each member of both houses, 
and the few Catholics present at once re- 
tired, so that the Parliament, when it pro- 
ceeded to business, was purely Protestant. 
Here then ended the last vestige of consti- 
tutional right for the Catholics: from this 
date, and for generations to come, they could 
no longer consider themselves a part of the 
existing body politic of their native land ; 
and the division into two nations became 
definite. There was the dominant nation, 
consisting of the British colony; and the 
subject nation, consisting of five sixths of the 
population, who had thereafter no more in- 
fluence upon public affairs than have the 
red Indians in the United States. 

Before quitting the subject of this total 
abolition of civil existence for the Catholics, 
we may anticipate a little to observe that, 
by another act of the Irish Parliament, in 
1G97,* it was enacted, that "a Protestant 
marrying a Catholic was disabled from sit- 
ting or voting in either house of Parliament." 
But as Catholics could still vote at elections 
(though they could now vote for none but 
mortal enemies), even this poor privilege 
was taken away from them a few years later. 
In 1727, it was enacted that " no Catholio 
shall be entitled or admitted to vote at the 



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IIISTOIIY OF IIJELAND. 




election of any member to serve in Parlia- 
ment as a knight, citizen, or burgess; or at 
the election of any magistrate for any city. 
or other town corporate ; any law, statute, 
or usage to tin' contrary notwithstanding."'' 
By the operation of these statutes alone, 
without taking account for the present of 
the more directly penal code, the great mass 
of the population of this country was de- 
based to a point which it now requires an 
effort fully to comprehend. No man had 
to court their votes, nor consult their inter- 
est or their feelings. They had no longer 
any one to stand up for them in the halls of 
legislation, to oppose new oppressions (and 
the oppressions were always new and heavier 
from day to day), nor to expose and refute 
calumnies, and these were in plenty. They 
were not only shut out from the great coun- 
cils of the nation, but every one of them, in 
every town and parish in Ireland, felt him- 
self the inferior and vassal of his Protestant 
neighbors, and the victim of a minute, spite- 
ful, and contemptuous tyranny, at the hands 
of those who were often morally and phys- 
ically far his inferiors. Of the exclusion 
from Parliament, the able author of the 
Statement of I he Penal Laws has truly ob- 
served : 

"The advantages flowing from a seat in 
the Legislature, it is well known, are not con- 
fined to the individual representative. They 
extend to all his family, friends, and con- 
nections; or, in other words, to every Prot- 
estant in Ireland. Within his reach are all 
the honors, offices, emoluments: every sort 
of gratification to avarice or vanity : the 
means of spreading a great personal inter- 
est by innumerable petty services to indi- 
viduals, lie can do an infinite number of 
acts of kindness and generosity, and even 
of public spirit. He can procure advantages 
in trade, indemnity from public burdens, 
preferences in local competitions, pardons 
for offences. He can obtain a thousand fa- 
vors, and avert a thousand evils. He may, 
whilst he betrays every valuable public in- 
terest, be, at the same time, a benefactor, a 
patron, a father, a guardian angel to his 
political adherents. On the other hand, 
bow stands the Catholic gentleman or tra- 

* 1 Geo. II., chap. 9. 



der? For his own person, no office, no 
power, no emolument ; for his children, 
brothers, kindred, or friends, no promotion, 
ecclesiastical or civil, military or naval. Ex- 
cept from his private fortune, he has no 
means of advancing a child, of making a 
single friend, or of showing any one good 
quality. He has nothing to offer but harsh 
refusal, pitiful, excuse, or despondent repre- 
sentation." 

And the effect of the exclusion from cor- 
porations was a thousand times more galling 
still ; because that disability presses upon in- 
dividuals everywhere, in their own homes, 
and in every daily action of their lives. The 
same accurate author, writing more than a 
century after King William's death, thus de- 
scribes the condition of Catholic tradesmen 
and artificers throughout the towns of Ire- 
land : — it will show how thoroughly these 
penal laws did their work for generations : 

"They are debased by the galling ascen- 
dency of privileged neighbors. They are de- 
pressed by partial imposts; by limine pref- 
erences and accommodation bestowed upon 
their competitors; by a local inquisition ; by 
an uncertain and unequal measure of justice , 
by fraud and favoritism daily and openly 
practised to their prejudice. The Catholic 
gentleman, whose misfortune it may be to 
reside in or near to any of these cities or 
towus in Ireland, is hourly exposed to all the 
slights and annoyances, that a petty secta- 
rian oligarchy may think proper to inflict. 
The professional man risks continual inflic- 
tions of personal humiliation. The farmer 
brings the produce of his lands to market 
under heavier tolls. Every species of Cath- 
olic industry and mechanical skill is checked, 
taxed, and rendered precarious. 

" On the other hand, every species of 1 'rot- 
estant indolence is cherished and maintained ; 
every claim is allowed ; every want supplied ; 
every extortion sanctioned : nay, the very 
name of ' Protestant' secures a competence, 
and commands patrician pre-eminence in 
Ireland." 

Hut though the inhabitants of Ireland were 
now, counting fiom the year 1692, definitive- 
ly divided into two castes, there arose imme- 
diately, strange, to say, a strong sentiment of 
Irish nationality; not, indeed, amongst the 
depressed Catholics — they were done with 







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national sentiment ami aspiration foi' a time; 
but the Protestants of Ireland had lately 
grown numerous, wealthy, and strong. Their 
numbers tiad been largely increased, partly 
by English settlers coming to enjoy the plun- 
der of the forfeited estates, ami very much 
by conversions, it pretended conversions of 
Catholics who had recanted their faith to 
6avc their property or their position in so- 
ciety, and who generally altered or disguised 
their family names when these had too Celtic 
n sound. The Irish Protestants also prided 
themselves on having saved the kingdom for 
William and "the Ascendency;" and hav- 
ing now totally put down the ancient nation 
under their feet, they aspired to take its 
place, to rise from a colony to a nation, and 
to assert the dignity of an independent king- 
dom. 

Ev.n in this Parliament of 1692 the spirit 
of independence ventured to show itself. 
Two money-bills, which had not originated 
in Ireland, were sent over from England to 
be passed, or rather to be accepted and regis- 
tered. One of these bills was for raising 
additional duty on beer, ale, and other li- 
quors ; and this they passed, to an amount 
not exceeding £70,000; but grounding their 
action upon the alleged urgency of the case, 
nnd'clcclaring that it should not be drawn 
into a precedent. This was on the 21st of 
October, 1692. Much constitutional discus- 
sion took place upon this occasion ; and hon- 
orable members stimulated one another's 
patriotism by recalling the rights and pre- 
rogatives of the ancient kingdom of Ireland. 
So, a few days after, on the 28th of October, 
the House of Commons rejected altogether 
the second English bill ; which was to giant 
to their majesties the produce of certain du- 
ties for one year. On the 3d of November 
Sydney prorogued Parliament with a very 
angry speech ; and at the same time required 
the clerk to enter his formal protest, against 
the dangerous doctrine asserted in the Com- 
mons' resolutions, and haughtily affirming 
the right and power of the English Parlia- 
ment to bind Ireland by acts passed in Lon- 
don. After two prorogations, this Parliament 
was dissolved on the oth of September, 1793. 

Not only did King William give his royal 
assent to the laws of exclusion made by this 
Parliament, but he did not make any propo- 



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sal or any eflbit to gain lor the Irish Ciiho- 
lics those "further securities" its engaged by 
the Treaty of Limerick, which were to pro- 
tect them from "all disturbance" in the ex- 
ercise of their religion. Yet this was but a ' c"? 
trifling matter compared with what the same 
king did in the course of the next following 
Parliament, that convened in 1695. It is 
often alleged, on his behalf, that he was 
provoked and distressed by the furious big- 
otry and violence of his Irish Protestant sub- 
jects ; and that he even endeavored to mod- 
erate them by the influence of Sydney, his 
lord-lieutenant ; in short, that he was so 
wholly dependent on his Parliaments, both 
of England and of Ireland, that he could not 
venture to thwart their one great policy, 
purpose, and passion — to crush Papists ; 
and that such opposition on his part would 
have cost him his crown. That was unfor- 
tunate for him ; inasmuch as the actual con- 
duct which these headstrong supporters of 
his obliged him to adopt, has cost him more ijtiff' 
than a crown, his reputation for good faith. 
It was in February of this year, 1692, that 
the massacre of Glencoe befel in a remote 
valley of the highlands of Scotland. King 
William, we are assured, did not wish to per- 
petrate this iniquity, any more than to break 
the Treaty of Limerick; but certain wicked 
advisers in Scotland forced him to do the 
one deed, just as his furious Protestants of 
Ireland obliged him to commit the other. 
In Scotland it was the wicked Master of 
Stair, together with the vindictive Marquis 
of Breadalbane, who planned the slaughter; 
and Stair, the Secretary for Scotland, pre- 
sented to the king, in his closet, and then 
and there induced his majesty to sign a paper 
in these words : "As for Maclan of Glencoe, 
and that tribe, if they can be well distin- 
guished from the other Highlanders, it will 
be proper, for the vindication of public jus- 
tice, to extirpate that set of thieves." And 
this order was directed to the Commander of 
the Forces in Scotland. What was intended, 
therefore, was military execution, without 
judge or jury, to be inflicted upon unarmed 
and unsuspecting country-people, with their 
wives and children. The crime, or alleged 
crime, was having been late in coming in 
and giving their submissiou. The king did 
not read the order above cited says Arch- 



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liisli(i|> Burnet, but he signed it; and says 
liis eloquent eulogist, Maeaulay, "Whoever 
lias seen any thing of public business knows 
that princes and ministers daily sign, and in- 
deed must sign documents which tliey have 
not read ; and of all documents, a document 
relating to a small tribe of mountaineers, liv- 
ing in a wilderness, not set down in any map, 
was least likely to interest a sovereign whose 
mind was full of schemes on which the fate 
of Europe might depend." Yet the order 
was not a long one ; about three seconds, if 
his majesty could have spared so long a time 
from meditating on the fate of Europe, would 
have shown him what fate he was decreeing 
to the MaeDonalds of Glencoe. It seems 
lie could not give so much of his leisure, so 
the order was sent ; and accordingly, the 
king's troops, having first quartered them- 
selves amongst the simple people, in the 
guise of friends, and partaken of their moun- 
tain hospitality; and having taken the pre- 
caution, as they believed, to guard all the 
outlets of the valley, arose before dawn one 
winter's morning, and butchered every Mac- 
Donald, man, woman, and child, whom they 
could find. A few details of this performance 
may be interesting; they are given by Lord 
Maeaulay, an author who was certainly not 
disposed to exaggerate their atrocity : 

" Hut the orders which Glenlyon had re- 
ceived were precise, and he began to exe- 
cute them at the little village where he was 
himself quartered. His host, Inverriggon, and 
nine other Macdonalds, were dragged out of 
their beds, bound hand and foot, and mur- 
dered. A boy twelve years old clung round 
the captain's legs, and begged hard for life. 
He would do any thing: he would go any- 
where : he would follow Glenlyon round the 
world. Even Gleulyon, it is said, showed 
signs of relenting : but a ruffian named 
Drummond shot the child dead. 

"At Auchnaion the tacksman Auchintriater 
was up early that moruing, and was sitting 
with eight of his family round the fire, when 
a volley of musketry laid him and seven of 
his companions dead or dying on the floor. 
His brother, who alone had escaped unhurt, 
called to Sergeant Harbour, who commanded 
the slayers, and asked as a favor to be al- 
lowed to die in the open air. ' Well,' said 
the sergeant, 'I will do you that favor for the 



sake of your meat which I have oat it i ne 
luountaineer, bold, athletic, and favored by 
the darkness, came forth, rushed on the sol- 
diers who were about to level their pieces at 
him, flung his plaid over their laces, and was 
gone in a moment. 

"Meanwhile Lindsay had knocked at the 
door of the old chief, and had asked for ad- 
mission in friendly language. The door was 
opened. Maclan, while putting on his 
clothes and calling to his servants to bring 
some refreshments for his visitors, was shot 
through the head. Two of his attendants 
were slain with him. His wife was already 
up and dressed in such finery as the prin- 
cesses of the rude Highland glens were ac- 
customed to wear. The assassins pulled oh* 
her clothes and trinkets. The rings were 
not easily taken from her fingers ; but a sol- 
dier tore them away with his teeth. She died 
on the following day." 

Over thirty persons were killed there that 
morning, but owing to the " blunder," as 
Maeaulay calls it, of commencing^he massa- 
cre with a volley of musketry, instead of giv- 
ing them the cold steel, three-fourths of the 
MaeDonalds of Glencoe escaped the slaugh- 
ter, but only to perish in the snowy moun- 
tains for want of food and shelter. Such, 
and so sad may be the effects of evil counsels 
upon the minds of benevolent monarchs, who 
are too deeply occupied in revolving projects 
on which the fate of Europe might depend. 

Another event befell in the summer of this 
year, 1692, which deserves record. On a 
July moruing, about the time when the Prot- 
estant Parliament in Dublin was devising 
cunning oaths against Transubstantiation and 
Invocation of Saints, to drive out its few 
Catholic members, Patrick Sarsfield, and 
some of his comrades, just fresh from Lim- 
erick, had the deep gratification to meet King 
William on the glorious field of Steinkirk. 
Satsfield and Berwick were then officers 
high in command under Marshal Luxem- 
bourg, when King William, at the head of a 
great allied force, attacked the French en- 
campment. The attacking force was under 
the banners of England; of the United Prov- 
inces, of Spain and of the Empire ; and it 
had all the advantage of effecting a surprise. 
The battle was long and bloody, and was fin- 
ished by a splendid charge of French cavalry, 






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KING JAMES'S DECLARATION OF 1093. 



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Among the foremost of whose leaders was 

the same glorious Sarsfield, wliose sword 
bad once before driven back fcbe same Wil- 
liam from before the walls of Limerick. The 
English and their allies were entirely defeat- 
ed in thai battle, with a loss of about ten 
thousand men. Once more, and before very 
long, Sarsfield and King William were des- 
tined to meet again. 

King James was at this time residing at 
the palace of St. Germain-en-laye, near Paris, 
upon a pension allowed him by Louis XIV., 
:in. I waiting on the' result of the war between 
Fiance and the Allies. As William had now 
become very unpopular in England, it was 
believed by the advisers of the exiled mon- 
arch that a suitable "Declaration" issued 
from St. Germains, and promising, as the 
Stuarts were always ready to promise, such 
reforms and improvements in administration 
as should conciliate public opinion in Eng- 
land, might once more turn the minds of his 
British subjects towards their legitimate dy- 
nasty, and open a way for his return to his 
throne. His great counsellor on this occa- 
sion was Charles, Earl of Middleton, a Scotch- 
man. On the 17th of April, 1693, this fa- 
mous Declaration was signed and published. 
It promised, on the part of James, a free 
pardon to all his subjects who should not op- 
pose him after his landing; that as soon as 
he was restored he would call a parliament ; 
that he would confirm all such laws passed 
during the usurpation as the Houses should 
present to him for confirmation ; that he 
would protect and defend the Established 
Church in all her possessions and privileges ; 
that he would not again violate the Test 
Act ; that he would leave it to the Legisla- 
ture to define the extent of his dispensing 
power ; and that he would maintain the Act 
of Settlement in Ireland. This Declaration, 
then, was an appeal to his English subjects 
exclusively ; and to propitiate them, he prom- 
ised to leave the Irish people wholly at their 
mercy — to undo all the measures in favor of 
religious liberty and common justice which 
had been enacted by his Irish Parliament of 
1G89, and to leave the holders of the confis- 
cated estates, his own deadly enemies in Ire- 
land, in undisturbed possession of all their 
spoils. It is asserted, indeed, in the Life of 
King James, that he struggled against com- 



mitting himself to Btluh unqualified support 
of the Protestant interest, but he was finally 
induced to sign the document as it stood. 
It was sent to England, printed, and published, 
but produced no effect whatever of the kind 
intended. It, did produce, however, a great 
and just indignation among the Irish sol- 
diers and gentlemen who had lost all their 
possessions, and encountered so many perils 
to vindicate the right of this cowardly and 
faithless king. Serious discontent was man- 
ifested among the Irish regiments then 
serving in the Netherlands and on the fron- 
tiers of Germany and Italy ; and we find that 
the treacherous Middleton, his Scottish and 
Protestant adviser, who had led the king in- 
to this act of ingratitude, as useless as it was 
base, made great efforts to soothe the feelings 
of these fine troops. A letter is extant from 
Lord Middleton to Justin MacCarthy, then 
on active service in Germany, endeavoring 
to explain away the obnoxious points of the 
Declaration, and soliciting MacCarthy's in- 
fluence to pacify other officers. In this let- 
ter Secretary Middleton has the assurance to 
say, "The king promises in the foresaid Dec- 
laration to restore the Settlement, but at the 
same time declares that he will recompense 
all those who may suffer by it, in giving them 
equivalents."* There was no such promise 
in the Declaration, and his correspondent 
must have known it; but, in truth, the Irish 
troops in the army of King Louis, the fierce 
exiles of Limerick, were at that time too 
busy in the camp and the field, and too keen- 
ly desirous to meet the English in battle, to 
pay much attention to any thing coming from 
King James. They had had enough of Riffh 
Seamus at the Boyne Water. 

A portion of them soon had their wish ; 
for neither Luxembourg nor King William 
allowed the grass to grow under their horses' 
hoofs. On the 19th of July, in this year, 
1693, they were in presence again on the 
bank of the little river Landen, and close 
by the village of Neerwinden. The Eng- 
lish call that memorable battle by the first 
name, and the French by the second. It 
was near Liege in the Netherlands, that 
famous battle-ground which had seen, and 
was again to see, so many bloody days. 

* The letter i» in Macphereau'n Collection. 



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Tliis time it was the French who attacked 
the Allies in an intrenched position. After 
heavy artillery firing for some time, the 
French made a desperate attack on the vil- 
lage of Neerwinden ; and the Duke of Ber- 
wick, at the head of some Irish troops, led 
the onset, supported and followed by the 
left wing of the French army, commanded 
by Montchevreuil. The slaughter in the 
village was tremendous, andhere Berwick was 
taken prisoner. This first attack failed, and 
alter a furious struggle the French and Irish 
were forced back. A fresh division, under 
the Duke de Bourbou, renewed the attack, 
and was again repulsed ; but as this was the 
important point, Luxembourg resolved to 
make a final struggle for it, and the chosen 
forces of King Louis, led on by his re- 
nowned household troops, were launched in 
a resistless mass against the village. A 
third time it was entered, and a third time 
there was a scene of fearful carnage in its 
streets. Among the French officers in 
this final struggle was Patrick Sarsfield.* 
King William fought his army to the last; 
but Neerwinden being gone, the key of the 
position was lost, and at length the whole 
English and allied army gave way all along 
the line. The pursuit was furious and san- 
guinary, as the Allies kept tolerable order, 
and fought every step of the way. In the 
army of William was the Duke of Ormond, 
and in the wild confusion he was unhorsed ; 
but the French soldier who brought him 
down espied on his finger a precious diamond, 
and saved his life as being certainly a pris- 
oner of rank. He was soon after exchanged 
for Berwick. At length the flying army of 
William arrived at the little river Gette ; 
and here the retreat was in danger of be- 
coming a total rout. Arms and standards 
were flung away, and multitudes of fugitives 
were choking up the fords and bridges of 
the river, or perishing in its waters, so fierce- 
ly did the victors press upon their rear. It 
■was here that Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lu- 

* It does not seem certain tbat Berwick and Sars- 
field had any Irish regiments under their command 
at Landen. O'Connor (Military Memoir) says that 
Sarsfield tell in leading a charge of French troops. 



can, who had that day, as well as at Stein- 
kirk, earned the admiration of the whole 
French army, received his death-shot at the 
head of his men. It was in a happy mo- 
ment. Before he fell, he could see the 
standards of England swept along by the tide 
of headlong flight, or trailing in the muddy 
waters of the Gette — he could see the sear- 
let ranks that he had once hurled back from 
the ramparts of Limerick, now rent and 
riven, fast falling in their wild flight, while 
there was sent pealing after them the venge- 
ful shout, "Remember Limerick /" 

The victory of the French was complete ; 
and after two such defeats, so closely follow- 
ing each other, the affairs of King William 
went badly for a time. There was, there- 
fore, a certain mildness and mercy observ- 
able in the administration of Ireland towards 
the Catholics; for as Lawless has justly ob- 
served, "The rights of Irishmen and the 
prosperity of England cannot exist together 
— a melancholy truth which the events ol 
the present day only contribute to confirm, 
and which is still left to the enlightened 
English Government of future days to re- 
fute. The lights of history cannot be ex- 
tinguished, nor her powerful voice silenced. 
The conclusions we have drawn are irresist- 
ible, and the idle violence which attempts to 
punish their publication only impresses tlmse 
truths more deeply on the mind. The glo- 
ries of William and of Anne — the victories 
of Marlborough, and the uuiversal conquests 
of Chatham, have been the most, disastrous 
epochs of Ireland. Never was the heart of 
our country so low as when England was the 
envy and the terror of her enemies. The 
sounds of English triumphs were to her the 
sounds of sorrow — the little tyrants who ruled 
her were inflamed with courage, and urged 
on with increased rancor — the unhappy Cath- 
olics of Ireland, who always constituted the 
nation, were doomed to be again insulted and 
tortured with impunity." 

Accordingly, it will soon be seen that the 
apparent gentleness used at this time towards 
the ancient Irish nation, was destined to be 
of short continuance. 



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Capel lord-lientcnnnt.— War in the Netherlands. — 
Capture of Nauuir. — Grievances of the Protestant 
colonists. — Act l'or disarming Papists. — Laws 
against education. — Against priests. — Against in- 
termarryiug with Papists. — Act to "confirm" 
Articles of Limerick. — Irish on the continent. 

Svdxev, the lord-lieutenant, became ex- 
ceedingly unpopular with the people of the 
English colony in Ireland, in consequence 
of his continued assertion of the supreme 
powers of the British Parliament, and his 
opposition to the assertion of this new Anglo- 
Irish nationality. But his unpopularity was 
still greater on account of his known repug- 
nance to still further and more searching pe- 
nal laws against the Catholics. He was 
soon, therefore, recalled, and the island was 
ruled for a lime by three lords-justices, Lord 
Capel, Sir Cyril Wyche, and Mr. Duncombe. 
Between these three, serious differences of 
policy soon manifested themselves: the two 
latter being in favor of a continuance of the 
toleration, and of showing some slight regard 
to the rights of the Catholic people under 
the Treaty of Limerick ; while Capel, as 
Harris confesses, was desirous of doing all in 
his power to infringe that treaty. The intrigues 
of the intolerant party finally prevailed so 
far as lo procure the appointment of Capel 
as lord-lieutenant; and in 1C95, he sum- 
moned a parliament, the second of this reign. 

In the mean time, King William and his 
allies had been prosecuting the war against 
France with varying success, but on the 
whole, the advantage had rested with the 
French, at least, in the campaigns by land. 
In 1G95, however, the tide began to turn in 
the Netherlands; anil on the 26th of Au- 
gust, in that year, the town and fortress of 
Namur, or. j of the strongest places in Europe, 
defended by Marshal Boufflers, was surren- 
dered to the allies after an arduous siege. 
For the first time, since first there were raar- 
balfi of France, a French marshal delivered 
up a fortress to a victorious enemy. There 
was high rejoicing in England over this great 
event; it was, therefore, an event of evil 
omen for Ireland. 

Duiing the three years preceding the 




meeting of this parliament, then? had been 
continual complaints made by the Protestant 
"Ascendencv," of the favors shown to " Pa- 
pists," and the consequent discouragement 
and depression of the Protestant interest. 
The great theme of discussion in Ireland at 
that day was whether, and how far, the Ar- 
ticles of Limerick ought to be considered 
binding; and the parliament, in 1692, had 
addressed the king, complaining of the res- 
toration of certain confiscated estates to 
Catholics in the five counties specified in 
the articles ; which restoration was expressly 
stipulated for in the treaty ;* and fur- 
ther requesting his majesty "to have the ar- 
ticles of the Treaty of Limerick laid before 
us [the parliament], in order that we may 
learu by what means, and tinder what pre- 
text they have been granted," etc. Consid- 
erably over a million of acres had been ad- 
judged confiscated in consequence of the last 
"rebellion," and of this land, about one 
quarter had been restored to its right owners 
in pursuance of the treaty. In short, the 
" Irish nation," as the handful of colonists 
called themselves, was suffering under griev- 
ons distress and oppression ; and a Mr. 
Stone, member of the Irish House of Com- 
mons, being examined at the bar of the Eng- 
lish House, gave in his evidence so sad an 
account of the sufferings of the Protestants, 
as produced a serious effect upon public 
opinion in England. " There never was," he 
declared, "a Hotse of Commons of that 
kingdom of greater property or better prin- 
ciples than those which met under Lord 
Sydney's administration." He boasted of 
their loyalty and zeal for his majesty's ser- 
vice, and alleged that their opposition to the 
money bills had been occasioned by Lord 
Sydney's arrogance in insisting upon the 
supreme sovereignly of the English crown 
and Parliament; and last, and worst of all, 
he complained "that the Papists were in 
actual possession of that liberty which, if ex- 
tended to Protestants, would have prevented 
the necessity of rendering the Irish Com- 
mons obnoxious by the rejection of so many 
bills." In short, the pathetic narration of 
these pretended grievances and oppressions 



* Sec the Address in full, 
Sadlier's Edition. 



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had brought about, first, the recall of Lord 
Sydney, ;in<l afterwards the appointment of 
Lord Capel as lord-lieutenant. The compar- 
ative success of William's arms in the Neth- 
erlands contributed still more effectually to 
give a complete triumph to the Ascendency 
party ; and accordingly the Protestant col- 
onists were highly gratified when Lord Capel, 
in opening the parliament of 1095, an- 
nounced that the king was intent on a firm 
settlement of Ireland "upon a Protestant in- 
terest." It might have been supposed that 
Ireland was already pretty well settled in the 
interest of Protestants ; but the ingenuity of 
this parliament found means of still further 
extending and improving the laws which al- 
ready made Catholics outlaws in their native 
land. 

There was no more factious opposition to 
the government ; the parliament was obse- 
quious, and readily passed all bills that were 
required at its hands. All it asked was to 
have the Papists delivered up, body and 
go, ids, into the hands of the Ascendency. 
It will give an idea of the grievances and op- 
pressions which the Protestants now plain- 
tively represented to parliament in petitions 
which poured in from all quarters, if we men- 
tion that one of these petitions was from the 
mayor, sheriffs, and Protestant aldermen of 
the city of Limerick, complaining that " they 
were greatly damaged in their trade by the 
great numbers of Papists residing there, and 
praying to be relieved therein." And, in 
fact, those honest Protestants were relieved 
by express enactment. Another petition, 
gravely presented to parliament, was "A peti- 
tion of one Edward Sprag, and others, in 
behalf of themselves and other Protestant 
porters, in and about the city of Dublin, 
complaining that one Darby Ryan, a Papist, 
employed porters of his own persuasion."* 
This petition was referred, like others, to the 
"Committee on Grievances." The griev- 
ances of persecuted Protestants, however, 
were soon to have an end. 

Catholics had been already excluded from 
the legislature, from the corporations, and 
from the liberal professions; but we have 
seen that they could still damage the trade 
of Protestant artificers in Limerick, and even 

• Com moils Journals. 



compete with Protestant coal-porters in Dub- 
lin. The parliament of Lord Capel w...;; now 
about to take such order with them that it 
was hoped they would never trouble the 
Protestant interest any more. Tlie first re- 
quisite was to effectually disarm them. Ac- 
cordingly, one of the first enactments is en- 
titled "An Act for the better securing the 
government by disarming the Papists." * 
By this act, all Catholics within the king- 
dom of Ireland were required to discover 
and deliver up by a certain day, to the jus- 
tiees or civil officers, all their arms and am- 
munition. After that day search might be 
made in their houses for concealed arms and 
ammunition; and any two justices, or a 
mayor or sheriff, might grant the search- 
warrant, and compel any Catholic suspected 
of having concealed arms, etc., to appear be- 
fore them and answer the charge or suspicion 
upon his oath f The punishments were to 
be fine and imprisonment, or, at the dis- 
cretion of the court, the pillory «aud whip- 
ping. It is impossible to describe the minute 
and curious tyranny to which this statute 
gave rise in every parish of the island. Es- 
pecially in districts where there was an armed 
yeomanry, exclusively Protestant, it fared ill 
with any Catholic who fell, for any reason, 
under the displeasure of his formidable neigh- 
bors. Any pretext was sufficient for point- 
ing him out to suspicion. Any neighboring 
magistrate might visit him at any hour of 
the night, and search his bed for arms. No 
Papist was safe from suspicion who had any 
money to pay in fines ; and woe to the Papist 
who had a handsome daughter! 

It would be difficult to imagine any method 
of degrading human nature more effectual 
than the prohibition of arms; but the par- 
liament resolved to employ still another way. 
This was to prohibit education. Catholics 
were already debarred from being tutors or 
teachers; and many Catholic young men 
were seut for education to the schools and 
universities of the continent. It was there- 
fore enacted " that if any subjects of Ireland 
should, after that session, go, or send any 
child or person, to be educated in any popish 
university, college, or school, or in any pri- 

♦' 7 Win. 111. o. 5. 

t Tliis enactment, under various new furms mid, 
names, is tlie law at this day. 



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rate family ; or it'sucli child Bhould, by any 
j"'|iisli person, be instructed in the popish 
religion ; or it' any Bubjects of Ireland Bhould 
BeD<] money or things towards the mainte- 
nance of such child, or other person, already 
sent, or to be sent, every such offender, being 
thereof Convicted, Bhould be forever disabled 
to sue or prosecute any action, bill, plaint, 
or information in law or equity ; to be guar- 
dian, administrator, or executor to any per- 
son, or to be capable of any legacy, or deed 
of gift ; and, besides, should forfeit all their 
estates, both real and personal, during their 
lives."* It was further enacted, that " No Pa- 
pist, after the 20th January, 1695, shall be 
capable to have, or keep in his possession, 
or in the possession of any other, to his use, 
or at his disposition, any horse, gelding, or 
mine, of the value of £o or more;" with the 
usual clauses to induce Protestants to inform, 
and cause search to be made for the contra- 
band horses; the property of the horses to 
be vested in the discoverer. 

The two acts before mentioned at once 
bred in Ireland a great swarm of informers 
and detectives, who have been a grievous 
plague upon the country ever since. But 
the penal code was still far from complete. 
It was thought needful to strike at the Cath- 
olics more directly through their religion it- 
self, in which it was observed that they took 
much comfort. Therefore, it was enacted by 
the same Parliament "That all popish arch- 
bishops, bishops, vic.ars-general, deans, Jesuits, 
monks, friars, and all other regular popish 
clergy, and all papists exercising any eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction, shall depart this king- 
dim before the 1st day of May, 1698." If 
any of them remained after that day, or re- 
turned, the delinquents were to be transport- 
ed, and if they returned again, " to be guilty 
of high treason, and to suffer accordingly." 
To pretend a toleration of the Catholic re- 
ligion, but to banish bishops, and thus pre- 
vent orders, can scarcely be considered a very 
liberal proceeding; but there were still more 
minute provisions made, after banishing the 
clergy, for the continual torture of the laity. 
For example, this same parliament, in 169.3, 
enacted a statute which imposed a fine of 
two shillings (and, in default of payment, 




whipping) upon "every common laborer, 
being hired, or other servant retained, who 
shall refuse to work at the usual and accus- 
tomed wages, upon any day except the days 
appointed by thin statute to be kept holy ; 
namely, all Sundays in the year, and certain 
other days named therein." 

Another act was passed by this parlia- 
ment "to prevent Protestants intermarrying 
with Papists," in order to obviate the 
possible danger of the two nations becoming 
gradually amalgamated by affinities and 
family interests ; and as the Catholics, in some 
places, were associating together to place 
their interests in the bauds of legal advisers, 
an act was passed " to prevent Papists being 
solicitors." It must not be omitted to mention, 
that the parliament which violated, by so 
many ingenious laws, the conditions made at 
the capitulation of Limerick, did also gravely 
and solemnly pass an act "for the confirma- 
tion of Articles made at the surrender of the 
city of Limerick — or so much thereof," said 
the preamble, "as may consist with the 
safety and welfare of your Majesty's sub- 
jects in these kingdoms." The greater part, 
or almost the whole of the stipulations on 
behalf of the Catholics, contained in those 
articles, had been deliberately and avowedly 
violated by the very legislature which en- 
acted this hypocritical act. It passed almost 
unanimously in the Commons; but unex- 
pectedly met with vigorous resistance in the 
House of Lords; where, on its final passage, 
a formal protest against it was entered by a 
number of the ancient nobility, and even by 
some Anglican bishops. The protest was 
signed by the lords Duncannon, London- 
derry and Tyrone, the barons of Limerick, 
Howth, Ossory, Killaloe, Kerry, Strabane 
and Kingston, and also by the bishops of 
Deny, Elphiu, Clonfert, Kildare and Killala. 
It gave these reasons for the protest : 

44 1. Because the title did not agree with 
the body of the bill ; the title being an act 
for the confirmation of the Iiish articles, 
whereas no one of said articles was therein 
fully confirmed. 2. Because the articles 
were to be confirmed to them to whom they 
were granted ; but the confirmation of them 
by that bill was such, that it put them in a 
worse condition than they were in before. 
3. Because the bill omitted the material 



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words, 'and all such ;is are under their pro- 
tection in the said counties,' which were by 
his Majesty's titles patent, declared to be 
part of the second article ; and several per- 
sons had been adjudged within said articles 
who would, if the bill passed into a law, be 
entirely barred and excluded, so that the 
words omitted being so very material, and 
confirmed by his Majesty after a solemn 
debate in council, some express reason ought 
to be assigned in the bill, in order to satisfy 
the world in that omission. 4. Because 
several words were inserted in the bill which 
were not in the articles, and others omitted, 
which altered both the sense and meaning 
thereof. Lastly, because they apprehended 
that many Protestants might and would 
suffer by the bill in their just lights and 
pretensions, by reason of their having pur- 
chased, and lent money, upon the faith of said 
article." 

Of the proceedings of this parliament, it 
is only necessary to add one further detail : 
"A petition of Robert Cusack, gentleman, 
Captain Francis Segrave and Captain Mau- 
rice Eustace, in behalf of themselves and 
others, comprised under the Articles of 
Limerick, setting forth, that in the said bill 
[act to confirm, &c] there were several 
clauses that would frustrate the petitioners 
of the benefit of the same, and if passed 
into a law would turn to the ruin of some, 
and the prejudice of all persons entitled to 
the benefit of the said articles, and praying 
to be heard by counsel to said matters, 
having been presented and read, it was 
unanimously resolved that said petition 
should be rejected." 

King William was all this while busily 
engaged in carrying on the war against 
Louis the Fourteenth, and his mind was 
profoundly occupied about the destinies of 
Europe. He seems to have definitively given 
up Ireland, to be dealt with by the Ascend- 
ency at its pleasure. Yet he had received 
the benefit of the capitulation of Limerick : — 
he had engaged his royal faith to its ob- 
servance ; — he had further engaged that he 
would endeavor to procure said Roman 
Catholics such further security as might 
preserve them from any disturbance upon 
the account of their said religion. And 




such further security, but he gave his royal 
assent, without the least objection, to every 
one of these acts of Parliament, carefully 
depriving them of such securities as they 
had, and imposing new and grievous oppres- 
sions '' upon the account of their said reli- 
gion." It is expressly on account of this 
shameful breach of faith on the part of the 
King that Orange squires and gentlemen, 
from that day to this, have been enthusi- 
astically toasting " the glorious, pious, and 
immortal memory of the great and good 
King William." 

The war was still raging all over Europe; 
and multitudes of young Irishmen were 
quitting a land where they were henceforth 
strangers and outlaws on their own soil, to 
find under the banners of France an oppor- 
tunity for such distinction as exiles may 
hope to win. Brilliant reports of the 
achievements of the old regiments of Limer- 
ick on many a field, came to Ireland by 
stray travellers from the continent, and in- 
spired the high-spirited youth of the country 
with an ambition to enroll themselves in the 
ranks of the Irish brigade. They had heard 
for example, of the great victories of Stein- 
kirk and of Landen ; and how at Marsiglia, 
on the Italian slope of the Alps, the French 
marshal, Catinat, obtained a splendid victory 
over the army of the Duke of Savoy — a 
victory, says Voltaire, "so much the more 
glorious as the Prince Eugene was one of the 
adverse generals ;" and how the conduct of 
the Irish troops, who served under Catinat 
on that occasion, gained the applause of 
Europe and the thanks of King Louis. It 
is no wonder, therefore, seeing the depress- 
ing and humiliating condition to which they 
were reduced at home, that there was a large 
and continual emigration of the best blood 
of Ireland, at this time, and for a great part 
of the following century. These exiles were 
not confined to the people of the Celtic 
Irish clans; for all the English settlers in Ire- 
land, down to the time of Henry the Eighth, 
had of course been Catholic, and these fam- 
ilies generally adhered to the old religion. 
Thus these old English found themselves in- 
cluded in all the severities of the penal laws, 
along with the primeval Scotic people, and 
they had now their full proportion in the 






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he not only did not endeavor to procure any ' ranks of the military adventurers ' 



<«■ 




THE IRISII EXILES. 







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sought service on the continent. Aceord- 
ingly, among the distinguished names of the 
Irish brigades, by the side of the Milesian 
Sarsfields, O'Briens, and O'Donnells, we find 
the Norman-descended Dillons, Roches, and 
Fitzgeralds. Of the amount of that great, 
emigration it is difficult to procure any very 
exact idea ; but on this subject there is no 
better authority than the learned Abbe 
MacGeoghegau, who was chaplain in the 
brigade, and who devoted himself to the 
task of recording the history of his country. 
He affirms that researches in the office of 
the French War Department show that from 
the arrival of the Irish troops in France, in 
1691, to the year 1745 (the year of Fon- 
tenoy), more than four hundred and fifty 
thousand Irishmen died in the service of 
Fiance. The statement may seem almost 
incredible ; especially as Spain and Austria 
had also their share of our military exiles ; 
but, certain it is, the expatriation of the very 
best and choicest of the Irish people was 
now on a very large scale ; and the remain- 
ing population, deprived of their natural 
chiefs, became still more helpless in the 
hands of their enemies. Baron Macaulay, 
whose language is never too courteous in 
speaking of the Irish, takes evident delight 
in dwelling upon the abject condition of the 
great body of the natiou at this lime. He 
calls them " Pariahs ;" compares their posi- 
tion, in the disputes between the English and 
the Irish parliament, with that of "the Red 
Indians in the dispute between Old England 
and New England about the Stamp Act ;" 
mentions with complacency, that Dean Swift 
"no more considered himself as an Irishman 
than an Englishman born at Calcutta con- 
siders himself as a Hindoo ;" and says, very 
truly, though coarsely, that none of the 
"patriots" of the seventeenth century "ever 
thought of appealing to the native popula- 
tion — they would as soon have thought of 
appealing to the swine." The truth is, that 
most of the choicest intellect and energy of 
the Irish lace were now to be looked for at 
the courts of Versailles, Madrid, and Vienna, 
or under the standards of France on even- 
battle-field of Europe. The Catholics of 
Ireland may be said, at this date, to disap- 
pear from political history, and so remained 
till the era of the volunteering. 



Obscure and despised as they were, how- 
ever, they were not too humble to escape the 
curious eye of the lawyers and legislators ot 
the "Ascendency." In fact, we have not yet 
advanced far beyond the threshold of the 
Penal Laws. 



CHAPTER IV. 

1698—1702. 

Predominance of the English Parliament, — Moly- 
neu.w — Decisive action of theEnglish Parliament.— 

Court and country parties. — Suppression of wool- 
len manufacture. — Commission of confiscated es- 
tates. — Its revelations. — Vexation of King William. 
—Peace of Kyswick. — Act for establishing the 
Protestant succession. — Death of William. 



While the ancient Irish nation lay in this 
miserable condition of utter nullity, the Prot- 
estant colony continued its efforts to vindi- 
cate its independence of the Imperial Par- 
liament, but without much success. Not 
only was its parliament compelled to send 
over to London the "heads" of its bills, to 
be ratified there, but the British Parliament 
still persisted in exercising an original juris- 
diction in Ireland, aud to bind that kingdom 
by laws made in England, without any con- 
currence asked or obtained from the colonial 
legislature. It was always the firm resolve, 
both of the king and of the people of Eng- 
land, to deny aud trample upon these assumed 
pretensions of their colony in Ireland to be 
an independent kingdom. 

The reader will suppose that the English 
governmentshould not have been very jealous 
of any power with which the Protestant As- 
cendency might be armed, when they so 
faithfully turned those arms against the civil 
and religious liberties of their Catholic coun- 
trymen. The Irish Parliament, however, 
presumed rather too much on its past ser- 
vices to England. Though they were so 
obedient as to forge chains for the Catholics, 
they should not flatter themselves with the 
liberty of making their own laws or regula- 
ting their own slaves. They were, for the 
future, to consider themselves as the hum 
bled agents of an English Government, 
prompt at every call which national jealousy 
would give to inflict or to suspend the tor- 
ture. 



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I1IST0EY OF IRELAND. 



Iu short, the Iiish Protestant Ascendency 
was soon to be taught that it was the mere 
agent of English empire, and must aspire to 
no other freedom than the freedom to op- 
press and trample upon the ancient Irish 
nation. " Your ancestors," said Mr. Cnrran 
to the Irish Parliament a hundred years af- 
ter— "Your ancestors thought themselves 
the oppressors of their fellow-subjects — but 
they were only their gaolers; and the justice 
of Providence would have been frustrated if 
their own slavery had not been the punish- 
ment of their vice and of their folly." This 
appeared very plainly when Mr. William 
Molyneux, one of the members for Dublin 
University, published, iu 1098, his work en- 
titled "The ease of Ireland being bound by 
Acts of Parliament in England stated," a 
production which owes its fame rather to the 
indignant sensation it made in England, than 
to any peculiar merits of its own. It pro- 
fessed to discuss the principles of government 
and of human society, and was, in fact, more 
abstract and metaphysical than legal. It is 
said that Mr. Molyneux, who was an inti- 
mate friend of John Locke, had found his 
principles in the writings of that philosopher, 
and had even submitted his manuscript to 
Mr. Locke's approval. The essential part of 
the book, however, and the only practical 
part, was the distinct assertion of the iude- 
pendenl power of the Irish Parliament, as the 
legislature of a sovereign state; and conse- 
quent denial of the right claimed and exer- 
cised by the English Parliament to bind Ire- 
lain! by its own enactments. The book at 
one.' attracted much attention, and was speed- 
ily replied to by two writers, named Carey 
and Alwood. A committee of the English 
Parliament was then appointed to examine 
the obnoxious pamphlet, and on the report 
of that committee, it was unanimously re- 
solved '' that the said book was of dangerous 
consequence to the crown, and to the people 
of England," etc. The House, in a body, pre- 
sented an address to the king, setting forth 
what they called the bold and pernicious as- 
sertions contained in the aforesaid publica- 
tion, which they declared to have been 
' more fully and authentically affirmed by 
the votes and proceedings of the House of 
Commons in Ireland, during their late ses- 
sions, and more particularly by a bill traus- 




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mitted under the great seal of Ireland, enti- 
tled 'An act for the better security of his 
majesty's person and government;' whereby 
an act of parliament made in England was 
pretended to be re-enacted, and divers alter- 
ations therein made ; and they assured his 
majesty of their ready concurrence and as- 
sistance to preserve and maintain the depen- 
dence and subordination uf Ireland to the 
imperial crown of this realm ; and they hum- 
bly besought his majesty that he would dis- 
courage all things which might in any degree 
lessen or impair that dependence." The king 
promptly replied "that he would take e.uv 
that what was complained of might be pre- 
vented and redressed as the Commons de- 
sired." Such was the extreme political 
depression of Ireland, that this haughty pro 

cedure occasioned no visible resent at in 

her parliament,, although the leaven of the 
doctrines of Molyneux was still working in 
men's minds; was afterwards improved by 
Swift and Lucas, and at length became irre- 
sistible, and ripened into an independent 
Irish Parliament in 1782. Meantime tin- 
proscribed Catholics look no interest in the 
controversy at all, and seemed insensible to 
its progress. As the excellent Charles O'Con- 
or, of Belanagar, afterwards in the midst of' 
the commotions excited by Lucas, wrote to 
a friend : " I am by no means interested, nor 
is any of our unfortunate population, iu (his 
affair of Lucas. A true patriot would nol 
have betrayed such malice towards such mi 
fortunate slaves as \se." And he truly adds, 
"These boasters, tie- Whigs, wish to have 
liberty all to themselves." In short, the two 
parties then existing in Ireland, and termed 
the court and country parties, were divided 
mainly upon this question : Is the conquered 
nation to be governed and exploited for tin' 
Bole benefit of the colonial interest? or, Are 
all interests in Ireland, both colonial and na- 
tive, both Protestant and Catholic, to be sub- 
servient and tributary to England ? Candor 
requires it to be stated that of these two 
parties, the court and the country, the for- 
mer was rather more favorable to the down- 
trodden Catholics; a tact of which several 
examples will soon have to be related. Ai 
that moment the court party held the sway, 
and the English Parliament ruled all. 

The English were not disposed to let their 



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predominance remain without practical fruits, 
as appeared in the proceedings touching the 
woollen-trade of Ireland. During the few 
first years of William's reign, there being 
then abundance of sheep in Ireland, and also 
much cheap labor, considerable progress was 
made in the manufacture of woollen cloths ; 
these fabrics were exported in some quantity 
to foreign countries, and in many cases the 
Irish manufacturer was enabled to undersell 
the English. But England was then using 
great exertions to obtain the entire control 
of this gainful trade; and the competition 
of Ireland gave great umbrage. It is true 
that the woollen trade in Ireland, and all the 
profits of its export and sale, were in the 
hands of the English colonists, and that the 
colonial parliament in Dublin would fain 
have extended and protected it if they had 
been permitted. But here, again, the Eng- 
lish power stepped in, and controlled every 
thing according to its own interest. The two 
houses of Lords and Commons addressed 
King William, urging that some immediate 
remedy must be found against the obnoxious 
trade in Ireland. The Lords, after detailing 
the intolerable oppression which was inflicted 
upon deserving industrious people in Eng- 
land, expressed themselves thus : " Where- 
fore, we most humbly beseech your most 
sacred majesty, that your majesty would be 
pleased in the most public aud effectual way 
that may be, to declare to all your subjects 
of Ireland, that the growth and increase of 
the woollen manufacture there hath long 
been, and will be ever, looked upon with 
great jealousy by all your subjects of this 
kingdom, and if not timely remedied, may 
occasion very strict laws totally to prohibit 
and suppress the same." Probably no 
more shameless avowal of British greediness 
was ever made, even by the parliament of 
England. But the king replied at once that 
"he would do all that in him lay to dis- 
courage the woollen manufacture of Ireland ;" 
in other words, to ruin his subjects of that 
island. The Irish Parliament was now also 
assembled in Dublin. The Earl of Gal way 
and two others were lords-justices ; and they, 
pursuant to their instructions, recommended 
to parliament to adopt means for putting a 
stop to the woollen manufacture and to en- 
Courage the linen. The Commons, in their 



address, meekly replied, that "they shall 
heartily endeavor" to encourage the linen 
trade; and as to the woollen, they tamelv 
express their hope to find such a tempera- 
ment that the same may not be injurious to 
England." The temperament they found 
was in the acts which were passed in the 
following year, 1699, which minutely regu- 
lated every thing relating to wool. In the 
first place, all export of Irish woollen cloths 
was prohibited, except to England and Wales. 
The exception was delusive, because heavv 
duties, amounting to a prohibition, prevented 
Irish cloth from being imported into Eng- 
land or Wales. Irish wool, thereafter, had 
to be sent to England in a raw state, to be 
woven in Yorkshire ; and even this export 
was cramped by appointing one single Eng- 
lish port, Barnstable, as the only point where 
it could legally enter. All attempts at for- 
eign commerce in Ireland were at this time 
impeded also by the " Navigation Laws," 
which had long prohibited all direct trade 
between Ireland and the colonies ; no colo- 
nial produce, under those laws, could be car- 
ried to Ireland until after it should have lir>t 
entered an English port, and been unloaded 
there. The object of these laws, of course, 
was to secure to English merchants and 
shipowners a monopoly of all such trade, aud 
they had the desired effect, so that a few 
years afterwards, the Dean of St. Patrick's 
could truly write : " The conveniency of ports 
and harbors, which nature had bestowed so 
liberally upon this kingdom, is of no more 
use to us than a beautiful prospect to a man 
shut up in a dungeon." 

It is noticeable that these navigation acts 
were not new ; they had existed before the 
last Revolution, and had been repealed by 
the excellent parliament of 1689, under King 
James, consisting indifferently of Catholics 
and Protestants, and really representing an 
Irish nation — that same parliament which 
had also enacted perfect liberty fur all re- 
ligions, and had swept away a most foul mass 
of penal laws from the statute-book ; but on 
the failure of the cause of the Stuarts, all 
the enactments of that parliament were ig 
nored, and the penal laws and restrictions 
on trade reappeared in full force. 

With such a deliberate system in full 
operation, not ouly to put down the political 



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pretensions, but to destroy the trade of Ire- 
land, and all enforced directly by English 
statutes, it will bo seen that the country 
party, which so proudly claimed national in- 
dependence, had but very slender chances at 
that time. Another event still further illus- 
trated this fact. The English Parliament, 
which was continually importuned by the 
king for grants of money to carry on his 
darling war against Louis XIV., found that 
the immense amount of confiscated lands, 
forfeited by the "rebellion" (as the national 
war was called), had been squandered upon 
King William's favorites, or leased at insuf- 
ficient rents, also a small portion of it re- 
stored to its owners who had satisfied the 
government that they were innocent. That 
parliament therefore resolved, before making 
any more grants of money, to inquire how 
the forfeitures had been made available for 
the public service. A commission was ap- 
pointed by a vote of parliament for this pur- 
pose, and at the same time to provide for a 
grant of a million and a half sterling, for 
military and naval expenses. The form of 
this commission was itself an intimation that 
nothing less was contemplated than resump- 
tion of all the lands granted by special favor 
of the king. This was very hard upon his 
majesty, aud he regarded the proceeding 
with sour and silent displeasure; for, iu fact, 
he had granted out of these forfeitures im- 
mense estates to William Bentinck, whom 
he created Lord Woodstock, to Giukell, Lord 
Athlone, and others of his Dutch friends ; — 
especially, he had bestowed over 95,000 
acres on Mrs. Elizabeth Villiers, Countess of 
Orkney, a lady, who in the words of Lord 
Macaulay, " had inspired William with a pas- 
sion which had caused much scandal aud 
unhappiness in the little court of the Hague" 
— where, in fact, his lawful wife resided. If 
the consideration of the grant was of the 
kind here intimated, it must be allowed that 
William paid the lady royally, out of others' 
estates. The commissioners further report 
gieat corruption and bribery in the matter 
of procuring pardons, and astonishing waste 
and destruction, especially of tlie fine woods, 
which had covered wide regions of the 
island. The drift of their report is, that the 
whole of the dealings with those confiscated 
lands were one foul and monstrous job. 




HISTORY OF IRELAND 



Here, it is to be remarked that this in- 
quiry and report were by no means in the 
interest of the plundered Catholics, the 
right owners of all those estates; on the 
contrary, one of the points dwelt on most 
bitterly by the commissioners was the resin. 
ration of a small portion of them to Catho- 
lic proprietors, under what the commission- 
ers considered delusive pretences; and the 
resumption which they contemplated was 
to have the effect of again taking away 
those wrecks and remnants of the property 
of Catholics which had been redeemed cmt 
of the general ruin. The English House ot 
Commons, in a violent ferment, immediat lv 
resolved "that a bill be brought in to apply 
all the forfeited estates and interests in Ire- 
land, and all grants thereof, and of the rents 
and revenues belonging to the crown within 
that kingdom, since the 13th February, 
1689, to the use of the public." Then a 
"Court of Delegates" was appointed to de- 
termine claims ; and it was resolved by the 
House "that they would not receive any 
petitions whatever against the provisions of 
this bill." The report of the commission 
had been signed only by four commissioners 
out of seven, namely, by Annesley, Trench- 
ard, Hamilton and Langford, the other three 
having dissented. The House, therefore, 
came to the resolution, " that Francis An- 
nesley, John Trenchard, James Hamilton, 
and Henry Langford, Esqs., had acquitted 
themselves with understanding, courage, 
and integrity; which was an implied cen- 
sure on the Earl of Droghcda, Sir Francis 
Brewster, and Sir Richard Levinge, the 
three dissentient commissioners; and the 
Bouse went so far as to vote Sir Richard 
Levincre to be the author of certain <n'ound- 
less and scandalous aspersions respecting the 
commissioners who had signed the report, 
and to commit him, thereupon, prisoner to 
the Tower. There were long and acrimo- 
nious debates upon this question ; a sharp 
address to the king, iu pursuance of tho 
sense of the majority, and a submissive an- 
swer from his majesty, declaring that he 
was not led by inclination, but thought him- 
self obliged, in justice, to reward those wdio 
had served well, and particularly in the re- 
duction of Ireland, out of the estates forfeited 
to him by the rebellion there." And the 



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Ilouse resolved, in reply, " lliat whoever ad- 
vised his majesty's answer to the Address 
of the Ilouse has used his utmost endeavor 
lo create a misunderstanding and jealousy 
between the king and his people." The "Bill 
of Resumption" of the forfeited estates finally 
passed, after vehement opposition, and re- 
ceived the reluctant royal assent, on the 11th 
of April, 1100, on which day his majesly 
prorogued the houses, without any speech, 
thinking there was no room for the usual 
expressions of satisfaction and gratitude ; and 
not choosing to give any public proof of 
discontent or resentment. In all these par- 
liamentary disputes, there was not the least 
question of the rights or claims of any Irish 
Catholic ; nor does it appear that there 
would have been the slightest opposition to 
any scheme which concerned merely the 
resumption of lands restored to them. The 
biographer of William remarks, " that no 
transaction during the reign of this mon- 
arch so pressed upon his spirits, or so hum- 
bled his pride, as the resumption of the 
grants of the forfeited estates in Ireland by 
the English Parliament." This may be easily 
believed; but it is to be remarked, that 
we find no such opinion from King William's 
enthusiastic biographer when he was called 
on to set his seal to the legislative violations 
of the Treaty of Limerick. He could ill 
bear to deprive his Dutch courtiers of their 
Irish estates ; but it was of small moment to 
him to beggar and oppress millions of Irish- 
men in violation of his own plighted faith. 

In his private despatches to Lord Galway, 
shortly after the rising of parliament, the 
king says: "You may judge what vexation 
all their extraordinary proceedings gave me; 
and I assure you, your being deprived of 
what I gave you with so much pleasure is 
not the least of my griefs. I never had 
more occasion than at present for persons of 
your capacity and fidelity. I hope I shall 
rind opportunities to give you marks of my 
esteem and friendship." 

The short remainder of William's reign 
was occupied chiefly with negotiations on 
the continent; and with oscillations of his 
policy between the Whig and Tory parties; 
according to the use which lie thought be 
could make of those parties respectively in 
promoting his views against France — the 



only use which he could ever see in English 
parties, to say nothing of Irish ones. The 
peace of Ryswick was signed in 1G97; but 
in 1 701, King James died at St. Germains; 
and his son (afterwards called the Pretender) 
was recognized as King James III. of Eng- 
land by the king and court of France, who 
paid their visits of condolence and congratu- 
lation at the Court of St. Germains. King 
William immediately recalled his ambas- 
sador from Paris ; and again there was the 
evident and imminent necessity of a new 
war with France; which was all that King 
William lived for. He was not, however, 
to live much longer. 

The death of the young Duke of Glou- 
cester, son of the Princess Anne, about the 
same time with that of King James II., 
gave occasion to the Act of Parliament — ■ 
the last act of this reign — by which the 
crown of England was settled on the House 
of Hanover, after the demise of Anne. This 
act was repeated, as it were, mechanically, 
by the servile parliament of the Irish colony. 
Cut though a highly important settlement 
of the sovereign authority, it does not seem 
to have aroused the smallest interest in the 
mass of the Irish people. It seemed now 
to be their opinion, and indeed the opinion 
was just, that it mattered nothing to them 
for the future whether Stuarts or Hano- 
verians should rule in England. They had 
had bitter experience of the one dynasty ; 
and did not know that they were yet to 
have a more terrible experience of the 
other. 

King William had fallen into very bad 
health ; but still occupied himself in vast 
projects concerning his great concern, " the 
destinies of Europe." His speech, on the 
assembling of his last parliament, the last day 
of the vcar 1701, will show how his active 
mind was occupied to the last. " I persuade 
myself," said the king, " that you are met 
together, full of that just sense of the com- 
mon danger of Europe, and that resent- 
ment of the late proceedings of the French 
kins;, which has been so fully and univer- 
sally expressed in the loyal and seasonable 
addresses of my people. The eyes of all 
Europe are upon this parliament; all mat- 
ters are rit a stand till your resolutions are 
known. Let me conjure you to disappoint 



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the only hopes of our enemies by your 
unanimity. I have shown, and will always 
bIiow, how desirous I am to be the common 
father of all my people. Do you, in like 
manner, lay aside parties and divisions. 
Let there be no other distinction heard of 
among us for the future, but of those who 
are for the Protestant religion and the 
present establishment, and of those who 
mean a popish prince and a French govern- 
ment. If you do in good earnest desire to 
see England hold the balance of Europe, 
and to be indeed at the head of the Prot- 
estant interest, it will appear by your right 
improving the present opportunity." The 
king meant by voting large supplies for war 
with France. But King William was at the 
end of his wars; he was destined never to 
make any more of his famous retreats be- 
fore French marshals ; and he died in little 
more than two months after this speech, 8th 
of March, 1702, his death having been has 
tened by a fall from his horse in riding from 
Kensington to Hampton Court. His death 
was little regretted, save in Holland, by any- 
body ; even by the squires of the "Ascenden- 
cy" in Ireland, who long toasted in their 
cups his "glorious, pious, and immortal mem- 
ory." He had no personal quality that could 
endear him to any human being, unless the 
common quality of personal bravery may be 
so accounted. His religion was hatred to 
Papists; his fair fame was stained by faith- 
lessness and cruelty, and he will be forever 
named in history the Treaty-breaker of Lim- 
erick and the assassin of Glencoe. 



CHAPTER V. 

1702-1704. 

Queen Anne. — Rochester lord-lieutenant.— Ormond 
lord-lieutenant. — War on the continent. — Sue- 
cesses under Marlborough. — Second formal breach 
of the Treaty of Limerick. — Bill to prevent the 
further growth of Popery.— Clause against the 
Dissenters.— Catholic lawyers heard against the 
bill.— Pleading of Sir Toby Butler.- Bill pni ■ I 
— Object of the Penal Laws. — To get hold of the 
property of Catholics. — Recall of the Edict of 
Nantes. — Irish on the Continent. —Cremona. 

The Princess Anne, generally called at 
tliKt time Anne of Denmark, because she 



was the wife of the Prince of Denmark, suc- 

ded William on the throne of the three 

kingdoms. She was the daughter of King 
James IT., in vindication of whose rights the 
Irish nation had fought so desperately, and 
suffered so cruelly. She was acknowledged 
as queen, avowedly as the last of her race, 
by virtue of the act establishing the succes- 
sion in the House of Hanover; and her broth- 
er was an attainted and proscribed outlaw. 
But if the Irish people had imagined that 
any Stuart, or indeed any English sovereign, 
could either be moved by gratitude for 
their loyal service, or stung by resentment 
against the dominant Whig party, which 
ruined and degraded the Stuart family, to 

the point of interposing or interceding on 
behalf of the oppressed Catholics, they would 
have been grossly deceived. In truth, they 
had no such hope or expectation. They 
were as indifferent to the Stuarts now as the 
Stuarts were to them ; and except some Irish 
officers on the continent, who stjJJ put their 
trust in a counter revolution, none of the 
Irish took the smallest interest in the new 
settlement of the throne, nor cared whether 
a descendant of the Stuarts or of the Elect less 
of Hanover should reign over England. 

King William had died just at the mo- 
ment when his able policy had succeeded 
in uniting the power of the Germanic Em- 
pire with that of England and Holland, for 
another war against Louis. Three days after 
her accession, the queen repaired in person, 

with the usual pomp and solemnity, to the 
House of Peers, and made a speech from the 
throne, expressing her fixed resolution to 
prosecute the measures concerted by the late 
king, whom she styled 'the great support, 
not only of these kingdoms, but of all Eu- 
rope." And she declared "that too much 
could not be done for the encouragement of 
our allies, and to reduce the exorbitant pow- 
er of France." In the conclusion of her 
speech she took occasion to protest " that her 
heart was truly English," which was consid- 
ered a studied affront to the memon "I' the 
late Ling, whose heart was Dutch ; but the 

allusion probably only added to her popu- 
larity. Her most influential counsellors, al 
first, were the Fails of Marlborough and Go- 
dolphin, who were eager for the inosl vigor- 
ous prosecution of the war. Lord God 



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was appointed Lord High Treasurer, and 
Marlborough Captain-General of the forces of 
England at home and abroad. War was de- 
clared against France .simultaneously on the 
same day at London, Vienna, and the Hague. 

Lord Rochester was then Lord-Lieutenant 
of Ireland. lie was of the Tory parly, much 
averse to the war, and loud in his denuncia- 
tions of it. But his protests at the council- 
hoard having been disregarded, he retired in 
high indignation to his country -seat. Shortly 
afterwards a message from the queen was dis- 
patched to him, commanding him to repair 
to his government of Ireland, whereupon he 
insolently declared "that he would not go 
if the queen gave him the whole country." 
The earl then waited on her majesty and re- 
signed his office, which was immediately 
conferred upon the Dujce of Orinond ; an 
evil omen for Ireland when one of the name 
of Butler was appointed to rule over her. 
But the duke did not come to Dublin for 
that year, as he was employed in military 
service abroad ; this island was therefore, as 
usual, placed under the government of three 
lords-justices, Lord Mount Alexander, Gen- 
eral Erie, and Mr. Knightley. 

The military operations began with the 
siege of Kaisarswart, a strong place on the 
i Rhine. The Prince of Nassau-Saarbruck 
conducted the siege, and Giukell, now "Earl 
of Athlone," commanded the covering army. 
The place capitulated on the 15th of June. 
Shortly after, the Earl of Marlborough came 
over from England to take command of the 
allied army; and entered upon that career 
of brilliant achievements which entitled him 
to rank as the first soldier of his time. Un- 
fortunately the English arms were successful 
in this campaign ; and the unfailing result 
followed — a new code of laws to still further 
beggar and torture the Irish. It is an irk- 
some and painful task to pursue the details of 
thatterrible penal code ; but the penal code is 
the history of Ireland. The Duke of Or- 
mond, after an unsuccessful attempt upon 
Cadiz, and a prosperous one upon the Span- 



ish fleet in the harbor of Vigo, 



spam, 



came over to his government in Ireland, 
where the Irish Commons, in a body, pre- 
sented to him the first of the famous bills 
"to prevent the further growth of Popery." 
The House, says Burnett, "pressed the duke 



with more than usual vehemence, to inter- 
cede so effectually that it might be returned 
back under the great seal of England." His 
grace was pleased to give his promise "thai 
lie would recommend it in the most effectual 
manner, and do every thing in his power to 
prevent the growth of Popery." 

One might indeed suppose that "Popery" 
had been already sufficiently discouraged ; 
seeing that the bishops and regular clergy 
had been banished ; that Catholics were ex- 
cluded by law from all honorable or lucra- 
tive employments; carefully disarmed and 
plundered of almost every acre of their an- 
cient inheritances. But enough had not yet 
been done to make the " Protestant interest" 
feel secure. The provisions of this bill "to 
prevent the further growth of Popery," which 
were so warmly recommended by the Duke 
of Orraond, are shortly these : the third 
clause enacts that if the son of a Papist shall 
at any time become a Protestant, his father 
may not sell or mortgage his estate, or dis- 
pose of it, or any portion of it, by will. The 
fourth clause provides that a Papist shall 
not be guardian to his own child ; and fur- 
ther, that if his child, no matter how young, 
conforms to the Protestant religion, he re- 
duces his father at once to a tenant for life ; 
the child is to be taken from its father, and 
placed under the guardianship of the nearest 
Protestant relation. The sixth clause ren- 
ders Papists incapable of purchasing any 
landed estates, or rents or profits arising out 
of land, or holding any lease of lives, or any 
other lease for any term exceeding thirty-one 
years; and even in such leases the reserved 
rent, must be at least "one-third of the im- 
proved annual value;" any Protestant who 
discovers being entitled to the interest in the 
lease. The seventh clause prohibits Papists 
from succeeding to the property of their Prot- 
estant relations. The tenth clause provides 
that the estate of a Papist who has no Prot- 
estant heir shall be gavelled; that is, parcelled 
in equal shares between all his children. 
Other clauses impose on Catholics the oath 
of abjuration and the sacramental test, to 
qualify for any office or for voting at any 
election. After several further clauses rela- 
ting to qualifications for office, which were 
not of very great importance, as no Catholic 
then aspired to any office, come the 15th, 



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lGtli, and 17th clauses, which carefully de- 
prive the citizens of Limerick and Galw.iy of 
the poor privilege promised them in the 
treaty, of living in their own towns and car- 
rying on their trade there, which, it will be 
remembered, was grievously complained of 
by the Protestant residents as a wrong and 
oppression upou them. 

When this bill was sent to England it 
somewhat embarrassed the court. Queen 
Anne was then in firm alliance with the 
great Catholic power of Austria, and the 
English Government, with its usual hypocrit- 
ical affectation of liberality, was ever pressing 
the emperor for certain indulgences to his 
Protestant subjects. Yet the bill was not 
objected to on the part of the crown ; it was, 
in fact, thought then, as it is thought now 
— and with justice — that what is done in 
Ireland is done in a corner; and that Eng- 
land might continue to play her part as 
champiou of religious liberty in the world, 
while she herself went to the uttermost ex- 
tremities of intolerant atrocity in Ireland. 
The bill was sent back approved, in order 
that it might be passed by the Iridi Parlia- 
ment; and the only modification it received 
in England was actually an additional clause 
imposing still further penalties and disabil- 
ities. This clause was levelled against the 
Protestant Dissenters, who were already a 
numerous ami wealthy body, especially in 
Ulster; and was to the effect that none in 
Ireland should be capable of any employ- 
ment, or of being in the magistracy of any 
city, who did not qualify by receiving the 
sacrament according to the rites of the 
Church of England; according to the Test 
Act, which had 'till then been applicable 
only to that kingdom, and had never yet 
been imposed upon Ireland. It has been 
alleged by the friends of the Government of 
Queen Anne, that the Administration in- 
vented this plan, hoping that it would de- 
feat the bill altogether. Bishop Burnet, in 
his History of his own Times, says, " It was 
hoped, by those who got this clause added 
to the bill, that those in Ireland who pro- 
moted it most, would now be the less fond 
of it, when it had such a weight hung to it." 
If it be indeed true that the government in- 
tended to defeat the bill by this underhand 
method, the plan did not succeed. Nothing- 



was too savage for the " Ascendency," pro- 
vided only that it was to aggrieve and op- 
press the Catholics ; and for the same great 
object, the Dissenters themselves, though they 
remonstrated at first by petition, soon meekly 
acquiesced in their own exclusion and dis- 
abilities. The law was to ruin the Catho- 
lics ; and that was enough for them. 

On the return of the bill to Ireland, and 
before its passage in Dublin, certain Catho- 
lics prayed to be heard by counsel in oppo- 
sition to it. They were Nicholas Viscount 
Kingsland, Colonel J. Brown, Colonel Burke, 
Colonel Robert Nugent, Colonel Patrick 
Allen, Captain French, and other Catholics 
of Limerick and Galway. Their petition 
was granted ; and in pursuance of that or- 
der, three advocates for the Catholics ap- 
peared at the bar of the House of Coni- 
ne ins. They were Sir Theobald Butler, 
Counsellor Malone, and Sir Stephen Rice; 
the two first in their gowns, the third with- 
out a gown, as he appeared not Jor the pe- 
titioners in general, but for himself in his 
private capacity, as one of the aggrieved 
persons. It is to be observed that these 
Catholic lawyers were themselves "pro- 
tected persons," within the meaning of the 
Articles of Limerick ; and that they were 
pleading on that day not oidy for their 
clients, but for themselves — for their own 
liberty to plead in court and to wear their 
gowns. It was a very remarkable scene ; 
and as it forms an era in the history of Irish 
penal laws, we shall insert here the main 
part of the excellent argumentative appeal 
of Sir Theobald Butler, as it is abstracted in 
several histories of the time.* The speaker 
opens, of course, by laying great stress upon 
the Articles of Limerick ; he proceeds thus: 

"That since the said articles were thus 
under the most solemn ties, and for such valu- 
able considerations granted the petitioners, by 
nothing less than the general of the army, 
the lords-justices of the kingdom, the king, 
queen, and parliament, the public faith of the 
nation was therein concerned, obliged, 
bound, and engaged, as fully and firmly as 
was possible for one people to pledge faith to 
another ; that therefore this Parliament could 
not pass such a bill as that intituled An Act 

* It will 1)0 found at full length in Plowden's Ap- 
pendix and in Curry's Historical Keview. 



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to prevent the further growth of Popery, then 
before the House, into a law, without infring- 
ing those articles, and a manifest breach of 
the public faith ; of which he hoped that 
House would be no less regardful and ten- 
der than their predecessors who made the 
act for confirming those articles had been. 

"That if he proved that the passing that 
act was such a manifest breach of those ar- 
ticles, and consequently of the public faith, 
he hoped that honorable House would be 
very tender how they passed the said bill 
before them into a law ; to the apparent pre- 
judice of the petitioners, and the hazard of 
bringing upon themselves and posterity such 
evils, reproach, and infamy as the doing the 
like had brought upon other nations and 
people. 

" Now, that the passing such a bill as that 
then before the House to prevent the further 
growth of Popery will be a breach of those 
articles, and consequently of the public faith, 
I prove (said he) by the following argument : 

"The argument theu is (said he) whatever 
shall be enacted to the prejudice or destroy- 
ing of any obligation, covenant, or contract, 
in the most solemn manner, and for the 
most valuable consideration entered into, is a 
*nanifest violation and destruction of every 
such obligation, covenant, and contract : but 
the passing that bill into a law will evidently 
and absolutely destroy the Articles of Lim- 
erick and Gal way, to all intents and pur- 
poses, and therefore the passing that bill into 
a law will be such a breach of those articles, 
and consequently of the public faith, plighted 
for performing those articles; which re- 
mained to be proved. 

"The major is proved (said he), for that 
whatever destroys or violates any contract, 
or obligation, upon the most valuable con- 
siderations, most solemuly made and entered 
into, destroys and violates the end of every 
such contract or obligation : but the end and 
design of those articles was, that all those 
therein comprised, and every of their heirs, 
should hold, possess, and enjoy all and every 
of their estates of freehold and inheritance, 
and all the rights, titles, and interests, privi- 
leges, and immunities, which they and every 
of them held, enjoyed, or were rightfully in- 
tituled to, in the reign of Kiug Charles the 
Second ; or at any time mucc, by the laws 



and statutes that were in force in the said 
reign in this realm : but that the design of 
this bill was to take away every such right, 
title, interest, <&c, from every father being a 
Papist, and to make the Popish father, who, 
by the articles and laws aforesaid, had an 
undoubted right either to sell or otherwise 
at pleasure to dispos6 of his estate, at any 
time of his life, as he thought fit, only ten- 
ant for life: and consequently disabled from 
selling, or otherwise disposing thereof, after 
his son or other heir should become Protes- 
tant, though otherwise never so disobedient, 
profligate, or extravagant : ergo, this act 
tends to the destroying the end for which 
those articles were made, and consequently 
the breaking of the public faith, plighted 
for their performance. 

"The minor is proved by the 3d, 4th, 5th, 
6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, loth, 16th, and 17th 
clauses of the, said bill, all which (said he) 
I shall consider and speak to, in the order 
as they are placed in the bill. 

"By the first of these clauses (which is 
the third of the bill), I that am the Popish 
father, without committing any crime against 
the state, or the laws of the land (by which 
only I ought to be governed), or any other 
fault ; but merely for being of the religion 
of my forefathers, and that which, till of 
late years, was the ancient religion of these 
kingdoms, contrary to the express words of 
the second Article of Limerick, and the 
public faith, plighted as aforesaid for their 
performance, am deprived of my inheritance, 
freehold, &c, and of all other advantages 
which by those articles and the laws of the 
land I am entitled to enjoy, equally with 
every other of my fellow-subjects, whether 
Protestant or Popish. And though such my 
estate be even the purchase of my own hard 
labor and industry, yet I shall not (though 
my occasions be never so pressing) have 
liberty (after my eldest son or other heir 
becomes a Protestant) to sell, mortgage, or 
otherwise dispose of, or charge it for pay- 
ment of my debts, or have leave out of my 
own estate to order portions for my other 
children ; or leave a legacy, though never 
so small, to my poor father or mother, or 
other poor relations; but during my own 
life my estate shall be given to my son or 
other heir being a Protestant, though uevt 



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undutiful, proHigatc, extravagant, or other- 
wise undeserving ; and I that am the pur- 
c.hasing father, shall become tenant for life 
only to my own purchase, inheritance and 
freehold, which I purchased with my own 
money ; and such my son or other heir, by 
this act, shall be at liberty to sell or other- 
wise at pleasure to dispose of my estate, the 
sweat of my brows, before my face; and I 
that am the purchaser, shall not have liberty 
to raise one farthing upon the estate of my 
own purchase, either to pay my debts, or 
portion my daughters (if any I have), or 
make provisions for my other male children, 
though uever so deserving and dutiful : but 
my estate, and the issues and profits of it, 
shall, before my face, be at the disposal of 
another, who cannot possibly know how 
to distinguish between the dutiful and 
undutiful, deserving and undeserving. Is 
not this, gentlemen (said he), a hard case ? 
I beseech you, gentlemen, to consider, 
whether you would not think it so, if the 
scale was changed, and the case your own, 
as it is like to be ours, if this bill pass into 
a law. 

" It is natural for the father to love the 
child ; but we all know (says he) that 
children are but too apt and subject, with- 
out any such liberty as that bill gives, to 
slight and neglect their duty to their parents; 
and surely such an act as this will not be an 
instrument of restraint, but rather encourage 
them more to it. 

" It is but too common with the son who 
has a prospect of an estate, when once he 
arrives at the age of one-and-tweirty, to 
think the old father too long in the way 
between him and it; and how much more 
will he be subject to it, when by this act he 
shall have liberty, before he comes to that 
age, to compel and force my estate from 
me, without asking my leave, or being liable 
l" account with me for it, or out of his share 
thereof, to a moiety of the debts, portions, 
or other incumbrances, with which the estate 
might have been charged, before the passing 
this act. 

'■ Is not this against the laws of God and 
man ; against the rules of reason and justice, 
by which all men ought to be governed ? Is 
not this the only way in the world to 
make children become undutiful, and to 



bring the gray head of the parent to the 
grave with grief and tears? 

" It would be hard from any mau ; but 
from a son, a child, the fruit of my body. IV SJ[ r 
whom I have nursed in my bosom and | <$ 
tendered more dearly than my own life, to 
become my plunderer, to rob me of my estate, 
to cut my throat, and to take away my bread, 
is much more grievous than from any other ; 
and enough to make the most flinty of hearts 
to bleed to think on't. And yet this will be 
the case if this bill pass into a law ; which I 
hope this honorable assembly will not think 
of when they shall more seriously consider, 
and have weighed these matters. 

"For God's sake, gentlemen, will you 
consider whether this is according to the 
golden rule, to do as you would be done 
unto? And if not, surely you will not, 
nay you cannot, without being liable to be 
charged with the most manifest injustice 
imaginable, take from us our birthrights, 
and invest them in others before our faces. 

" By the 4th clause of the bill, the popish 
father is under the penalty of 500/. debarred 
from being guardian to, or having the tuition 
or custody of his own child or children : 
but if the child pretends to be a Protestant, 
though never so young or incapable of 
judging of the principles of religion, it shall 
be taken from its own father, and put into 
the hands or care of a Protestant relation, if 
any there be qualified as this act directs, for 
tuition, though never so great an enemy to 
the popish parent; and for want of relations 
so qualified, into the hands and tuition of 
such Protestant stranger as the couit of 
chancery shall think fit to appoint; who 
perhaps may likewise be my enemy, and out 
of prejudice to me who am the popish fathel, 
shall infuse into my child not only such ' . .^ 
principles of religion as are wholly incon- 
sistent with my liking, but also against the 
dutv which, by the laws of God and nature, 
is due from eveiy child to its parents: and 
it shall not be in my power to remedy, or 
question him for it; and yet I shall be 
obliged to pay for such education, how perni- 
cious soever. .Nnv, if a legacy or estate fad 
to any of my children, being minors, I that 

am the popish father shall not have the 
liberty to take care of it, but it shall be put 
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ACT TO rREVENT THE GROWTH OF TOPERY 



Rce it confounded before my face, it shall 
not be in my power to help it. Is not this 
a hard case, gentlemen? I am sure you 
cannot but allow it to be a very hard case. 

" The 5th clause provides that no Protes- 
tant or Protestants, having any estate, real 
or personal, within this kingdom, shall at 
any time after the 24th of March, 1703, 
intermarry with any Papist, either in or out 
of this kingdom, under the penalties in an 
act made in the 9th of King William, inti- 
tuled, An Act to prevent Protestants inter- 
marrying with rapists; which penalties, see 
in the 5th clause of the act itself. 

•'Surely, gentlemen, this is such a law as 
was never heard of before, and against the 
law of right and the law of nations ; and 
therefore a law which is not in the power of 
mankind to make without breaking through 
the laws which our wise ancestors prudently 
provided for the security of posterity, and 
which you cannot infringe without hazard- 
ing the undermining the whole legislature, 
and encroaching upon the privileges of your 
neighboring nations, which it is not reason- 
able to believe they will allow. 

"It has indeed been known, that there 
hath been laws made in England that have 
l^ecn binding in Ireland : but surely it never 
was kuown that any law made in Ireland 
could affect England or any other country. 
But by this act, a person committing matri- 
mony (an ordinance of the Almighty) in 
England or any other part beyond the seas 
(where it is lawful both by the laws of God 
and man so to do), if ever they come to 
live in Ireland, and have an inheritance or 
title to any interest to the value of 500/., 
they shall be punished for a fact consonant 
with the laws of the land where it was com- 
mitted. But, gentlemen, by your favor, this 
is what, with submission, is not in your 
power to do : for no law that either now 
is, or that hereafter shall be in force in this 
kingdom, shall be able to take cognizance 
of any fact committed in another nation; 
nor can anyone nation make laws for any 
other nation, but what is subordinate to it, 
as Ireland is to England ; but no other nation 
is subordinate to Ireland; and therefore any 
laws made in Ireland, cannot, punish me for 
,uiv fact committed in any other nation, but 
more especially England, to whom Irelain 



is subordinate: and the reason is, every free 
nation, such as all our neighboring nations 
are, by the great law of nature, and th ■ 
universal privileges of all nations, have a't 
undoubted right to make, and be ruled and 
governed by the laws of their own making : 
for that to submit to any other, would be to 
give away their own birthright and native 
freedom, and become subordinate to their 
neighbors, as we of this kingdom, since the 
making of Poyning's Act, have been and are 
to England. A right which England would 
never so much as endure to hear of, much 
less submit to. 

"We see how careful our forefathers have 
been to provide that no man should be pun- 
ished in one country (even of the same 
nation) for crimes committed in another 
country; and surely it would be highly 
unreasonable, and contrary to the laws of 
all nations in the whole world, to punish me 
in this kingdom for a fact committed in 
England, or any other nation, which was 
not against, but consistent with the laws of 
the nation where it was committed. I am 
sure there is not any law in any other na- 
tion of the world that would do it. 

•' The 6th clause of this bill is likewise a 
manifest breach of the second of Limerick 
Articles, for by that article all persons com- 
prised under those articles, were to enjov 
and have the full benefit of all the rights, 
titles, privileges, and immunities whatsoever, 
which they enjoyed, or by the laws of the 
land then in force, were entitled to enjoy, 
in the reign of King Charles II. And by 
the laws then in force, all the Papists of 
Ireland had the same liberty that any of 
their fellow-subjects had to purchase any 
manors, lands, tenements, hereditaments, 
leases of lives, or for years, rents, or any other 
thing of profit whatsoever : but by this 
clause of this bill, every Papist or person pro- 
fessing the popish religion, after the 24th of 
March, 1703, is made incapable of purchasing 
any manors, lands, tenements, hereditaments, 
or any rents, or profits out of the same ; or 
holding any lease of lives, or any other lease 
whatsoever, for any term exceeding thirty- 
one years; wherein a rent, not less than 
two-thirds of the improved yearly value, shall 
be reserved, and made payable, during the 
whole term : and therefore this clause ol 




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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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this bill, if made into a law, \vi 
it'est breach of those articles. 

" The 7th clause is yet of much more 
general consequence, and not only a like 
breach of those articles, but also a manifest 
robbing of all the Roman Catholics of the 
kingdom of their birthright : for by those 
articles all those therein comprised were 
(said he) pardoned all misdemeanors what- 
soever, of which they had in any manner of 
way been guilty ; and restored to all the 
rights, liberties, privileges, and immunities 
whatever, which, by the laws of the land, 
and customs, constitutions and native birth- 
right, they, any, and every of them, were, 
equally with every other of their fellow- 
subjeets intituled unto. And by the laws 
of nature and nations, as well as by the laws 
of the land, every native of any country 
has an undoubted right and just title to all 
the privileges and advantages which such 
their native country affords : and surely no 
man but will allow, that by such a native 
right every one born in any country hath 
an undoubted right to the inheritance of his 
father, or any other to whom he or they 
may be heir at law ; but if this bill pass into 
a law, every native of this kingdom that is 
and shall remain a Papist is, ipso facto, dur- 
ing life, or his or their continuing a Papist, 
deprived of such inheritance, devise, gift, 
remainder, or trust of any lands, teuements, 
or hereditaments, of which any Protestant 
now is, or hereafter shall be seized in fee- 
simple-absolute, or fee-tail, which by the 
death of such Protestant, or his wife, ought to 
descend immediately to his son or sons, or 
other issue in tail, being such Papists, and 
eighteen years of age ; or, if under that age, 
within six months after coming to that age, 
shall not conform to the Church of Ireland, 
as by law established ; and every such de- 
vise, gift, remainder, or trust which, accord- 
ing to the laws of the land, and such native 
right, ought to descend to such Papist, shall, 
during the life of such Papist (unless he for- 
sake his religion), descend to the nearest 
l elation that is a Protestant, and his heirs 
being and continuing Protestants, as though 
the said popish heir and all other popisl 
relations were dead ; without being aeeount- 
able for the same : w bicb is nothing less than 
robbing such popish heif of such his birth- 



ight ; for no other reason, but his being and 
continuing of that religion, which by the first 
of Limerick Articles, the Roman Catholics of 
this kingdom were to enjoy, as they did in 
the reign of King Charles II., and then there 
was no law in force that deprived any Roman 
Catholic of this kingdom of any such their 
native birthright, or any other thing which, 
by the laws of the land then in force, any 
other fellow-subjects were intituled unto. 

"The 8th clause of this bill is to erect 
in this kingdom a law of ffav, l-kind, a law in 
itself so monstrous and strange, that I dare 
say this is the first time it was ever heard of 
in the world ; a law so pernicious and 
destructive to the well-being of families and 
societies, that in an ago or two there will 
hardly be any remembrance of any of the 
ancient Roman Catholic families known in 
the kingdom ; a law which, therefore, I may 
again venture to say, was never before known 
or heard of in the universe. 

"There is, indeed, in Kent, * custom call- 
ed the custom of gavel-kind ; but I never 
heard of any law for it till now ; and Unit 
custom is far different from what by this 
bill is intended to be made a law ; for there, 
and by that custom, the father or other per- 
son, dying possessed of any estate of his own 
acquisition, or not entailed (let him be of 
what persuasion he will), may by will be- 
queath it at pleasure : or if he dies without 
will, the estate shall not be divided, if there 
be any male heir to inherit it ; but for want 
of male heir, then it shall descend in gavel- 
kind among the daughters and not otherwise. 
But by this act, for want of a Protestant heir, 
enrolled as such within three months after 
the death of such l'apist, to be divided, share 
and share alike, among all his sons; for want 
of sons, among his daughters ; for want of 
such, among the collateral kindred of his 
father ; and for want of such, among those 
of his mother ; and this is to take place of 
any grant, settlement, itc, other than sale, 
for valuable consideration of money, really, 
bona fide, paid. And shall I not call this a 
strange law* Surely it is a strange law, 
which, contrary to the laws of all nations, 
thus confounds all settlements, how ancient 
soever, or otherwise warrantable by all the 
laws heretofore in force in this or any other 
kingdom. 



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ACT TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OF POPERY. 



" The 9th clause of this act is another 
manifest breach of the Articles of Limerick ; 
for by the 9th of those articles, no oath is to 
be administered to, nor imposed upon such 
Roman Catholics as should submit to the 
Government, but the oath of allegiance 
appointed by an act of parliament made in 
England in the first year of the reign of their 
late majesties King William and Queen 
Mary (which is the same with the first of 
those appoiuted by the 10th clause of this 
act) : but by this clause, none shall have 
the benefit of this act, that shall not con- 
form to the Church of Ireland, subscribe the 
declaration, and take and subscribe the oath 
of abjuration, appointed by the 9th clause of 
this act ; and therefore this act is a manifest 
breach of those articles, <fec, and a force 
upon all the Roman Catholics therein com- 
prised, either to abjure their religion or part 
with their birthrights; which, by those ar- 
ticles, they were, and are as fully and as 
rightfully intituled unto as any other sub- 
jects whatever, 

"The 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th 
clauses of this bill (said he) relate to offices 
and employments which the Papists of Ire- 
land cannot hope for enjoyment of, other- 
wise than by grace and favor extraordinary : 
and therefore, do not so much affect them, 
as the Protestant Dissenters who (if this 
bill pass into a law) are equally with the 
Papists deprived of bearing any office, civil 
or military, under the Government, to which, 
by right of birth and the laws of the land, 
they are as indisputably intituled, as any 
other their Protestant brethren ; and if 
what the Irish did in the late disorders of 
this kingdom made them rebels (which the 
presence of a king they had before been 
obliged to own and swear obedience to gave 
them a reasonable color of concluding it did 
not), yet surely the Dissenters did not do 
Hny thing to make them so ; or to deserve 
ivorse at the hands of the Government than 
any other Protestants ; but, ou the con- 
trary, it is more than probable that if they 
(I mean the Dissenters) had not put a 
st<>p to the career of the Irish army at 
Enniskillen and Londonderry, the settle- 
ment of [he Government, both in England 
and Sen! land, might not have proved so easy 
as it thereby did ; for if that army had got 



to Scotland (as there was nothing at th ii 
time to have hindered them, but the brave i y 
of those people, who were mostly Dissenters, 
and chargeable with no other crimes since; 
unless their close adhering to, and early 
appearing for the then Government, and the 
many faithful services they did their country, 
were crimes), I say (said he) if they had got 
to Scotland, when they had boats, barks, and 
all things else ready for their transportation, 
aud a great many friends there in arms wait- 
ing only their coming to join them, it is 
easy to think what the consequence would 
have been to both these kingdoms : and these 
Dissenters then were thought fit for com- 
mand, both civil and military, and were no 
less instrumental in contributing to the re- 
ducing the kingdom than any other Protes- 
tants : and to pass a bill now to deprive 
them of their birthrights (for those their 
good services), would surely be a most un- 
kind return,' and the worst reward ever 
granted to a people so deserving. What- 
ever the Papists may be supposed to have 
deserved, the Dissenters certainly stand as 
clean in the face of the present Government 
as any other people whatsoever : and if this 
is all the return they are like to get, it will 
be but a slender encouragement, if ever oc- 
casion should require, for others to pursue 
their example. 

"By the 15th, 16th, and 17th clauses ot 
this bill, all Papists, after the 24th of March, 
1703, are prohibited from purchasing any 
houses or tenements, or coming to dwell in 
Limerick or Gahvay, or the suburbs of either, 
and even such as were under the articles, 
and by virtue thereof have ever since lived 
there, from staying there; without giving 
such security as neither those articles, nor 
any law heretofore in force, do require; ex- 
cept seamen, fishermen, and day-laborers, 
who pay not above forty shillings a year 
rent; and from voting for the election of 
members of Parliament, unless they take the 
oath of abjuration ; which, to oblige them 
to, is contrary to the 9th of Limerick Arti- 
cles ; which, as aforesaid, says the oath of 
allegiance, and no other, shall be imposed 
upon them ; and, unless they abjure their 
religion, takes away their advowsons and 
right of presentation, cortrary to the privi- 
ege of right, the laws of nations, and the 



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great charter of Magna Charta which pro- 
vides that no 111:111 shall In' disseized of his 
birthright, without committing some crime 
against the known laws of the land in which 
lie is born or inhabits. And if there was 
no law in force, in the reign of King Charles 
the Second, against these things (as there 
certainly was not), and if the Roman Cath 
olicsof this kingdom have not since forfeited 
their right to the laws that then were in 
force (as for certain they have not) ; then 
with humble aubmiBsion, all the aforesaid 
clauses and matters contained in this bill, 
intituled, An Art to prevent the further growth 
of Popery, are directly against the plain 
words and true intent and meaning of the 
said articles, and a violation of the public 
faith and the laws made for their perform- 
ance ; and what I therefore hope (said he) 
this honorable house will consider accord- 
ingly." 

It is but just to mention the arguments by 
which this earnest reasoning was met. in the 
Irish Souse of Commons. It was objected, 
then, that the counsel for the Catholics had 
not demonstrated bow and when (since the 
making of the Articles of Limerick) the Pa- 
pists of Ireland had addressed the queen or 
Government, when all other subjects wen- so 
doing; or had otherwise declared their 
fidelity and obedience to the queen. Fur- 
ther it was urged, by way of reply, "That. 
any right which the l'apists pretended to be 
taken from them by the bill was in their own 
power to remedy, by conforming, as in pru- 
dence they ought to do; mid that they 
ought not to blame any but themselves." 
It was still further argued that the passing 
of this bill would not be a breach of the 
Treaty of Limerick, because the persons 
therein comprised were only to be put into 
the same state they were in the reign of 
Charles the Second; and because in that 
reign there was no law in force which hin- 
dered the passing of any other law thought 

needful for the future safely of the Govern- 
ment : lastly, that the House was of opinion 
that the passing of this bill was needful at 
present for the security of the kingdom; 
and that there was not. anv thing in the Ar 

tides of Limerick to prohibit them from so 
doing. It is not needful to comment on the 
excessive insolence of the subterfuge. 




The same counsel were heard before the 
Lords: and here it was admitted, on the 
part of the petitioners, that the legislative 
power cannot be Confined from altering and 
making such laws as shall be thought ne- 
cessary, for securing the quiet and safety of 
the ( io\ eminent ; that in time of war or dan- 
ger, or when there shall bo just reason to sus- 
pect anv ill designs to disturb thepublic peace, 
no articles or previous obligations shall tie 
up the hands of the legislators from provid- 
ing for its safety, or bind the Government 
from disarming and securing any who may 
be reasonably suspected of favoring or cor- 
respondiiig with its enemies, or to be other- 
wise guilty of ill practices: "Or indeed to 
enact, any other law," said Sir Stephen Rice, 
" thai may be absolutely needful for the safety 
and advantage of the public; such a law 
cannot be a breach cither of these, or any 
other like articles. But then such laws ought 
to be in general, and should not single out, 
or affect, any one particular partjsr party of 
the people, who gave no provocation to anv 
such law, and whose conduct stood hitherto 
unimpeached, ever since the ratification of 
the aforesaid Articles of Limerick. To 
make any law that, shall single any particu- 
lar pari 1 f the people out from the rest, and 
lake from them wdiat by right of birth, and all 
the preceding laws of the land, had been con- 
firmed to and entailed upon them, will be tin 
apparent violation of the original institution 
of all light, and an ill precedent to any that 
hereafter might dislike either the present or 
anv othi-r settlement, which should be in 
their power to alter ; the. consequence of 
which is hard to imagine." 

The Lord Chancellor having then sum- 
med up all that was offered at the bar, 
the House of Lords proceeded to pass the 
bill without delay. And it is really remarka- 
ble that in neither House did one single peer 
or commoner offer a word of remonstrance 
against ils passage, A few days after, on 
the tth "i March, it. received the royal assent. 

The penal Code mighl now be considered 
tolerably complete; and the nine-tenths of 
the population of Ireland was thus effectually 
brought down under the feet of the othet 
one tenth; so absolutely subjugated, indeed, 

t they coul. 1 not possibly be depressed 



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been actually bought 



and sold as slaves. Forbidden, to teach or 
IaM: to be taught, whether at homo or abroad, 
deprived of necessary anus for self-defence, 
\i 1 ^- or even for the chase; disabled from being 
Yy \ so much as game-keepers, lest any of them 

should learn the use of firearms; and pro- 
vision being mad.' for gradually impoverish- 
ing the Catholic families who still owned 
any thing, and preventing the industrious 

from making themselves independent by their 
labor — it would be hard to point out anv 
people of ancient or modern times \\h<> 
groaned under a more ingenious, torturing, 
and humiliating oppression. Yet one pecu- 
liarity is to be remarked in the administration 
of these laws : — they were so applied, for gen- 
erations, as to allow a bare toleration to Cath- 
olic worship, provided that worship were prac- 
tised in mean and obscure places, provided 
there were no clergy in the kingdom but 
simple secular priests ; who were also com- 
pelled to register their names ami the parishes 
" of which they pretended to be popish 
priests" — the penalty for saying mass out of 
those registered parishes being transportation, 
ami in case of return, death. On these terms, 
then, it was practically permitted to Catholics 
to attend at the service of their religion, al- 
though this was contrary to an express law, 
namely, to the " Act of Uniformity," which 
required all persons not having lawful excuse 
to attend on the services of the Established 
Church. But throughout all this reign of 
Anne, and the two succeeding reigns, there 
was no such relaxation as this allowed in any 
matter relating to property, privilege, or 
trade : in all these matters the code was exe- 
cuted with the most rigorous severity. So 
that it is plain the object of tin' Ascen- 
'£ ' dency was nut so mil. h to convert Catholics 

to Protestantism, as to convert the goods of 
Catholics to Protestant use. This is the 
■nain difference between the Catholic pei e 
;utions on the continent at that period and 
the Protestant persecutions in Ireland : anil 
it fully justifies the reflection of a late writer 
— "It maybe a circumstance in favor of lie- 
Protestant code (or it may not), that whereas 
Catholics have really persecuted for religion, 
■enlightened' I'rotestaiits only made a pretext 
of religion ; taking no thought, what became 
of Catholic souls, it' only thev could get pos- 
session of Catholic lands and goods. Also 




we may remark, that Catholic governments 
in their persecutions always really desired 
the conversion of misbelievers (albeit their 
methods were rough); but. in Ireland, if the 
people had universally turned Catholic, it 
would have defeated the whole scheme." 

The recall of the Edict of Nantes, which 
ediet had secured toleration for Protestant- 
ism in Frame, is bitterly dwelt, upon by 

English writers as the heaviest reproach 
which weighs on the memory of Kiug Louis 
the Fourteenth. The recall of the edict had 
taken place in 1085, only a few years before 
the: passage of this Irish " Act to prevent the 
further growth of Popery." The differences 
between the two transactions are mainly these 
two : first, that the French Protestants had 
not been guaranteed their civil and religious 
rights by any treaty, as the Irish Catholics, 
thoughtthcyheld theirs by the Treaty of Lim- 
erick ; second, that the penalties denounced 
against French Protestants by the recalling 
edict bore entirely upon their religious service 
itself, and were truly intended to induce and 
force the Iluguenots to become Catholics ; 
there being no confiscations except in cases 
of relapse, and in eases of quitting the king- 
dom ; but there was nothing of all the com- 
plicated machinery above described, for beg- 
garing one portion of the population, and giv- 
ing it^ spoils to the other part. We may 
add, that the penalties and disabilities in 
France lasted a miieh shorter time than in 
Ireland ; and that French Protestants were 
restored to perfect civil and religious equality 
with their countrymen in every respect forty 
years before the "Catholic Relief Act" pur- 
ported to emancipate the Irish Catholics, who 
are not, indeed, emancipated yet. Mr.Burke, 
in his excellent tract on the penal laws, com- 
paring the recall of the Nantes Edict with 
our Irish system, says with great force — 

''This act of injustice, which let loose on 
that monarch such a torrent of invective and 
reproach, and which threw so dark a cloud 
over all the splendor of a most illustrious 
reign, falls far short of the case in Ire! an 

The privileges which the Protestants of that 

kingdom enjoyed antecedent to this revoca- 
tion, were far greater than tin- Roman Catho- 

ics of Ireland ever aspired to under a con- 
trary establishment. The number of their 

ufferers, if considered absolutely, is not the 



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hall' of ours ; if considered relatively to the 
body of each community, it is not perhaps 
a tweutieth part ; aud then the penalties 
and incapacities which grew from that rev- 
ocation are not so grievous in their nature, 
uor so certain in their execution, nor so ruin- 
ous by a great deal to the civil prosperity 
of the state, as those which were established 
for a perpetual law in our unhappy country." 

Readers will turn with pleasure from the 
gloomy and painful scene presented by Ire- 
land in that dismal time, to the other half 
of Ireland, the choicest of the whole nation ; 
which was to be found in all the camps and 
fields of Europe, wherever gallant feats of 
arms were to be done. The gallaut Justin 
MacCarihy, Lord Mountcashel, had long been 
dead, haviug falleu on the field of Staffardo 
under Marshal Catinat, in 1790; where a 
brigade of Irish troops had been serving in 
the French army before the surrender of 
Limerick. The arrival of Sarsfield, with so 
many distinguished officers and veteran 
troops, gave occasion to the formation of the, 
" New Irish Brigade ;" and we have seeu 
with how much distinction that corps had 
fought against England on so many fields of 
the Netherlands. In the new war which 
followed the accession of Queen Anne, bodies 
of the Irish forces served in each of the 
great French armies. There were four regi- 
ments of cavalry, Galway's, Kilraallock's, 
Sheldon's, and Clare's — the last commanded 
by O'Brien, Lord Clare, constantly employed 
in these wars — and at least seven regiments 
of infantry. All these corps were kept more 
than full by new arrivals of exiles and emi- 
grants. 

It will afford a relief from the irksome tale 
of oppression at home, to tell how some of 
these exiles acquitted themselves when they 
had the good luck to meet on some foreign 
field either Englishmen or the allies of 
England. About the time when the law- 
yers of the " Ascendeucy" were elaborating 
in Dublin their bill for the plunder of Catho- 
lic widows and orphans, it happened that 
there were two regiments, Dillon's (one of 
Mountcashel's old brigade) and Burke's, 
called the Athlone regiment, which formed 
part of the garrison of Cremona on the bank 
of the l'o. The Freuoh commander was the 



whole army into Cremona, after an unsuc- 
cessful affair with Prince Eugene at Chiari. 
Cremona was then, as it is now, a very strong 
fortified town ; and the duke intended to 
rest his forces there for a time, as it was the 
depth of winter. The enterprising Prince 
Eugene planned a surprise : he had procured 
for himself some traitorous intelligence in 
the town, and some of his grenadiers had 
already been introduced by a clever strata- 
gem. Large bodies of troops had approached 
close to the town by various routes ; aud all 
was ready for the grand operation on the 
night of the 2d of February, 1702. Villeroy 
and his subordinates were of course much to 
blame for having suffered all the prepara- 
tions for so grand a military operation to be 
brought to perfection up to the very moment 
of execution. The marshal was peacefully 
sleeping : he was awaked by volleys of 
musketry. lie dressed and mounted in 
great haste; and the first thing he met in 
the streets was a squadron of kriperial cav- 
alry, who made him prisoner, his captor 
being an Austrian officer named MacDonnell. 
Prince Eugene, with Count Stahremberg, 
Commerci, and seven thousand men, were 
already in the heart of the town, and occu- 
pying the great square. It was four o'clock 
on a February morning, when all this had 
been accomplished ; and Prince Eugene 
thought the place already won, when the 
French troops only began to turn out of 
their beds, and dress. Alarm was soon given. 
The regiment des Vaisseaux and the two 
Irish regiments are the only corps mentioned 
by M. de Voltaire as having distinguished 
themselves in turning the fortune of that 
terrible morning ; and as Voltaire is not 
usually favorable, nor even just to the Irish, 
it is well to transcribe first his narrative of 
the affair. "The Chevalier d'Entragues 
was to hold a review that day in the town 
of the regimeut des Vaisseaux, of which he 
was colonel ; and already the soldiers were 
assembling at four o'clock at one extremity 
of the town just as Prince Eugene was en- 
tering by the other. D'Entragues begins to 
run through the streets with the soldiers; 
resists such Germans as he encounters, and 
gives time to the rest of the garrison to 
' urry up. Officers and soldiers, pell-mell, 



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Duke de Villeroy, who had just brought his I some half-armed, others almost naked, witl 



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out direction, without order, fill the streets 
and public places. They fight in confusion, 
intrench themselves from street to street, from 
place to place. Two Irish regiments, who 
made part of the garrison, arrest the advance 
of the Imperialists. Never town wassurprised 
with more skill, nor defended with so much 
valor. The- garrison consisted of about five 
thousand men : Prince Eugene had not yet 
brought in more than four thousand. A 
large detachment of his army was to arrive 
by the Po bridge : the measures were well 
taken ; but another chance deranged all. 
This bridge over thel'o, insufficiently guarded 
by about a hundred French soldiers, was to 
have been seized by a body of German cui- 
rassiers, who, at the moment Prince Eugene 
was entering the town, were commanded to 
go and take possession of it. For this pur- 
pose it was necessary that having first en- 
tered by the southern gate, they should in- 
Btantly go outside of the city in a northern 
direction by the Po gate, and then hasten to 
the bridge. But in going thither the guide 
who I'd them was killed by a musket-ball 
fired from a window. The cuirassiers take 
one street for another. In this short inter- 
val, the Irish spring forward to the gate of the 
Po : they fight and repulse the cuirassiers. 
The Marquis de Praslin profits by the mo- 
ment to cut down the bridge. The succor 
which the enemy counted on did not arrive, 
and the town was saved."* But the fighting 
was by no means over with the repulse of 
Count Merci's reinforcements : a furious com- 
bat raged all the morning in the streets ; 
and Mahony and Burke had still much to 
do. At last the whole Imperialist force 
was finally repulsed ; and the soldiers then 
got time to put on their jackets. Colonel 
Burke lost of his regiment seven officers 
and fortv-two soldiers killed, and nine offi- 
cers and fifty soldiers wounded. Dillon's 
regiment, commanded that day by Major 
Mahony, lost one officer and forty-nine 
soldiers killed, and twelve officers and sev- 
enty-nine soldiers wounded. 

* Some of the Irish accounts of this achievement 
arc too plowing, perhaps, ns is natural. Even ac- 
cording t<> Voltaire's narration, the Irish soldiers 
really did every thing which he says was done at all; 
beat ppinoe Eugene's troops in the city itself, and 
saved tin; 1'" Gate from the other detuoument under 
the Count Meroi. 



King Louis sent formal thanks to the 
two Irish regimeuts, and raised their pay 
from that day. 

In the campaigns of 1703 the Irish had 
at least their full share of employment and 
of honor. Under Vendome, they made their 
mark in Italy, on the fields of Vittoria, Luz- 
zara, Cassano, and Calcinato. On the Rhine, 
they were still more distinguished ; especially 
at Freidlingen and Spires, in which latter 
battle a splendid charge of Nugent's horse 
saved the fortune of the day. After this 
year the military fortune of France declined ; . 
but, whether in victory or defeat, the Brigade 
was still fighting by their side ; nor is there 
any record of an Irish regiment having be- 
haved badly on any field. 

At the battle of Hochstct or Blenheim, 
in 1704, Marshal Tallard was defeated 
and taken prisoner by Marlborough and 
Eugene. The French and Bavarians lost 
10,000 killed, 13,000 prisoners, and 90 
pieces of cannon. Yet amid this mon- 
strous disaster, Clare's dragoons were vie-, 
torious over a portion of Eugene's famous 
cavalry, and took two standards. And in 
the battle of Ramillies, in 1706, where 
Villeroy was utterly routed, Clare's dra- 
goons attempted to cover the wreck of the 
retreating French, broke through an Eng- 
lish regiment, and followed them into the 
thronsrins van of the Allies. Mr. Fonnan 
states that they were generously assisted 
out of this predicament by an Italian regi- 
ment, and succeeded in carrying off the 
English colors they had taken. 

At the sad days of Oudenarde and M.d- 
plaquet, some of them were also present ; but 
to the victories which brightened this lime, 
so dark to France, the Brigade contributed 
materially. At the battle of Almanza 
(13th March, 1707,) several Irish regimeuts 
served under Berwick. In the early part 
of the day the Portuguese and Spanish 
auxiliaries of England were broken, but the 
English and Dutch fought successfully for 
a long time; nor was it till repeatedly 
charged by the elite of Berwick's army, 
including the Irish, that they were forced 
to retreat. 3,000 killed, 10,000 prison- 
ers, and 120 standards, attested the mag- 
nitude of the victory. It put King Philip 
on the throne of Spain. In the siege 



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of Barcelona, Dillon's regiment fought with 
great effect. 

In their ranks was a boy of twelve years 
old ; he was the sou of a Galway gentle- 
man, Mr. Lally orO'Lally.of Tulloch na Daly, 
and his uncle had sat in James's Parliament of 
1689. This boy, so early trained, was after- 
wards the famous Count Lally de Tollendal, 
whose services in every part of the globe 
make his execution a stain upon thehonoras 
well as upon the justice of Louis XVI. 
When Villars swept off the whole of Albe- 
marle's battalions at Denain, in 1712, the 
Irish were iu his van. 

The treaty of Utrecht and the dismissal 
of Marlborough put an end to the war in 
Flanders, but still many of the Irish contin- 
ued to serve in Italy and Germany, and thus 
fought at Parma, Guastalla, and Philipsburg. 

It was not alone in the French service that 
our military exiles won renown. TheO'Don- 
nells, O'Neills, and O'Reillys, with the relics 
of their Ulster clans, preferred to fight under 
tin' Spanish flag : and in the war of the 
"Spanish Succession," Spain had five Irish 
regiments in her army ; whose commanders 
were O'Reillys, O'Gai as, Lacys, Wogans, and 
Lawlesses. For several generations a suc- 
cession of Irish soldiers of rank and distinc- 
tion were always to be found under the 
Spanish standard; and in that kingdom 
those who had been chiefs in their own 
land were always recognized as "gran- 
dees," the equals of the proudest nobles of 
Castile. Hence the many noble families of 
Irish race and name still to be found in 
Spain at this day. The Peninsular War, in 
the beginning of the present century, found 
a Blake genei alissimo of the Spanish armies ; 
while an O'Neill commanded the troops of 
Aragon ; and O'Donnells and O'Reillvs held 
high grades as general officers. All these 
true Irishmen were lost to their own coun- 
try, and were forced to shed their blood for 
the stranger, while their kindred at home so 
much needed their counsels and their swords : 
but it was the settled policy of England, and 
the English colony, now and for long after, 
to make it impossible for men of spirit and 
ambilion to live in Ireland, so that the re- 
maining masses of abject people might be 
the more helpless iu the hands of their 
enemies. 



But it is lime to turn away from those 
stirring scenes of glory on the continent, at 
least for the present, and look back upon ihe 
sombre picture presented by one unvarying 
record of misery aud oppression at home. 



CHAPTER VI. 

1704— 1714. 

Enforcement of tlie Penal Lnws— Making informer* 
honorable — Pembroke lord-lieutenant — Union of 
England ami Scotland— Menus l>y which it was 
carried — Irish House of Lords in favor of an 
Union — Laws against meeting at Holy Wells — 
Catholics excluded from Juries— Wharton lord- 
lieutenant — Second Act to prevent growth of 
Popery — Rewurds for " discoverers'' — Jonathan 
Swift — Nature of his Irish Patriotism — Papists 
the " common enemy." The Dissenters — Colony 
of the Palatines — Disasters of the French, and 
Peace of Utrecht — The " Pretender." 

During all the rest of the reign of Anne, 
the law for preventing the growth of Popery 
was as rigorously executed aH over the 
island, as it was possible for such laws to be : 
and there was the keen personal interest 
of the Protestant inhabitants of every town 
and district, always excited and kept on the 
stretch to discover and inform upon such 
unfortunate Catholics as had contrived to 
remain in possession of some of those estates, 
leaseholds, or other interests which were 
now by law capable of being held by Prot- 
estants alone. Every Catholic suspected his 
Protestant neighbor of prying into his affairs 
and dealings for the purpose of plundering 
him. Every Protestant suspected his Catho- 
lic neighbor of concealing some property, or 
privately receiving the revenue of some trust, 
and thus keeping him, the Protestant, out of 
his own. Mutual hatred and distrust kept 
the two races apart; and there was no social 
intercourse or good neighborhood between 
them. Informers of course were busy, and 
well rewarded ; yet there were many of the 
Catholic families who cheated their enemies 
out of their prey, by real or pretended con- 
versions to the Established Church, or else 
by secret trusts vested legally in some 
friendly Protestant ; who ran, however, very 
heavy risks by this kind proceeding. 

For on the 17th of March, a few days 



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Cotninons passed unanimously a resolution, 
"that all magistrates and other persons 
whatsoever, who neglected or omitted to 
put it in due execution, were betrayers of 
the liberties of the kingdom." Again, in 
June, 1705, they " resolved, that the saying 
- hearing of Mass, by persons who had not 



term to describe Catholics, was often urged 
as an inducement to mitigate the disabilities 
of Dissenters; and this controversy contin- 
ued many years. The Established Church 
party was resolved not to relax any part 
of their code of exclusion ; and had per- 
fect confidence that the Dissenters, though 



taken the oath of abjuration, tended to pressed themselves by one portion of th 



advance the interest of the Pretend,,-" 
although it was then very well known that 
the Irish Catholics were not thinking in the 
least of the Pretender, or of placing their 
hopes in a counter-revolution to bring in the 
Stuarts. This resolution, therefore, was sim- 
j ply intended to make Papists odious and to 
stimulate the zeal of informers, against those 
who said or heard Mass in any Other manner, 
or under any other condition than those pre- 
' scribed for registering " the pretended IN. pish 
priests." But as it was still difficult to in- 
duce men to discover and inform upon un- 
offending neighbors, and as in fact the trade 
of informer was held infamous by all fair- 
minded men, the Commons took care also to 
resolve unanimously, " that the prosecu- 
ting and informing against Papists was an 
honorable service to the Government." The 
informers being now, therefore, honorable 
by law, and taken under the special favor 
.■of the Government, gave such new and ex- 
tensive development to their peculiar in- 
dustry as made it for long after the most 
profitable branch of business in this impover- 
ished country, and afforded some compensa- 
tion for the ruin of the woollen manufacture 
and other honest trades. 

The Earl of Pembroke, lord-lieutenant in 
the year 170G, made a speech to the Parlia- 
ment, in which he endeavored to soothe the 
feelings of the Dissenters disabled by the 
Sacramental Test, and to combine all Prot- 
estants in a cordial union against the hated 
Papists. He recommended them to provide 
for the security of the realm against their 
foreign and domestic enemies — by which 
latter phrase he meant Catholics — and added 
"that he was commanded by her majesty 
to inform them that her majesty, consider- 
ing (he number of Papists in Ireland, would 
be glad of an expedient for the strengthen- 
ing the interest of her Protestant subjects 
in that kingdom." For of the "common 



c pe- 
nal code, would never, under any provocation, 
make common cause with Catholics. And 
this confidence was well-founded. The Dis- 
senters preferred to endure exclusion by the 
Test, rather than weaken in any way the 
great Protestant interest ; and the few rep- 
resentatives whom the Ulster Presbyterians 
had in the Commons never, in a single in- 
stance, gave a voice against any new rigor 
or penalty imposed upon the " common 
enemy." 

It was in the year 1707 that the English 
Government at length accomplished its long 
desired project of an Union between Eng- 
land and Scotland. There was much indig- 
nant resistance against the measure by 
patriotic Scotsmen ; and it needed much 
intrigue and no little bribery, judiciously 
distributed (as in Ireland ninety-three years 
later), to overcome the opposition. An Eng- 
lish historian * gives this simple account of 
the matter : "Exclusive of the methods used 
to allay the popular resentment and the 
sacrifices made to national prejudice, other 
means were adopted to facilitate the final 
passing of the Act of Union. By the re- 
port of the Commissioners of Public Ac- 
counts, delivered in some years after this 
time, it appears that the sum of twenty 
thousand pounds, and upivards, was remitted 
at the present juncture to Scotland, which 
was distributed so judiciously that the raga 
of opposition suddenly subsided ; and the 
treaty, as originally framed, received, with- 
out any material alteration, the solemn 
sanction of the Scottish Parliament — the 
general question being carried by a majority 
of 110 votes." In vain the patriots foiifht 
against the influence of the Court. In vain 
did Fletcher of Saltoun earnestly declare in 
lis place in Parliament, " that the country 
was betrayed by the Commissioners. In 



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niSTORY OF IRELAND. 



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vain did Lord Bell)aven, in a speech yet 
famous in Scotland, pathetically describe 
Caledonia as sitting in the midst of the 
Senate, looking indignantly around and 
covering herself with her royal robe, attend- 
ing the fatal blow, breathing out with pas- 
sionate emotion Et tu quoque, mi fill! The 
measure was carried, and Scotland became 
a province. How similar all this to the 
scenes enacted in our own country, almost 
a century later ! But for the name of Lord 
Somers, the great engineer of the Scottish 
Union, we must substitute Castlereagh, make 
the bribery larger, and the intrigues darker. 

It is worth noting that the Irish House 
of Lords, when the Union with Scotland 
was in agitatiou four years before, in 1703, 
addressed the queen in favor of a similar 
measure for Ireland. They now, in 1 7oV, 
did so again, beseeching her majesty to ex- 
tend the benefits of her royal protection 
equally over all her kingdoms. The House 
of Commons did not favor this proceeding ; 
nor was it at that time regarded with com- 
placency in England. Nothing further, 
therefore, was done upon the suggestion 
made by their lordships, who had probably 
got scent of bribery going on in Scotland, 
and naturally* bethought them that they had 
a country to sell as well as other people. 
They were disappointed for that time; but 
many of their great-grandsons in 1800 
derived benefit by the delay in concluding 
that transaction, and received a price for 
their services, twenty times more princely 
than what could have been commanded in 
the time of Lord Somers. 

The agitation in Scotland arising from 
the Act of Union, although entirely con- 
fined to the Presbyterian people of that 
kingdom, furnished a new excuse for out- 
rage upon Irish Catholics. There was in 
truth a plot, extending through the south- 
west of Scotland, for raising an army, in- 
viting the " Pretender" (Anne's brother), and 
so getting rid of the Union by establishing 
again the dynasty of their ancient kings. 
On the first discovery of this project in 1S08, 
forty-one Catholic gentlemen were at once 
arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, 
without any charge against them whatso- 
ever, but, as it appeared, only to provoke and 
humble them. It is indeed wonderful to 



read of the ingenious malignity with which 
occasions were sought out to torment harm- 
less country people by interdicting their 
innocent recreations and simple, obscure 
devotions. In the County Meatb, as in 
many other places in Ireland, is a holy 
well, named the " Well of St. John." Fiom 
time immemorial, multitudes of infirm peo- 
ple, men, women, and children, had frequent- 
ed this well, to perform penances and to 
pray for relief from their maladies. Those 
invalids who had been relieved of their in- 
firmities at these holy wells, either by faith 
or by the use of cold water, frequently re- 
sorted, in the summer-time, to the same 
spot, with their friends and relations ; so 
that there was sometimes a considerable 
concourse of people on the annual festival 
of the Patron Saint to whom the wells 
were dedicated. Such had been the origin of 
" Patrons" in Ireland. On these occasions 
the young and the old met together. A 
little fair was sometimes held, of toys or 
other articles of small value, jrmd the day 
was passed by some in religious exercises, 
by others in harmless society and amuse- 
ment. But amusement, or recreation, pro- 
tection of saints, or benefit of prayers, was 
not presumed to exist for Catholics; and 
these innocent; meetings were naturally as- 
sumed to have some connection with " bring- 
ing in the Pretender," and overthrowing 
the glorious Constitution in Chinch and 
State. They were, therefore, stiietlv forbid- 
den by a statute of this reign,* which im- 
posed a fine of ten shillings (and in default 
of payment, whipping) upon every person 
"who shall attend or be present at any 
pilgrimage, or meeting held at any holy 
well, or imputed holy well." The same 
act inflicts a fine of £20 (and imprisonment 
until payment) upon every person who shall 
build a booth, or sell ale, victuals, or other 
commodities at such pilgrimages or meet- 
ings. It further "requires all magistrates 
to demolish all crosses, pictures, and inscrip- 
tions that are anywhere publicly set up, and 
are the occasions of Popish superstitions"— 
that is, objects of reverence and respect to 
the Catholics. Thus, in Ireland, were mada 
penal and suppressed those Patron fairs, 

* 2d Anne, o. 6. 



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which indeed have been the origin of tlie 
most ancient and celebrated fairs of Europe, 
.■is those of Lyons, Frankfort, Leipzig, and 
many others. 

One other enactment of 1708 will show 
wh.it kind of chance Catholics had in courts 
of justice ; and will bring us down to the 
period of the second Act " to prevent the 
further growth of ropery." This law en- 
acted, ''That from the first of Michaelmas 
Term, 1708, no Papist shall serve, or be 
returned to serve, on any grand-jury in the 
Queen'e. Bench, or before Justices of Assize, 
oyer and terminer, or gaol-delivery or Quarter 
Sessions, unless it appear to the court that a 
sufficient number of Protestants cannot then 
be had for the service: and in all trials 
of issues [that is, by petty juries] on any 
presentment, indictment, or information, or 
action on any statute, for any offence com- 
mitted by Papists, in breach of such laws, 
the plaintiff or prosecutor niav challenge 
any Papist returned as juror, and assign 
as a cause that he is a Papist, which clial- 
lenr/e shall be allowed." The spirit of this 
enactment, and the practice it introduced, 
have continued till the present moment ; and 
at this very time, on trials for political of- 
fences, Catholics who have been summoned 
arc usually challenged and set aSide. 

In May, 1709, Thomas Earl of Wharton 
being then lord-lieutenant, with Addison, of 
the Spectator, as secretary, there was intro- 
duced into the House of Commons a "Bill 
to explain and amend an Act intituled an 
Act to prevent the further growth of Po- 
pery." It was introduced by Mr. Sergeant 
Caulfield ; was duly transmitted to England 
by Wharton, was approved at once, and on 
its return was passed, of course. Its intention 
was chieflv to close up any loophole of es- 
cape from the penalties of former statutes, 
and guard every possible access by which 
" Papists" might still attain to independence 
or a quiet life. Some, for example, had se- 
cretly purchased annuities — by this statute, 
therefore, a Papist is declared incapable of 
holding or enjoying an annuity for life. It 
had been found, also, that paternal authority 
or filial affection had prevented from its full 
operation that former act of 1704 which au- 
thorized a child, on conforming, to reduce 
his father to a tenant for life. Further en- 




SECONI) ACT TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OP POPERY. 



couragement to children seemed desirable : 
therefore by this new law, upon the conver- 
sion of the child of any Catholic, the chan- 
cellor was to compel the father to discover 
upon oath the full value of his estate, real 
and personal ; and thereupon make an order 
for the independent support of such conform- 
ing child, and for securing to him, after bis 
father's death, such share of the property as 
to the court should seem fit : — also to secure 
jointures to popish wives who should desert 
their husbands' faith. Thus distrust and 
discoid and heartburning in every family 
were well provided for. One clause of the 
Act prohibits a Papist from teaching, as tutor 
or usher, even as assistant to a Protestant 
schoolmaster; and another offers a salary of 
£30 to such popish priests as should con- 
form. But one thing was still wanting : it 
was known that, notwithstanding the pre- 
vious banishment of Catholic archbishops, 
bishops, <fec, there were still men in the king- 
dom exercising those functions, coming 'from 
France and from Spain and braving the ter- 
rible penalties of transportation and death, 
in order to keep up the indispensable connec- 
tion of the Catholic flock with the Head of 
the Church. It was known that this was 
indeed an absolute necessity, at whatsoever 
risk ; and that to pretend a toleration of 
Catholic worship while the hierarchy was 
banished, was as reasonable as to talk of toler- 
ating Presbyterianism without Presbyterians, 
or courts without judges, or laws or juries. 
Therefore, this Act for "explaining and 
amending," assigned stated rewards to inform- 
ers for the discovery of an archbishop, bishop, 
vicar-gcncral, or other person exercising eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction. For such a prize the 
informer was to have £50 : for discovering 
any monk or friar, or any secular clergyman 
not duly registered, £20 : for discovering a 
popish school-teacher or tutor, £10. Any 
two justices are also empowered to summon 
before them any Papist over eighteen years, 
and examine him upon oath as to the time 
and place he last heard Mass, and the names 
of the parties preseut, as well as concerning 
the residence of any Papist priest or school- 
master; and in case of the witness refusing 
to testify there was a penalty of £20, or 
twelve months' imprisonment. The inform- 
ers were expected, after this, to be more dili- 




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gent and devoted than ever ; and a procla- 
mation of the same year ordering all 
registered priests to take the abjuration oath 
before the 25th of March, 1710, under the 
penalty of praemunire, gave additional stim- 
ulus and opportunity to the discoverers. 
The trade of " priest-hunting" now became 
a distinct branch of the profession ; and 
many a venerable clergyman was dogged by 
these bloodhounds, through various disguises, 
and waylaid by night on his way to baptize 
or confirm or visit the dying. The captured 
clergy were sometimes brought in by batches 
of four and five ; and the laws were rigorously 
put in force : if it was a first offence they 
were transported ; but if any bishop who had 
once been transported was caught in Ireland 
again, he was hanged. Such is the main 
substance of the act for "explaining and 
amending," generally called the Second Act 
" to prevent the further growth of Popery." 
Lord Wharton, by commission, gave it the 
royal assent; and for the zeal he had shown 
in recommending and hastening the Act, the 
House of Commons voted his lordship an 
address, " gratefully acknowledging her maj- 
esty's met particular care of them in ap- 
pointing his excellency their chief governor, 
and earnestly wishing his long continuance 
in the government," &c. His excellency 
desired the speaker to inform them "that he 
was extremely well pleased and satisfied." 
Than this Lord Whaitou no more profligate 
politician, no more detestable man, had ever 
been sent over to rule in Ireland. It is true 
that the well-known character given of him 
by Dean Swift must be taken with some 
allowance; because Wharton was a Whig, 
had been a Dissenter, and was still favorable 
to relaxation of the code against Dissenters. 
These circumstances were quite enough to 
rouse all the furious ire of the Dean of 
St. Patrick's, and draw from him a torrent 
of his foulest abuse. Besides, if the dean was 
enraged against Lord Wharton, it certainly 
was not for his tyranny to the Catholics, but 
rather for his partiality to the Dissenters : 
whereby, indeed, as we shall see, Wharton 
soon got into great disfavor with that very 
Parliament which bad lately praised him so 
highly. 

Jonathan Swift had already lived many 
years in Ireland, first as Vicar of Kilroot 



near Carrickfergns, and afterwards (in 1699) 
as Rector of Agher and Rector of Laracor 
and Rathbeggan, in the diocese of Meath. 
He did not become Dean of St. Patrick's till 
1713 ; nor much concern himself with Irish 
polities till several years later: but he was 
a country clergyman in Ireland during all 
the period of the enactment of the whole 
penal code, both in William's reign and in 
Anne's; he was himself witness to the fe- 
rocious execution of those laws, and the 
bitter suffering and humiliation of the Catho- 
lic people under them ; yet neither then, 
nor at any later time, not even when in the 
full tide of his fame and popularity as a "pa- 
triot," did he ever breathe one syllable of 
remonstrance, or of censure against those 
laws. Swift is called an Irish patriot, and 
he was so, if zealous vindication of the claim 
of the English colony to rule the nation, 
and to he the nation, together with utter and 
acrimonious disdain of the great mass of the 
people and total indifference to their grievous 
wrongs, can constitute a patifot. But in 
truth the history of this extraordinary genius 
is a signal illustration of the position already 
stated — that in Ireland were two nations, 
and that to be a patriot for the one was to 
be a mortal enemy to the other. The period , 
of Dean Swift's leadership in Irish (Colonial) 
politics had not vet arrived ; and all his 
writings upon Irish affairs are dated after 
his appointment to the deanery : but it may 
be stated once for all, that this " Irish patriot" 
never once, in his voluminous works and 
correspondence, called himself an Irishman, 
but always an Englishman ; that he sought 
preferment only in England, where he 
wished to live with the " wits" at Button's 
coffee house ; that when named to the Dublin 
deanery he quitted London with a heavy 
heart, to come over to his " exile in Ireland," 
over which he mourned in his letters as 
pathetically as Ovid exiled to Tomi; that 
he never, in all the numerous publications 
he issued on Irish affairs, gave one word or 
bint betraying the least consciousness or sus- 
picion of any injustice being done to the 
Catholics ; and lastly, that far from feeling 
any community of race or of interest with 
the Irish, we find him thus expressing him- 
self in a letter to his friend Mr. Pope, in 
1737: "Some of those who highly esteem 



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DEAN SWIFT : NATURE OF HIS IRISH PATRIOTISM. 



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you are grieved to find you make do distinc- 
tion between the English gentry of this king- 
dom and the savage old Iiish (who are only 
the vulgar, and sonic gentlemen who live in 
the Irish parts of the kingdom), but the Eng- 
lish colonies, who are three parts in four, are 
much more civilized than many counties in 
England," <fcc. Much will have to be said 
Concerning Ssvift and his labors, a few years 
later in the narrative. For the preseut it is 
enough to point out that his furious denun- 
ciation of Lord Wharton and Ids administra- 
tion in Ireland was by no means on account 
of that nobleman's urging on the bill for 
crushing Papists. 

I. old Wharton had been brought up a 
Dissenter; though he had long ceased to 
regard any form of religion, or any tie of 
morality. He was, however, a Whig, and 
by party connections in England, was favora- 
ble to some relaxation of penal laws against 
the Irish Presbyterians, In his speech pro- 
roguing this Parliament of 1709, he said to 
the Houses that " he made no question but 
they understood loo well the true interest of 
the Protestant religion in that kingdom not 
to endeavor to make all Protestants as easy 
as they could, wdio were willing to contribute 
what they could to defend the whole against 
the common enemy" But the majority of the 
Irish Commons belonged to the Tory party ; 
and very soon dissensions and jealousies 
arose between them and the lord-lieutenant, 
on account of his obvious bias in favor of 
the Dissenters. The government of England 
also soon came into the hands of the Tory 
party through a scries of intrigues regarding 
foreign politics, which are not necessary to 
be here detailed : and on the 7th Nov., 1811, 
the English Lords and Commons made a long 
address to the queen, complaining of Whar- 
ton for " having abused her majesty's name, 
in ordering nolle prosequi to stop proceed- 
ing against, one Fleming and others for dis- 
till bing the peace of the town of Droghcda 
by setting up a meeting house" — a thing not 
seen in Drogheda, they say, for many years. 
They further complained, in this Address, 
of Presbyterians, " for tyranny in threatening 
and ruining members who left them ; in de- 
nying the common offices of Christianity ; 
in printing and publishing that 'the Sacra- 
mental Test is only an engine to advance a 



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State faction, and to debase religion to serve 
mean and unworthy purposes.' " They there- 
fore recommended that her majesty should Jl \C 
withdraw the yearly bounty of £1,200, then 
allowed to Dissenting Ministers — the small 
beginning of that regium donum,, or royal 
bounty, which has been gradually much in- 
creased, to reconcile the Presbyterians some- 
what to their disabilities under the Test 
law. During all the rest of this reign, and 
the three following, no representations on 
the part of the Dissenters of the injustice of 
this law, and no protestations of their loy- 
alty to the English crown and House of 
Hanover, availed in the least to procure a 
relaxation of the odious Test. Their efforts 
in this direction only drew upon them, a few 
years later, the savage raillery of Swift, who 
maintained that the very Papists were quite 
as well entitled to relief as they. 

It was in this year, 1809, that the scheme 
originated, of inducing Protestant foreigners 
to come to Ireland, and of offering them 
naturalization. Accordingly, on the request 
of certain lords and others of the council, 
eight hundred and seventy-one Protestant 
Palatine families from Germany were brought 
over, and the sum of £24,850 5s. Od. appoint- 
ed for their maintenance out of the reveutie, on 
a resolution of the Commons "that it would 
much contribute to the security of the king- 
dom if the said Palatines were encouraged 
and settled therein." The German families 
actually were settled as tenants and laborers 
in various parts of the country. The scheme 
of the Cramers of this measure " seems to 
have been," says Dr. Curry, "to drive the 
Roman Catholic natives out of the kingdom, 
which effect it certainly produced in great 
numbers ;" but the plan was not found to 
answer so far as the Germans themselves 
were concerned. They were neither zealous lli,K^ 
for the queen's service nor for the ascend- 
ency of the Anglican Church. It seems that 
only four, out of this great body, enlisted ill 
her majesty's army, though she was then en- 
gaged in a war with France, the very power 
which had ravaged their Palatinate, and left 
them homeless. Tne lords, in an address to 
the queen in 1711, complain of "that load 
of debt which the bringing over numbers of 
useless and indigent Palatines had brought 
upon them." As for Dean Swift and the 




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Tories, the way in which the German immi- 
gration was regarded by them is apparent 
from a passage in the Dean's " History of ihe 
Four Last Years of Queen Anne." lie says, 
" By this Act, any foreigner who would take 
tho oaths to the Government, and profess 
himself a Protestant, of whatsoever denomi- 
nation, was immediately naturalized, and had 
all the advantages of an English-born sub- 
ject, at the expense of a shilling. Most 
Protestants abroad differ from us in the points 
of church government, so that all the ac- 
quisitions by this Act would increase the 
number of Dissenters" — which in Dr. Swift's 
eyes was as bad as increasing the number 
of Papists. Accordingly, he indicates his 
opinion of the whole scheme a little lower 
down, where he says, "It appeared mani- 
festly, by the issue, that the public was a 
lo*er bv every individual amongst them ; 
and that a kingdom can no more be the 
richer for such an importation than a man 
can be fatter by a wen." The law for nat- 
uralization of Protestants was in fact soon 
repealed ; though no measures were spared 
to drive the Catholics away. And even 
such of the Roman Catholic natives as were 
afterwards willing to return, were not per- 
mitted ; for in 1713 the Commons ordered 
that " an address should be made to her 
majesty, to desire her that she would be 
pleased not to grant licenses to Papists to 
return into the kingdom." 

It was even dangerous for them to attempt, 
or endeavor to hear, what passed in the 
llouse of Commons concerning themselves. 
For in the same year, an order was made 
there, " that the sergeant-at-arms should take 
into custody all Papists that were or should 
presume to come into the galleries."* The 
Palatines, or their descendants, still remain 
iu Ireland. They generally " conformed ;" 
not having any particular objection against 
any religion ; but caring little for the As- 
cendency, or the Whig or Tory politics of 
the country, at least for a generation or 
two. 

The Duke of Shrewsbury was lord-lieu- 
tenant after Wharton. The duke had de- 
serted the Catholic Church, and, like other 
converts, was more bitter against the com- 



* Commons Journ., Vol. III. 



rnunion he had left than those who were 
born Protestants. He was also a Tory. The 
Irish Parliament was dissolved ; and on a 
new election, the majority of the members 
were found to be Whigs. The short re- 
mainder of this reign, so far as affairs of 
State in Ireland are concerned, is quite bar- 
ren of interest, the great affair being a quar- 
rel of the House of Commons against Sir 
Constautine Phipps, the lord chancellor, be- 
cause he was a noted Tory and close friend 
of the celebrated Doctor Sachcverell, the 
clergyman who preached the divine right of 
kings, and was therefore held an enemy to 
the " glorious Revolution," and friend of the 
" Pretender." 

All these matters were quite unimportant 
to the great body of the nation. The Cath- 
olics were cither emigrating to Fiance, or 
else withdrawing themselves as much as 
possible from observation ; some of them con- 
forming and changing their names ; others 
reduced to the most pitiful artifices in order 
to preserve the little patrimony ^hat was left 
in their hands ; but most of them sinking 
into the condition of tenants or laborers in 
the country (all profitable industry in the 
towns being prohibited to them) ; and it is 
from this time forward that thousands of the 
ancient gentry of the country, and even chiefs 
of powerful clans, stripped of their dignities 
and possessions, and too poor, or too old to 
emigrate, had to descend to the position of 
cottiers and serfs under the new possessors 
of the land, who hated and oppressed them, 
both as despoiled Irish and as proscribed 
Catholics; and who hate them quite as bit- 
terly to the present hour. 

In the mean time, the war of the Allies 
against France had been attended with many 
brilliant successes, under the Duke of Marl- 
borough and Prince Eugene. Some of tho 
most signal defeats ever sustained by the 
arms of France were inflicted by the duke, 
particularly Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, 
and Malplaquet. But on the Court revo- 
lution which displaced the Whigs, Marl- 
borough was deprived of his command, and 
the Duke of Ormond sent out in his place. 
Shortly afterwards the Peace of Utrecht was 
signed (11th April, 1813), by which treaty 
France recognized the Protestant succession 
in England, and the "Pretender" was com- 



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THE "PRETENDER" PERILS OP DEAN SWIFT. 



pelted to depart from that kingdom; t lie ' 
union of the two monarchies of Fiance and 
Spain was provided against, though a French 
Bourbon remained on the throne of Spain ; 
and to the great loss and humiliation of 
France, it was agreed that the harbor of 
Dunkirk should be demolished. This treaty 
gave repose for a time to the Irish soldiers 
abroad. 

The last year of Anne, therefore, was a 
year of peace abroad, but of violent partv 
strife and political conspiracy at home. All 
the world expected a struggle for the suc- 
cession at the moment of the queen's death ; 
and King James the Third, called in England 
"Pretender," was known to have a large 
partv both in that country and in Scotland, 
ready to assert his hereditary right. The 
agilation extended to Ireland ; but did not 
reach the Catholic population, which was 
quite indifferent to Stuart or Hanoverian. 
The queen died on the 1st of August, 1814, 
the last of the house of Stuart recognized as 
sovereign of England, and leaving behind 
her, as to her Irish administration, so black 
a record that it would have been strange in- 
deed if the Irish nation had ever desired to 
see the face of a Stuart again. Yet it is 
probable that she was secretly a Catholic, 
like all her family : and it is certain that she 
was bitterly displeased at the "Protestant 
succession," now secured by law to the House 
of Hanover. It is needless here to enter into 
the controversy as to whether she was alto- 
gether a stranger to the plots for setting 
aside that succession, and bringing in her 
Catholic brother. She was known to be 
deeply grieved and provoked by the zeal of 
politicians, both in England and Ireland, 
who, desirous of gaining favor with the 
coming dynasty, endeavored to get an act 
of attainder passed against "the Pretender;" 
and a bill for that purpose in Ireland, which 
also offered a largo reward for his apprehen- 
sion, was only defeated by a hasty proroga- 
tion. Yet "the queen hated and despised 
the Pretender, to mv knowledge," is the as- 
sertion of Swift in his " Remarks on Burnet's 
History." Perhaps she did: most sovereigns 
hate their heirs-apparent, even when these 
are their own sons; but there is abundant 
evidence that, she hated the Elector of Han- 
over and his mother very much worse. 



CHAPTER VII. 

17H— 1723. 

George I. — JainesIII. — Perils of Dean Swift — Tories 
dismissed — Ormoud, Oxford, and Bolingbroke im- 
peached — Insurrection in Scotland — Calm in 
Ireland — Arrests — Irish Parliament — "Loyalty" 
of the Catholics — "No Catholics exist in Ireland" 
— Priest -catchers — Bolton lord -lie men ant — Cause 
of Sherlock and Annesley — Conflict of jurisdic- 
tion — Declaratory Act establishing dependence of 
the Irish Parliament — Swift's pamphlet — State of 
the country — Grafton lord-lieutenant — Courage 
of the priests — Atrocious Bill. 

The succession of the Elector of Hanover 
had been in no real danger, notwithstanding 
the plotting of a few Jacobites in England ; 
although the Whig partv anxiously en- 
deavored to represent the Tories as desirous 
of "bringing in the Pretender." The dis- 
tinction, however, between Tories and Jacob- 
ites is important to be borne in mind ; and 
a well-known letter of Dean Swift, who, be- 
ing a Tory, had been accused of Jacohitism, 
is conclusive upon this point. In fact, a 
though the English people and the English 
colony of Ireland were at that time nearly 
equally divided into Whigs and Tories, there 
were but few Jacobites save in Scotland and 
the northern counties of England. Accord- 
ingly, on the death of Anne, the Elector of 
Hanover was duly proclaimed in both islands 
by the title of King George the First. In 
Ireland, the proclamation was made by torch- 
light, and at midnight; and great efforts 
were made to produce the impression that 
there was imminent danger of a Jacobite in- 
surrection "to bring in the Pretender." 
This affectation of alarm seems to have been 
intended to bring odium, not so much on 
the Catholics, as on the Tories : some arrests 
were made, and it was alleged that on one 
of the parties arrested letters were found 
written by Dr. Swift. The populace of 
Dublin must at that period have been vio- 
lently Hanoverian ; for Lord Orrery tells us 
that on the dean's return to Ireland after 
the proclamation of the new king, he dared 
hardly venture forth, and was pelted by 
mobs when he made his appearance. The 
bitterness and fury of party spirit at that 
day is curiously illustrated by the story of 
the outrages and insults which the dean had 
to encounter, even at the hands of persons 





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of rank and tide. Lord Blancy attempted 
to drive over him on the public road ; and 
Swift petitioned the legislature for protection 
to his life. He was advised by his physi- 
~y\ cian, he said, to go often on horseback, on 

account of his health ; "and there being no 

J place in winter so convenient for riding as the 
strand towards Howth, your petitioner takes 
all opportunities that his business or the 
weather will permit, to take that road." 
Here be details the scene of Lord Blancy 's 
attempting to overturn him and his horse, 
attlie same time threatening his life with a 
loaded pistol, and prays protection accord- 
ingly. There is no doubt, however (without 
questioning the sincerity of the dean's zeal 
for the House of Hanover), that several of 
his most intimate friends, especially Lord 
Bolingbroke and Bishop Atterbury, were en- 
gaged in the plot, along with the Pake of 
Ormond, to prevent the succession of King 
( leorge ; and that the suspicions as to Swift's 
Jaeobitism were at least plausible. Swift 
was excessively mortified, or rather irritated, 
by the popular manifestations against him, 
lie was very covetous of influence and popu- 
larity, and his high, fierce spirit could ill 
brook the least demonstration of public re- 
proach. He denounced the people of Dublin 
as a vile, abandoned race ; but we hear no 
more of his Jaeobitism, and not much of his 
Toryism, except that to the last hour of his 
life he hated and lampooned 1 lisselitei s. 

Immediately after the accession of George 
I., all Tories were instantly dismissed from 
office, and the Government placed entirely 
in the hands of Whigs; which had been 
the very object of denouncing Tories as 
Jacobites. When the English Parliament 
met, articles of impeachment were quickly 
found against the Duke of Ormond, and the 
Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke, for high trea- 
son, in having contributed to bring about 
the Peace of Utrecht by traitorous means, 
and with a view of changing the Protestant 
succession. Bolingbroke and Ormond avoided 
the trial ou the impeachment by going to 
the continent, where they both offered their 
services to King James HI. (or the Pre- 
tender), then holding a kind of court in 
Lorrain, having been exiled from France at 
the peace. The party which adhered to the 
exiled prince was iu fact making urgent 



preparations for a rising botb in Scotland and 
in England ; and on the 15th of September, 
1715, the Earl of Mar set up the standard 
of insurrection, proclaimed King James the 
Third at Castletown in Scotland, and quickly 
Collected an army of ten thousand men. 
These forces were gathered fiom both High- 
lands and Lowlands, and consisted both of 
Catholics and Protestants. The Duke of 
Argyle, with his powerful clan of Campbells, 
was zealous for King George, and with other 
Highland tribes and some regular troops met 
the Earl of Mar at Sheriffmnir, where a 
bloody but indecisive battle took place. A 
portion of the Jacobite force, marched south- 
ward into England, were encountered at 
Preston, in Lancashire, by the King's troops, 
and, after a short light, obliged to surrender 
at discretion. Mar still kept his banner dis- 
played, until King James the Third in per- 
son landed at Peterhead, on the east coast 
of Scotland, in December; but very soon 
afterwards, on the approach of^Argvle with 
a superior force, the enterprise was aban- 
doned. The Prince and the Earl of Mar 
escaped by sea; the other leaders of the in- 
surrection, both in England and in Scotland, 
were arrested, tried, and some of them ex- 
ecuted. The rebellion was at an end, and' 
from that day the exiled Prince may truly 
be termed, not James the Third, but the 
" Pretender." 

This Scottish insurrection is of small mo- 
ment to Irish history, save in so far as it 
furnished a pretext for fresh atrocities upon 
the unresisting people. There was no in- 
surrection or disturbance whatever during 
all these events. We do not even hear of 
any Irish officer of distinction who came 
from the continent to join the Pretender's 
cause in Scotland; and the Earl of Mir, who 
afterwards published a narration in Paris, 
affirms that the Duke of Berwick, who 
was vcrv popular with the Irish troops in 
France, had been ursjed to take the chief 
command of the movement, probably in 
order to draw some Irish regiments into it, 
but that "the Duke of Berwick positively 
refused to repair to Scotland," though he 
was half-brother to the Pretender. The in- 
surrection of 1715 was therefore exclusively 
a Scottish and English affair. Some writers 
on this period of Irish history, who ate en- 



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VI 



titled to respect,* have given tiie Irish Catho- 
lics the very doubtful praise of loyalty, for 
their extreme quietness ami passiveness at 
this time. It is Hue that they cared not for 
the Smart family ; yet, considering the ex- 
cessive end abject oppression under which 
they were then groaning, and the slender 
prospect they had of any mitigation of it, 
we may assume that any revolution which 
would overturn the actual order of things, 
and give them a chance of redeeming their 
nationality, would have been desirable. But 
they were disarmed, impoverished, and dis- 
couraged; could not own a musket, nor a 
sabre, uor a horse over rive guineas' value; 
had no leaders at home, nor any possibility 

of organizing a combined move nt ; so 

closely were they watched, and held down 
with so iron a hand. If they look no part. 
therefore, in the insurrections of 1815 and ol 
1845, it may he said (in their favor, not to 
their dishonor) that it was on account of ex- 
halation and impotence, not on account of 
loyalty. It' they had been capable, at that 
time, of attachment to the Protestant suc- 
cession, and of '• loyalty" to the House of 
Hanover, they would have been even more 
degraded than they actually were. 

However, as the Pretender was a Catholic, 
and as the Irish Government knew that the 
oppressed Catholics of that country, if not 
always ready for insurrection, ought to have 
been so, numerous arrests were mad- daring 
the Scottish insurrection. There were still 
some forlorn Catholic peers dwelling in their 
dismal country-seats, debarred from attend- 
ing Parliament, endeavoring to attract no re- 
mark, and too happy if they could secretly 
keep in their stables a few horses for hunt- 
ing. There were also still some landed 
gentlemen, though sadly stripped of their 
possessions, who tried to keep one another 
in countenance, and drank in private the 
health of King Louis, and the mole whose 
mole-hill killed William of Orange. It was 
desirable for the Government to take pre- 
cautions against these sad relics of the once 
proud nation. Accordingly, the Earls of 



* Mr. Plowden, and Doctor Curry. Thoy botli 
WJVte :il :, inutftl lnt<:r period ; and both with a viflW 

or pointing out the tolly of the PenaJ Code, m Irish 
Catholics llad always, they said, been '• loyal" to 
the House of Hanover. 



Antrim and Westmeath, Lords Netterville, 
Cahir, and Dillon, with a great number of 
untitled gentlemen, were suddenly seized 
upon and shut up in Dublin Castle, "on 
suspicion." They were released when the 
insurrection was over. 

In the mean time (he Irish Parliament 
met, and was opened by lords-justices. The 
Houses, Especially the Commons, were filled 
with the most fiery zeal for the Protestant 
succession, and most desirous of ingratiating 
themselves with the new dynasty. They 

passed acts for recognizing the king's title 

for the security of his person and govern- 
ment—for attainting the Pretender, and 
offering a reward of £50,000 for his appre- 
hension. The Commons also. presented an 
address to the new king, entreating his maj- 
esty, for the security of the Government 
and for the Protestant interest, to remove the 
Earl of Anglesea from all offices of honor 
and trust. Lord Anglesea was a member of 
the Council, and one of the vice-treasurers 
of the kingdom : he was a Tory, was sus- 
pected of being a Jacobite ; and the reasons 
assigned in the address for removing him 
were, that he had caused or procured the 
disbanding of great part of the army in 
Ireland ; and that he had connived at the 
enrolment of Irish Catholics for foreign ser- 
vice. "They had information," they said, 
"that many Irish Papists had been, and' 
continued to be, shipped off from Dublin 
and other ports for the service of the Pre- 
tender." As usual, the main business of 
the Parliament was taking further precau- 
tions against the "common enemy," for 
which the Pretender's insurrection in Scot- 
land served as a false pretence. The lords- 
justices, in their speech to this Parliament, 
bear complacent testimony to the calmness 
and tranquillity in which Ireland had re- 
mained during the troubles, which Mr. 
Plowden, with great simplicity, takes as a 
compliment to the " loyalty" of the Catholics 
— instead of being (what it was) a congrat- 
ulation upon the Catholics being so effect- 
ually crushed and trodden down that ihey 
could not rise. This amiable writer cannot 
conceal his surprise at what he terms " the 
inconsistency of rendering solemn homage 
to the exemplary loyalty of the Irish nation 
in the most perilous crisis, and puuishii 



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44 



TIISTOIIY OF IRELAND. 



them, at the same time, for a disposition to 
treftchery, turbulence, and treason." Nay, 
he is still more astonished at finding that 
"this very speech, which bore Buch honor- 
able testimony to the tried loyalty of the 
Irish Catholics, bespoke the disgraceful 
polioy of keeping and treating them, not- 
withstanding, as a separate people — ' We 
must recommend to you,' said the lords-jus- 
tices, 'in the present conjuncture, such 
unanimity in your resolutions as may once 
nunc put an end to all other distinctions 
in Ireland than that of Protestant and 
Papist.'" 

It, may hero bo observed, once for all, to 
put an end to this delusion ahout Catholic 
loyalty in Ireland, that the Catholics would 
not have been permitted to be loyal, even it' 
they had been base enough to desire it — that 
some abject attempts by some of them to 

testify their loyalty were repulsed, as will he 
hereafter seen — that when a viceroy or lord- 
justice speaks of "the nation," at the period 
in question, he means the Protestant nation 
exclusively— nay, that the law was, that no 
Catholics existed in Ireland at all. It was 
long a favorite fiction of Irish law,* "that 
all the effeotive inhabitants of Ireland are to 
be presumed to be Protestants — and that, 
therefore, the Catholics, their clergy, worship, 
Ac, are ii"t to be supposed t,. exist, save for 
reprehension and punishment." Indeed, in 
the tunc' of George 11., Lord-Chancellor 
I'm. w.s declared from the bench, "that the 

law does not suppose any such person to ex- 
ist as an Irish Roman Catholic;" and Chief- 
Justice Robinson made ,-i similar declara- 
tion.! ll appears plain, then, tint, the '■ lov- 
alty" of the Catholics towards the House of 
Hanover, if indeed there has ever been auy 

such loyalty, could not have sprung up in 

their hearts in the reign of George I., or of 
George II. 

N" new enactments were made in this 
session of Parliament in aggravation of the 
Penal Code; hut a resolution was passed 
recommending to magistrates the indispen- 
sable duty to put the existing laws into im- 
mediate and rigorous execution, and de- 
nouncing those who neglected to do so as 

"enemies of the Constitution ;" no slight nor 




harmless imputation at that period, nor one 
which any magistrate would willingly incur. 
In fact, the penal laws against Catholics 
were put in force at this time, and during all 
the remainder of the reigu of George I., 
with even more than the customary ferocity, 
as a design to bring in the Pretender was 
supposed to lurk in every Mass. In many 
places chapels were shut up, priests were 

dragged from their hiding-places, sometimes 

from the very altars, in the midst, of divine 
service, hurried into the most loathsome 
dungeons, and from thence banished forever 



from their native country,* 



To till' ei edit 



of those times," however, observes Brcnan, 
the ecclesiastical historian, "it must he re- 
marked, that, the description of miscreants 
usually termed priest-catchers wen' generally 

Jews who pretended to he converts to the 

Christian religion, and some of them as- 
sumed even the character of the priesthood, 
for the purpose of insinuating themselves 

more readily into the conlideiico of the 
clergy. The most notorious among them 
was a Portuguese Jew, named Gorzia (or 
Garcia). By means of this wretch seven 
priests had been apprehended in Dublin, 

and banished the kingdom. < If this number, 
two were Jesuits, one was a Dominican, one 

a Franciscan, and three were secular priests." 

Tlese last, were probably "unregistered" 
priests; or else had not taken the abjuration 
oath, which was then legally obligatory 

upon them all, under cruel penalties, hi- 
ded, by means of the various statutes made 

against them, it may be affirmed generally 

that every priest in Ireland, whether regular 
or secular, was now liable to transportation 
and to death; because out of one thousand 
and eighty " registered" priests, only thirty- 
three ever took the oath of abjuration. The 
remainder stood firm, and set at d. fiance the 
tenors which surrounded them.f 

Although the rebellion of the Presbyte- 
rians in Scotland was the sole pretence for 
this severity, and the very same law which 
hanishes popish priests prohibits also 1 >is- 
scnlers to accept of or act hv a commission 
in the militia or array, yet so partial were 
the resolutions of that parliament, that, at 
the same tune that they ordered the former 

• i'imtv's Ki'vicw. Bronnu's Eccl. Hist, of IrolunJ. 
t Iliburuiu Uouiiiiiciuia. 




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to lie rigorously prosecuted, they resolved, 
unanimously, "that any person who should 
commence a prosecution against any of tbe 
latter who had accepted, or should accept 
of a commission in the array or militia, was 
an enemy to King George and the Protes- 
tant interest" Tims of the only two main 
objects of tli" same law, its execntion as to 
one of tin-in was judged highly meritorious, 
and it was deemed equally culpable even to 
attempt it. against the other ; though the law 
itself makes no difference between them. 
Such was the justice and consistency of our 
legislators of that period. 

In the year 17 19, the Duko of Bolton 
being lord-lieutenant, occurred the famous 
case of Sherlock against Annesley, which 
provoked the [rish House of Lords into a 
faint and impotent assertion of their priv- 
ileges, opened up onee more the whole 

question between English dominion and Irish, 
national pretensions, and ended in settling 
that question in favor of England; setting 
it, in fact, definitively at rest until the year 
1782. 

That cause was tried in the Irish Court 
of Exchequer, between Esther 8herloek and 
Maurice Annesley, in which the latter obtain- 
ed a decree, which on an appeal to the Irish 
House of Lords was reversed. From this 
sentence Annesley appealed to the English 
Bouse of Lords, w ho confirmed the judgmeut 
ol the [rish Exchequer, and issued process to 
put him into possession of the litigated prop- 
erty. Esther Sherlock petitioned the Irish 
Lords against the usurped authority of Eng- 
land, and they, having taken the opinion of 
the judges, resolved that they would Bupport 
their honor, jurisdiction, and privileges, by 
giving effectual relief to the petitioner. 
Sherlock was put into possession hy the 
Sheriff of Kildare; an injunction issued from 
the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, pur- 
suant to the decree of the English Lords, 
directing him to restore Annesley; the 
sheriff (let his name be honored !), Alexan- 
der liuiTowcs, refused obedience. He was 
protected in a contumacy which so nobly 
contrasts the wonted servility of the judges, 

by the Irish Lords, who addressed a power- 
ful Slat-- paper to the thr , recapitulating 

the rights of Ireland, her independent 




CAUSE OP SHERLOCK AND AN.VESLEY. DECLARATORY ACT. 



went further, for they sent the Irish barons 
to jail; hut the king having the address of 
the Irish Lords laid before the English House, 
the latter reaffirmed their proceedings, and 
supplicated the throne to confer some maik 
of special favor on tbe servile judges, who, 
in relinquishing their jurisdiction, had be- 
trayed the liberties of their country. An 
Act was at once passed in the English Par- 
liament, enacting and declaring that the 

king, with the advice of the Lords and 

Commons of England, "hath had of right, 
and ought to have, full power and authority 
to make laws and statutes of sufficient force 
and validity to bind the people and the 
kingdom of Ireland. 

" And be it further enacted and declared, 
by the authority aforesaid, that the House 
of Lords of Ireland have not, nor of right 
ought to have, any jurisdiction to judge, 
affirm, or reverse any judgment, sentence, 
or decree, given or made in any court within 
the same kingdom ; and that all proceedings 

before the said House of Lords, upon any 

such judgment, sentence, or decree, are, and 

are hereby declared to be, utterly null- and 
void, to all intents and purposes whatever." 
This Declaratory Act is the last of the 
statutes claiming such a jurisdiction. The 
Irish Parliament had to submit for the time; 
but the principles of Molyneux, soon after 
enforced with far greater power by Swift, 
worked in men's minds, and at last brought 
forth Flood and Grattan, and caused the 

army of the Volunteers to spring outof the 
earth. Once more, however, it should be 
borne in mind that this constitutional ques- i 
tion was a question between Protestant 
England and her Protestant colony alone ; 
and that the Catholic Irish nation had at 
that time no more favor or indulgence to 
hope for at the hands of a parliament in 
Dublin than of a parliament in London. 

The Declaratory Act did not pass the 
English Parliament without opposition, es- 
pecially in the Commons, where Mr. Pitt 
made himself conspicuous by his argument 
against it. It was finally carried l>y 140 
rotes against 88. The Duke of Leeds, in 
the Lords, made a powerful protest against 
the bill, but in vain. 

In the same year, 1 7 1 9, an act was passed 



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parliament, aud peculiar jurisdiction. They , in the Irish Parliament " for granting soiuo 




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niSTORT OF IRELAND. 




case and indulgence to the Protestant Dis- 
sentcrsin the exercise of their religion." The 
Duke of Polton, in his speech, was pleased 
to commend this act most warmly, as a step 
towards consolidating the Protestant interest 
against the common enemy. The duke 
earnestly pleads fur the necessity of union : 
"in the words," he says, " of one of those 
excellent hills passed this day — I mean an 
union in interest, and affection amongst all 
his majestv's suhjects." The viceroy did 
not even feel it necessary to say " all his maj- 
esty's Protestant suhjects,'' knowing that this 
would he understood ; so firmly established 
was the State maxim, that the law knows 
not of the existence of an Irish Catholic, 

The year 18-20 is memorable for the 
publication of Dean Swift's first pamphlet 
on Irish affairs — his " "Proposal for the Use 
of Irish Manufacture." He had now been 
for seven years Dean of St. Patrick's : he had 

witnessed the enactment of many a penal 

law against Catholics: within hearing of 
his own deanery-house the Protestant mob, 
led on by priest-catchers, had dragged 
clergymen in their vestments out of obscure 
chapels amidst the lamentations of their 
helpless Hocks, but he had never, in any 
of his numerous writings, uttered a syllable 
of remonstrance against this tyranny. It 
might be supposed that in this first of his 
Tracts relating to an Irish subject, and a 
subject, too, in which people of all religions 
were deeply interested, he might delicately 
convex- some hint that neither the manufac- 
turing nor any other material interest of a 
Country could be promoted or developed 
while the great mass of its people were held 
in degrading slavery, disquieted in their 
property, and outraged in their persons by 
the extraordinary laws which he saw in 
operation around him. But not one word 
of all this does ho write. lie was well 
enough aware, however, of the growing 
misery and destitution of the country 
people; and says in this tract, "Whoever 
travels this country, ami observes the face 
of nature, or the faces, and habits, and 
dwellings of the natives, will hardly think 
himself in a land where either law, religion, 
or common humanity is professed." 

Again : ''I would now expostulate a little 
with our country landlords, who, by im- 




measurable screwing and racking their ten- 
nants all over the kingdom, have already 
reduced the miserable people to a worse 
condition than the peasants in France, or the 
vassals in Germany and Poland; so that 

the whole species of what we call substantial 
fanners will, in a very few years, be utterly 
at an end." 

It is very singular, also, that although he 
justly attributes the decay of manufactures 
to the greedy commercial policy of England 
in suppressing the woollen trade and other 
branches of industry — and although, at 
the moment he wrote, all the island was 
ringing with the Sherlock-and-Annesley 
case and the Declaratory Act, this future 
author of the Drapier's Letters never thinks 
of suggesting thai laws for governing Ireland 
should be made in Ireland, in order that 
the English monopolists might no longer 
have the power of ruining our country by 
their own laws. It seems the time was not 
vet ripe for such a pretension, on the part 
of Irish patriots ; though, that the dean 
very well knew the nature of the grievances 
he complains of, is evident from his savage sar- 
casm about the fate of Arachne. Ireland was 
becoming covered with herds of sheep, to 
produce wool for the English market,' 
while English laws prevented its manufac- 
ture at home. 

" The fable, in Ovid, of Arachnc and 
Pallas, is to this put pose : The goddess had 
heard of one Antenna, a young virgin, very 
famous for spinning and weaving : they 
both met upon a trial of skill ; and Pallas 
finding herself almost equalled in her own 
art, stung with rage and envy, knocked her 
rival down, turned her into a spider, enjoin- 
ing her to spin and weave forever, out of 
her own bowels, and in a very narrow 
compass. I confess that, from a boy, I 
always pitied poor Arachne, and could never 
heartily love the goddess, on account of so 
cruel and unjust a sentence ; which, however, 
is fully executed upon us by England, with 
further additions of rigor and severity, for 
the greatest part of our bowels and vitals is 
extracted without allowing us the liberty 
of spinning and weaving them." 

Swift had not yet ventured to take the 
leading part which he soon after bore in 
Irish politics ; nor did ho ever take any 



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rBISH CATHOLICS " STERNLY LOYAL." 



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I'" 1 '" 'hem with a broadly national aim. 
"" l' v ed at that tima very much with |,is 
friends Sheridan and Doctor Delaoy ; and 
his frienda, as well as himself, wished to be 
considered Englishmen.* 

'Hi'' Catholic people remained all these 
years perfectly qnietand subdued. In them, 
all national aspiration seemed dead; so that 
tin' numerous enterprises projected all over 
Europe in favor of the Pretender, never 
counted upon them. One of these enter- 
prises was undertaken by the Spaniards,! 
'""I"'- the auspices of Cardinal Alberoni ;' 
and the Duke of Orraond wag placed in' 

c " ; "" 1 <>( a Spanish squadron, to effect a 

landing somewhere in the British Mauds. 
'I lie Irish Catholics remained quite unmoved : 
'•'ey were, in the words of Mr. Plowden, 
"sternly loyal." It would he more accurate 
t<> say they were utterly prostrate, hopeless, 
an. I indifferent; and if they had been other- 
wise, the name of tin. Duke of Orinoml 
W01l| d Inn.' I n enough to repel them from 

any cause in which he was to he a leader. 

The Duke of Grafton, as lord-lieutenant, 
prorogued the session of Parliament, and 
m hi, speech was pleased particularly to 

■' 'end to tin-in io keep a watchful eye 

upon the Papists; "since I have reasoa to 
believe," says he," that the number of popish 
priests is daily increasing in this kingdom, 
an. I already far exceeds what by the indul- 
gence of the law is allowed." The members 
"i Parliament, in times of recess, ami when 
they were at their country-seats, must have 
followed the viceroy's exhortation, ami kept 
a watchful eye upon the Papists; for the 
horror and alarm of the Protestant interest 
became more violent than ever before; ami 
when Parliament assembled, in ] T *_r : J , it was 
in an excellent frame of mind to do battle 

with the common en, .my. The Duke of 

Grafton, on meeting Parliament, recom- 
mended several new laws — "particularly for 



* In remonstrating with Mr. iv,p on "having 
made i... d'nttluotioo in bis letter* between the Eng 
h-li gentry of this kingdom and the sava^o old 
i li," Swift ml.li, " Dr. Delany oame to visit Die 
'■ " ' 'go on pur] to complain of those pas- 
sages of your letters." Delany was the son ofa i- 

vert; ami tliongh of pun: Irish breed, at once t..uk 
rank, in bia own opinion, a* an Englishman. There 
have always been many Englishmen of this Bpocics 
iu Ireland. 



preventing mo,,, effectually the eluding of 
those m being against popish priests," and 

the members had generally brought to town 
shocking tales illustrating the audacity of 
those outlawed ecclesiastics, in celebrating 
their worship, sometimes even in the open 
day. It was full time, they said, to take 
decisive measures. 

And in truth the ardent zeal and con- 
stancy, utterly unknown to fear, of the Irish 
Catholic priests during that whole century, 
are as admirable in the eyes of all just and' 

impartial men as they wen- abominable and 
monstrous in the eyes of the Protestant in- 
terest They often had Io traverse the sea 
between Ireland and France, in fishing 
smacks, and disguised as fishermen, carrying 
communications to or from Rome, required 
by the laws of their church, though they 
knew that on their return, if discovered, the 
penalty was the penalty of high treason, 
that is death. When in Ireland, they had 
often to lurk in caves, and make fatiguing 
journeys, never sure that the priesl hunters 
were not on their trail; yet all this they 
braved with a courage which, in any oiler 
cause, would have been reckless desperation. 
The English colonists could not comprehend 
Such chivalrous devotion at. all; and could 
devise no oilier theory to account for it than 
that these priests must he continually plot- 
ting with foreign Catholics to overthrow iho 
Protestant interesl and plunder thrm of their 

newly-gotten .stales. This was the secret 
terror that always urged them upon flesh 
atrocities. 

Accordingly, a series of resolutions was 
agreed upon and reported by the Commons; 
that Popery had increased, partly owing to 
the many shifts and devices the priests had 
for evading the laws, partly owing to the 
neglect of magistrates in not searching them 
out and punishing them— that "it is highly 
prejudicial to the 1'rotestant interest That 
any person married lo a popish wife should 
bear any office or employment under his 
majesty." This measure was thought need- 
ful, inasmuch as some magistrates, having 
married Cat holies, were ohs.-rved to be re- 
miss in taking informations against th -ir 
wives' confessors, knowing that they would 
have no peace in their houses afterwards. 
I he resolutions further recommended, that 



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I1IST0HY OF IRELAND. 



no convert (to the Established Church) should 
be capable of any office, nor practise as a 

solicitor or attorney for seven years after liis 
conversion, nor " unless he brings a certifi- 
cate of having received the sacrament thrice 
in every year during the said term ;" fur- 
ther, that all converts should duly enroll their 
certificates of conversion in the proper office. 
On the basis of these resolutions a bill was 
prepared ; and the language and behavior of 
Parliament on this occasion seems to have 
been even more vindictive and atrocious than 
had ever liceii witnessed before, even in an 
Irish legislature. One of the most zealous 
promoters of tliis bill, in a labored speech, 
informed the House, that of all countries 
wherein the reformed religion prevailed, 
Sweden was observed to be most free from 
those irreconcilable enemies to all Prot- 
estant governments, the Catholic priests; 

and that this happy exemption, so needful 

to the Protestant interest, was obtained by 
a wholesome practice which prevailed in 
that fortunate land, namely, the practice of 
castrating all popish priests who were found 
there. A clause to this effect was intro- 
duced into the new hill.* It passed both 
Houses, and was presented on the 15th of 
November to the Duke of Grafton, with an 
earnest request that his Grace "would recom- 
mend the same in the most effectual manner 
to his majesty." His Grace was pleased to 
return this answer : " I have so much at 
heart a matter which I recommended to the 
consideration of Parliament, at the beginning 
of this session, that the House of Commons 
may depend upon a due regard, on my part, 
to what is desired." With the Duke's rec- 
ommendation the bill was, as usual, for- 
warded to England. No objection to it had 
occurred either to his Grace, or to any peer 
or commoner in Ireland ; but an Irish agent 
in France presented a memorial on the subject 

to the Duke of Orleans, then regent. The 

two nations were at peace, and Cardinal 

Fleiiry, French prime minister, bad consid- 
erable influence with Mr. Walpole, A strong 
representation was made by order of Fleury 




Curry's Kcviow. l'lowden. 



against the new bill.* As it has never suited 
British policy that its measures in Ireland 
should become the subject of discussion and 
notoriety amongst the civilized nations of 
the continent (where English reputation for 
liberality has to be maintained) ; the Coun- 
cil disapproved the bill ; and this was the 
first occasion on which any penal law against 
Catholics met with such an obstacle in Eng- 
land. Some writers on Irish history have 
been inclined to carry this failure of sc 
atrocious a bill to the credit of human na- 
ture; and Mr. Plowden, after narrating the 
French interposition, says, with his usual 
amiable credulity, " but surely it needed no 

< rallic interference," <fcc. 

At any rate, the bill was lost. The de- 
pendence of Ireland upon tin? crown of Eng- 
land saved the Catholics for once from at 
least one ignominious outrage. But there 
were already laws enough in existence to 
satisfy, it, might be thought, the most san- 
guinary Protestantism. 

His Grace the lord lieutenantfin his speech 
to that. Parliament, at the close of the ses- 
sion, in order to console them for the loss o. 
their favorite bill, gave them to understand, 
" that it miscarried merely by its not having 
been brought into the House before the ses-, 
sion was so far advanced." And after earn- 
estly recommending to them, in their several 
stations, the care and preservation of the 
public peace, he added, "that, in his opinion, 
that would be greatly promoted by the vig- 
orous execution of the laws against, popish 
priests; and that he would contribute his 
part, towards the prevention of that growing 
evil, by giving proper directions that such 
persons only should be put into the coin- 
missions of the peace as had distinguished 
themselves by their steady adherence to the 
Protestant interest." 

Everybody knew what that meant — in- 
creased vigilance in hunting down clergy* 
men, and in discovering and appropriating 
the property of laymen ; nor is there any 
reason to think that his Grace's exhortations 
were addressed to unwilling cars. 

* Brenau, Eccl. Hist. I'lowden. Curry. 



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SWIFT AND WOOD'S COPPER. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1723-1727. 

Bwift and Wood's Copper — Drapicr's Letters — 
Claim of Independence — Primate Boulter — 
Bwift popular with the Catholics— His feeling to- 
wards Catholics — Desolation of the Country — 
K irk -mils — Absenteeism — Great Distress — 
Swift's modest Proposal — Death of George I. 

While the Irish Parliament was so earn- 
estly engaged in their measures against 
popish priests, Dean Swift, who had lived in 
gnat quiet for three or four years, writing 
Gulliver's Travels in the country, suddenly 
plnnged impetuously into the tumult of Irish 
polities. His indignation was inflamed to 
the highest pilch — not by the ferocity of the 
legislature against Catholics, but by Wood's 
copper halfpence. The country, he thought, 
was on the verge of ruin, not by reason of 
the tempest of intolerance, rapacity, fraud, 
and cruelty, which raged over it on every 
side, but by reason of a certain copper coin- 
age to the amount of £108,000, for which 
oue William Wood had taken the contract 
and received the' patent. Here was the cry- 
ing grievance of Ireland. 

It is necessary that the history of this 
transaction should be taken out of the do- 
main of rhetoric, and established upon a 
basis of fact. A great scarcity and need of 
copper money was felt in Ireland ; and this 
is not denied by the dean. William Wood, 
whom Swift always calls " hardwareman and 
bankrupt," but who was, in fact, a large pro- 
prietor, and owner or renter of several ex- 
tensive iron works in England,* proposed to 
contract for the supply needed, and his pro- 
posal was accepted. The national, or rather 
colonial, jealousy was at once inflamed ; and 
already, long be-fore Dean Swift's first letter 
on the subject, the two Houses had voted 
addresses to the crown, accusing the patentee 
of fraud, affirming that the terms of the 
patent had been infringed as to the quality 
of the coin, and that its circulation would 
be highly prejudicial to the revenue and 
commerce of the country. The Commons, 
with great exaggeration, declared that even 
had the terms of the patent been complied 
with, the nation would have suffered a loss 



' Coxe. Memoirs of Sir Eobcrt Walpole. 

7 



of at least 150 per cent.; and indeed the 
whole clamor rested on partial or ignorant 
misrepresentation. Wood's coin was as 
good as any other copper coinage of that 
day ; and the assertion of its opponents (re- 
peated by Swift), that the intrinsic was no 
more than one-eighth of the nominal value 
of the metal, must be taken with great cau- 
tion. If this assertion had even been true, 
the matter would have been of little conse- 
quence, because when coinage descends be- 
low gold and silver, it comes to be only a 
kind of counters for the convenience of ex- 
change, deriving its value from the sanction 
of the government which issues it ; and 
being receivable in payment of taxes, it has 
for all its purposes the whole value which it 
denotes on its face.* From the specimens, 
however, of Wood's halfpence preserved in 
the British Museum, and facsimiles of which 
are given in some editions of Swift's works, 
it is clear that the coins were of a goodly 
size, and with a fair impression ; and by an 
assay made at the mint, under Sir Isaac 
Newton and his two associates, it was proved 
that in weight anil in fineness these coins 
rather exceeded than fell short of the con- 
ditions of the patent.f However, the clamor 
was so violent, that "the collectors of the 
king's customs very honestly refused to take 
them, and so did almost everybody ebe," 
says Swift in his first letter of '"M. B. Dra- 
pier." So that the crusade against Wood 
and his halfpence was already in full prog- 
ress before the dean wrote a word ou the 
subject. 

It is observable further, that this matter 
concerning Wood and his coinage did not 
really touch the great question of Irish na- 
tional independence, or the insolent claim of 
the English Parliament lo make laws for 
Ireland ; because thematter of coining money 
belongs to the royal prerogative ; and not 
one man of the English colony in Ireland, 
not Swift himself, pretended to question the 



* The present base coinnge of cent and three-cent 
pieces in the United States is an example of this. 
It is intrinsically of no value at all, being composed 
of the vilest of metal ; yet it answers all the pur- 
poses of small change, without injury to anyhodj . 

+ Report of the Committee of the Privy CoQQcil. 
Swift replied that Wood must have furnished the 
committee with coins specially made lor examina- 
tion; which is quite possible. 



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HISTOKY OF IUKI.AND. 



autkoi ity of the King of England. In short, 

no re trifling occasion ever produced bo 

brilliant and memorable a result. It Beemed 
to be but an oocnsion, no matter how silly, 
ili.it. Bwift wanted. Any peg would do to 
hang Ins essays upon ; ami he used the affair 
of Wood, as llabelais bad used the legend 
of Gargantua Bnd Pantagruel, to introduce 
under cover of much senseless ribaldry, the 
graves! opinions on politics und government. 
Early in 17-1 appeared the first letter, writ- 
ten in the character of a Dublin shopkeeper. 
li was soon followed by six others, besides 
letters to William Wood himself, "Observa- 
tions on (he Reporl of the Lords of the 
Council," "Letter to the whole People of 
Ireland," and many ballads and songs which 
were calculated for the Dublin ballad-sing- 
era. These productions were remarkable 
nol only for their fierce sarcasm and denun- 
ciation directed against Wood himself, but 
for the constantly insinuated, and sometimes 
plainly expressed, assertion of the national 
right of Ireland (namely, of tin' English 
colony in Ireland) to manage her own affaire. 
This, Iii fact, »as always in hi> mind. "For 
m\ own part," observes M. 1>. Drapior, 
"who am but one man, of obscure origin, 1 
do solemnly declare in the presence of Al- 
mighty (bid, that 1 will Buffer the most igno- 
minious and torturing death rather than 
Bubinil to receive this aci nrsed coin, or any 
other thai is liable to the same objections, 
until they shall be forced upon me by a hur 
of mi/ own country; and if that shall even 
happen, I will transport myself into sunn,' 

foreign land, and cat the bread of poverty 

among a free people." ludeed, while he 
uema to be directing all the torrent of his 
indignation against the unlucky hardware- 
man, he very plainly personifies in him the 
relentless domination of England, and really 
lab.ns to e\e;ie, nol persoual wrath against 
Wood, but patriotic resentment against the 
British Government. A very admirable ex- 
ample, both of Ins M\ le of denunciation, and 

of his exquisite art in insinuating his lead- 
ing idea amidst a perfect deluge of wittj 
ribaldry, is seen in tins excellent passage: 
"1 am wt* sensible," says the worth] Dra 

pier, "ibat Mieh a woik as 1 have under- 
taken might have worthily employed a much 
bettor pen ; bm when a hon.se i.s attempted 



to be robbed, it often happens that the weak- 
est in the family runs first to stop the door. 
All my assistance was some informations 
from an eminent person, whereof I ain 
afraid 1 have spoiled a tew by endeavoring 

to make them of a piece with my own pro- 
ductions, and the rest, 1 was not able to 
manage. 1 was in the case of David, who 

could not move in the armor of Saul ; and 
therefore chose to attack this nneireiinieiscd 
Philistine (Wood I mean) with a sling and 

a stone. And I may say, for Wood's honor, 
as well as my own, that he resembles ( io- 

liah in many circumstances very applicable 
to the present purpose. For Goliah bad a 
helmet of brass on his bead, and he was 

armed with a coal of mail, and the weight of 
the coal was oOOO shekels of brass; ami 
he had gt caves of biass upon his legs, and 

a target of brass between his shoulders. In 
short, he was like Mr. Wood, all over brass, 
and he defied the armies of the living Godi 
Goliah's conditions of combatvwere likewise 

the same with those of Mr. Wood: il he 

prevail against us, Men ihall we he Ins sen 

noils ; but if il happens that 1 prevail over 

him, 1 renounce the other part o( the con- 
dition. He shall never be a servant of mine, 
for 1 do not think him lit to be trusted in 

any honest man's shop." 

But in the fourth letter of "M, B. Dra- 
pier,'' Dean Swift disclosed and developed 
without reserve his real sentiments, which, 

he savs, " have often swelled in my breast,'' 
on the absolute right o( the Irish nation 
filial is, of the English colony there) to gov- 
ern itself independently of the English Par- 
liament. ( 'u this point he thoroughly 

adopts and maintains the whole doctrine Of 
Mr. Molvneux ("an English gentleman bom 

lieu'"), and denounces the usurpation of the 

London Parliament in assuming to bind Ire- 
land by their laws. The proof that Swift) 
iii affirming the rights <■( the Irish nation, 
meant only the English colony, is seen 
clearly enough in a passage of this Veiy 
letter, 

'•(»ne great merit I am sure we have 
which those of English birth can have no 
pretence to — that our ancestors reduced this 
kingdom to the obedience of England, for 

which we have heen rewarded Willi a worse 
climate — the privilege of being governed by 



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laws i" which we 'I" nol consent— a ruined 

trade a hou e ol | a without jurisdiction 

—almost an incapacity for ail employments, 

and the dread of W I's halfpence." Ri ins 

nml warming as lie proceed , he al length 
fiiirly declares, "In this point we have 
nothing to do with English ministers, and I 
should I"' soi ry i" leave it in their pow< r to 

redress this grievanc to i nforce it, for the 

report of the committee has givei a sur- 
feit, The remedy is wholly in your own 
hands; and therefore 1 hare digressed a 1 i l — 

lie in ordci to refresh and tinue that spir- 

it w seasonnbly raised among vou, and to 
let \oi i see thai by the laws of < lod, of nature, 

of nations, and of youi unl ry, you are and 

ought to l«' a^ free a people as your broth- 
■ < ii in England." 

Foi printing this letter, Harding, the 
printer, was prosecuted; but when the in- 
dictment against him was sent up to the 
Dublin grand-jury, every man of them had 
in hi* hand a copy of another letter, entitled 
" Seasonable Adt ice to the < Irand-Jury," &e., 
which ii seems thoj took to heart, for they 
threw out tin' bill. A proclamation was 
then issued t'loin i li<- Castle offering are 
ward for discovery of the author, and signi 'I 
by Lord < larteret, then \ iceroy, Everj body 
knew the author; but public spirit, in Dub- 
lin was then so high and inflamed that the 
government could nol venture to arresl the 
I ii in. « in the vei j day the proclamation 
was issued, he publicly taunted Carteret at 
i letie with tlms persecuting a pom-, hon- 
est tradesman, a^ be called "the Drnpier;" 
adding,"] suppose your lordship expects a 
ue in copper for tliis service yon have 
done to Wood." In short, the cause of I lie 
halfpence was utterly lost: uobody would 
take them or touch them ; the Englii Ii gov- 
ernment had to withdraw tin! patent; Wil- 
liam Wood turned lii^ old copper to some 
other nse in the hardware line ; but received 
from the English Government a compen n 
lion in the shape of a pern ion of three thou- 
sand pounds for eight years.* 

From this time the Dean was the most 
popular man in Ireland ; I"' became the idol 
ot the shopki • pcrs and tradespeople. The 
Drapier was a ign ovet hundreds of shop ; 

* Coxu, Lite of Wuljiole. 




/ i 



PROSECUTION OK HAEDISrO, TIIIC 



the Drapier was an honored toast at all mer- 
ry-makings; and precisely as he grew in 
popularity in Ireland, he became a more in- 
tolerable thorn in the side of the king's ser- 
vants in tli.ii country, and especially ol 
Primate Boulter. Boulter was appointed 
Primate in this very year, .-mil one of the 
earliest letters published in his elaborate cor- 
respondence shows the extreme uneasiness 
with which that devoted Bervanl of the Eng- 
lish interest and door of "the king's busi- 
ness" regarded the spirit aroused by the 

common resent nt of all the people of nil 

religions Bnd races against Iho copper of 
Wood. He says in tins letter : " 1 Hud by 
my own and others' inquiries that the peo- 
ple of every religion, country, and party here, 
are alike set against Wood's halfpence, and 
that their agreement in this has bad h very 
unhappy influence on the state ol this na- 
tion, by bringing on intimacies between Pa- 
pists ami Jacobites and the Whigs, who be- 

i had no correspondence with them: so 

that 'tis questionable whether, if there were 
occasion, justices of the peace could be found 
who would l>e strict in disarming Papists." 
For the next eighteen years this Primate 
Boulter was the real governor of Ireland. 
Thirteen times in that period he was one ot 
the lords justices, and as he bad the full con- 
fidence of Walpolc, and was fully imbued 
with that minister's well-known principle 
(the principle, namely, that all could be done 
by intrigue and corruption), we find him 
really dictating to s essive viceroys of Ire- 
land, and also warning the English Govern- 
ment from time to time who were the per- 
iii in I re l.i in I that deserved encouragement 
and employment as the "king's servants," 
and who they wen- thai merited n probation 
as the " king's enemies," who obstruct 'I him 
in doing the king's busiuess. It is needless 
to observe that he became instantly a bitter 

enemy to Dean Swift, and more than :o 

cautioned the ministry ugainst whatever 
representations might come from that qum> 
lcr.« 

Win ther KwilY so intended or not, he be- 
came, in fact, highly popular with the Cath- 
olics of the kingdom. Not that be ever 
spoke nl' t hem without disdain ami aver ion. 

* Letter rtnlod loth leb., 17J.J, fruin Uic I'riinuU 

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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 





" The Popish priests," says he, " are all reg- 
istered, and without permission (which I 
hope will not be granted) they can have uo 
successors." (Letter concerning Sacramental 
Test.) In short, whenever he does allude to 
them at all, it is always with a view of inti- 
mating that he has no appeal to make to 
them, not regarding them as a part of the 
nation. In the famous prosecuted letter it- 
self — although it is addressed " To the 
Whole People of Ireland" — he takes occasion 
thus lo repel one of the assertions of Wood : 
" That the I'upisls have entered into an as- 
sociation against his coin, although it be no- 
toriously known that the;/ never once offered 
to stir in the matter." In his address, then, 
to the "Whole People," he speaks of the 
Papists as" they." But notwithstanding this, 
Catholic farmers had wool and grain to sell ; 
they also had their daily traffic, and if the in- 
troduction of that perilous copper was to be 
so fatal to the Protestants, it could not be 
good for them. Moreover, the bold assertion 
of Ireland's right to independence pleased 
them well. They knew, it is true, that they 
were not for the present considered as active 
citizens; yet being five to one,* they also 
felt that if the heavy pressure of British 
domination wire once taken off, they or their 
children could not fail to assert tor them- 
selves a recognized place in a new Irish na- 
tion, lip to the present date, the Irish 
Catholic freeholders voted at elections to Par- 
liament (though their suffrage was cramped 
by oaths, and they could oidy vote for a 
Protestant candidate), and they could still 
make their weight felt in the scale either of 
Whig or Tory, either in favor of the king's 
servants er the king's enemies, as Dr. Boul- 
ter called them respectively. No wonder, 
therefore, that the primate began to view 
with great alarm a community of feeling 
arising between the Catholics and either of 
the Protestant parties, and he soon cast 
about for a remedy, and found one. 

Dean Swift was never openly attacked by 
the primate, but he had been for some, years 
subjected to the spy-system, which is always 
so essential an arm of English government 



in Ireland, and had found it necessary to use 
great precautions in securing his manuscripts, 
as well as his ordinary letters, from the vigi- 
lant espionage of the government.* When 
Wood's patent was withdrawn, and all ap- 
prehensions were over concerning the. half- 
pennies, he was desirous to withdraw for a 
while from the capital and from the neigh- 
borhood of Dr. Boulter's detectives, and 
went to the quiet retreat of Qnilea, in the 
County Cavan, where his friend Dr. Sheri- 
dan had a house. Here he finished "Gul- 
liver," which had been suspended for a while, 
and prepared it for the press; enjoying, by 
the shore of Lough Ramor, the conversation 
of Stella, and the " blessings of a country 
life," which he describes to be 

" Far from our debtors, 
No Dublin letters, 
Nut .seen by your betters." 

The next year Swift went to England, but 
before he went Primate Boulter wrote to Sir 
Robert Walpole a letter whifh well illus- 
trates the vigilance of that prelate in the 
king's service, and also the estimation in 
which he held Dr. Swift. He says, "The 
general report is that Dean Swift designs for 
England in a little time, and we do not ques-. 
lion his endeavors to misrepresent his maj- 
esty's friends here wherever he finds an op- 
portunity. But he is so well known, as well 
as the disturbances he has been the foment- 
er of in this kingdom, that we are under no 
fear of his being able to disserve any of his 
majesty's faithful servants by any thing that 
is known to come from him ; but we could 
wish some eye were had to what shall be 
attempted on your side the water." 

No further political event of much conse- 
quence occurred in Ireland during the short 
remainder of the reign of George I. All ac- 
counts of that period represent the country 
as sinking lower in misery and distress. 
Su ill's graphic tracts and letters give a pain- 
fully vivid picture of the desolation of the 
rural districts, lie laments often the wanton 
and utter destruction of timber, wlkiuh had 
left bare .and hungry-looking great regions 
that had but lately waved wit li ancient 
woods. New proprietors, under the various 

Koscoo's Life of Swift; Sir Walter Scott's Life. 



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THE COUNTRY REDUCED TO TOTAL DESOLATION. 



confiscations, had always felt, in those times 
of revolutions, that their possessions were 
held by ft precarious tenure; there might at 
any moment be a new confiscation, or a new 
resumption; therefore, as the woods would 
bring in their value at once they were felled 
remorselessly, and often sold at a mere trifle 
for the sake of getting ready money. It has 

1 n itlready seen that "the commissioners 

(.!' confiscated estates" in King William's 
time* speak of this destruction of the forests 
as a grievous loss to the nation. They esti- 
mate that mi one estate in Kerry trees to the 
value of £20,000 had been cut down or de- 
stroyed ; "ii another estate £27,000 worth ;" 
and in some cases they say, " Those on whom 
the confiscated estates have been bestowed, 
or their agents, have been so greedy to seize 
upon the most trifling profits that large trees 
have been cut down and sold for sixpence 
each." The consequence of all this wanton 
waste was soon lamentably observable in the 
nakedness of this once well-wooded island, 
where in Dean Swift's time it would have 
been impossible, as he tells us, to find timber 
either for ship-building or for the houses of 
the people. 

The condition of the farmers and laboring 
people was extremely haul in the latter years 
of this reign. As Catholics were subjected 
to severe restrictions if they lived in trading 
and manufacturing towns, their only resource 
was to become tenants for short terms, or at 
will, to an alien and hostile race of landlords, 
and this at most oppressive rents. "Another 
gr.at calamity," says Swift.f "is the exorbi- 
tant raising of the rent of lauds. Upon the 
determination of all leases made before the 
year 1 690, a gentleman thinks he has but in- 
differently improved his estate if he has only 
doubled his rent-roll. Farms are screwed up 
to a rack-rent; leases granted but for a 
small term of years; tenants tied down to 
baid conditions, ami discouiaged from culti- 
vating the lands they occupy to the best ad- 
vantage, by the certainty they have of the 
rent lieing raised on the expiration of their 
lease proportionally to the improvements 
they shall make. Thus it is that honest in- 



* See their report nt the end of MncGeoghegan'a 
Hietory. 
f'Tlie present miserable state of Ireland. " 




dustry is restrained ; the farmer is a slave to 
his landlord ; and it is well if he can cover 
his family with a coarse homespun frieze." 
Another of the evils complained of by the 
Dean is the prevalence of absenteeism, which 
carried over to England, according to his es- 
timate, half a million sterling of Irish money 
per annum, with no return. Another still 
was the propensity of proprietors to turn 
great tracts of land into sheep pastures, 
which, of course, drove away tenants, in- 
creased the wretched competition for farms, 
and still more increased rents. It was this 
which made Swift exclaim, with bis bitter 
humor, ' Ajax was mad when he mistook a 
flock of sheep for his enemies ; but we shall 
never be sober till we are of the same way 
of thinking." To all these miseries must be 
added the decay of trade and commerce, 
caused directly by the jealous and greedy 
commercial policy of England; and this 
grievance pressed quite as heavily upon the 
Protestant as on the Catholic. 

So uniform has been the system of English 
rule in Ireland, that the description of it 
given a century and a half ago fits with 
great accuracy and with even heavier ag- 
gravations at this day. The absentee rents 
are now ten times as great in amount as they 
were then; ami although the prohibition 
against exporting woollen cloth is now no 
longer in force, yet its effect has been per- 
petuated so thoroughly that the Irish do m t 
now, as they did then, even manufacture 
woollen cloth fur home consumption. In the 
year 1723 a petition was presented to Par- 
liament from the woollen drapers, clothiers 
and weavers of Dublin, setting forth the de- 
cay and almost destruction of their industry, 
the sore distiess and privations of thousands 
of families that had once lived comfortably 
by prosecuting these trades, and asking for 
inquiry and relief. But an Irish Parliament, 
absolutely controlled by an English Pi ivy- 
Council, was quite incapable of applying any 
remedy"; so the affaiis of trade had I'nlUn 
from bad to worse, until at the close of this 
reign there was imminent danger of a de- 
structive famine, that scourge which foreign 
domination has made so familiar to Ireland. 
[l was in 1729 that Swift wrote and pub- 
lished his "Modest Proposal" for relieving 
the miseries of the people 






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eating the children of the poor — a piece of 
the fiercest sarcasm, steeped in all the con- 
centrated bitterness of his soul ; which, how- 
ever — so grave is the irony — has been some- 
times taken by foreign writers as a serious 
project of relief. 

King George died on the 11th of June, 
1727, just after settling the preliminaries of 
a peace with the Emperor anil Spain, which 
was shortly afterwards signed at Seville (but 
to the exclusion of the Emperor) by the 
ministers of France, England and Spain. 
Thus our exiles on the continent were de- 
prived for a time of the pleasure of meeting 
their hereditary enemies on the field. But 
further opportunities were happily to arise 
for them. 



CHAPTER IX. 
1727-1741. 

Lord Carteret lord-lieutenant— Primate rtoulte- ruler 
of Ireland— His policy— Catholic Address— Not 
noticed — Papists deprived of elective franchise — 
Insolence of t lie " Ascendency"'— Famiiu — Emi- 
gration — Dorset lord-lientenant — Agitation of 
Dissenters — Sacramental Test— Swift's virulence 
against the Dissenters — Boulter's policy to extir- 
pate Papists— Kage against the Catholics — Debates 
on money bills — "Patriot Party" — DuUc of 
Devonshire lord-licutcnanl — Corruption — An- 
other famine — Berkeley — English commercial poli- 
cy in Ireland. 

The accession of George II. occasioned no 
great excitement iu Ireland. Lord Carteret 
was continued as lord-lieutenant, but the 
corrupt and domineering churchman, Pri- 
mate Boulter, fl fit instrument of the odious 
minister, Sir Robert Walpole, still directed 
the course of government, and always to the 
same end — the depression and discourage- 
ment of the Patriot party, as the assertors 
of Irish legislative independence began to 
be termed, the complete establishment of 
English sovereignty, and the eternal division 
of Irish and English, of Catholic and Prot- 
estant. 

The new king had acquired a reputation 
for a certain degree of liberality and toler- 
ance, as indeed the first George also had be- 
fore becoming king of England ; because, in 
the electoral dominions in Germany, the 
Catholic religion was freely tolerated, and 



not subjected to the savage penalties and 
humiliating oaths which made that worship 
almost impossible in Ireland. The Irish 
Catholics, therefore, when the young king 
mounted the throne, conceived certain de- 
lusive hopes of a relaxation in the Penal 
Code. They were still smarting tinder the 
la-h of the Popery laws, which had never 
vet been so cruelly laid on as during the 
reign of George the First ; but as they re- 
membered that the two last and severest of 
these laws were said to have been enacted 
as a punishment for their neglect in not 
having addressed Queen Anne on her coming 
to the throne, they were now induced to 
think they should avoid giving the like of- 
fence on the present auspicious occasion. 
An humble congratulatory address was there 
fore prepared, testifying unalterable loyalty 
and attachment to the king and to his royal 
house ; and it met with the kind of reception 
which might have been expected. It was 
presented with all due respectjw the lords 
justices at the Castle of Dublin, by Lord 
Delvin and other persons of the first quality 
among them ; but so little notice was then 
taken either of their address or themselves, 
that it is not yet known whether it was ever 
transmitted to be laid before his majesty, as 
it was humbly desired it should be; or 
whether even an answer was returned by 
their excellencies that it should be so trans- 
mitted. 

Iu other words, they and their abject 
"loyalty" were wholly ignored; and they 
received one additional lesson, if they still 
needed it, that they were to consider them- 
selves not his majesty's subjects, but the 
" common enemy." 

They were soon to have still another les- 
son. Primate Boulter, having observed vt ith 
apprehension that the '' Patriot" party was 
popular with the Catholics, and afraid of the 
results of this influence upon the next elec- 
tions, took care to have a bill prepared, which 
was hurried through Parliament, for the en- 
tire disfranchisement of "Papists.' 1 Plow- 
den and other writers affirm that the dis- 
franchising clause was introduced into the 
bill by a kind of surprise or deception ; but, 
however that may be, it passed both Houses 
and received the royal assent, enacting that 
"Ko Papist shall be entitled or admitted to 



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vote iit the election of any member to serve 
in Parliament as a knight, citizen or burgess; 
or at the election of any magistrate for any 
city or other town corporate, any law, statute 
or usage to the contrary notwithstanding."* 
The Catholics were by this law deprived of 
tin- very last vestige of civil right, and of 
the only poor means they possessed of mak- 
ing a friend or influencing any public meas- 
ure. They remained utterly disfranchised 
for sixty-six years ; and during all that period 
were as completely helpless as the beasts of 
the field. 

Another transaction of this year may be 
considered as a lesson not only to the Catho- 
lics, but to the new king, supposing that they 
should dream of receiving some indulgence, 
or thai be should imagine his German lib- 
erality would do for Ireland. In the year 
lT.'V application had been made by certain 
Catholics to the late king for the reversal of 
some outlawries incurred by several "rebel- 
lion-," and which had been most iniquitous- 
ly obtained, and had actually reduced some 
of the most ancient, noble, and opulent 
Roman Catholic families of the kingdom, 
with their numerous descendants, to absolute 
beggary. The Commons then silting, and 
justly apprehending from his majesty's sup- 
posed equity and commiseration, that such 
application might meet with some success, 
resolved upon a petition, wherein, among 
other things, they tell his majesty plainly, 
and even with a kind of menace, "that 
nothing could enable t/<<m to defend his right 
and title to his crown so effectually as the 
enjoyment of those estates, which have been 
the forfeitures of the rebellious Irish, and 
weie then in the possession of his Piotest- 
ant subjects; and therefore, that they were 
fully assured that he would discourage all 
applications or attempts that should be made 
in favor of such traitors or their descendants, 
so dangerous to the Protestant interest of 
this kingdom." This petition produced the 
wished-for effect. The king, in his* answer, 
assured the Commons "that he would for 
the future di-courage all such applications 
and attempts." 

But the Commons, not content with this 

ih 



solicitors, who had been employed by the 
Catholics in their late unsuccessful attempt, 
might prevail upon their clients to renew 
their application at another more favorable 
juncture, brought in a bill absolutely dis- 
qualifying all Roman Catholics from prac- 
tising as solicitors, the only branch of the 
law profession which they were then permit- 
ted to practise. 

Lord Carteret, in proroguing that Parlia- 
ment, took occasion to congratulate it upon 
the several excellent laws which it had 
passed, amongst others the law " for regula- 
tion of elections." At this date, then, the 
Catholics of Ireland may be said to disap- 
pear from history. But it was impossible to 
extinguish, or to keep down everywhere and 
forever, the Irish race. An historian, who 
certainly shows no anxiety to say any thing 
soothing or flattering of our countrymen, 
obsei ves well : 

''There were indeed Irish Itoman Catho- 
lics of great ability, energy, and ambition : 
but they were to be found everywhere ex- 
cept in Ireland, at Versailles and at Saint 
Ildefonso, in the armies of Frederic and in 
the armies of Maria Theresa. One exile be- 
came a marshal of France. Another became 
prime minister of Spain.* If he had staid in 
his native land he would have been regarded 
as an inferior by all the ignorant and worth- 
less squireens who drank the glorious and 
immortal memory. In his palace at Madrid 
he had the pleasure of being assiduously 
courted by the ambassador of George II. and 
of bidding defiance in high terms to the am- 
bassador of George III."]- 

Carteret's administration, apart from the 
oppression of the Catholics, or perhaps, in 
part, on account of that very oppression, is 
usually praised by English historians for its 
wisdom and humanity. He certainly pro- 
moted some few trifling measures tending to 
the improvement of trade; but nothing 
touching, or in the slightest degree trench- 
ing upon, the domain of English monopoly, 
still less upon the absolute sovereign powers 
of the English Parliament over Ireland and all 
things Irish. The primate, in fact, man- 
aged both the Irish Parliament and the Irish 
elections; besides taking gnat pains to fo* 



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56 



niSTORT OF IRELAND. 




nipnt quarrels and jealousies between Prot- 
estants and Protestants, between English and 
Irish, and even between the down-trodden 
Catholics. There had been differences of 
opinion amongst the latter on the policy of 
presenting their address of congratulation 
and loyalty; and the primate writes to Lord 
Carteret with great complacency on the 20ih 
July : " I hear this day that the address yes- 
terday presented by some Roman Catholics 
occasions great heats and divisions amongst 
those of that religion here ;" which he inti- 
mates may produce a good effect. He had 
his agents in all the counties canvassing and 
intriguing for the king's friends; and pre- 
vious to an election he once writes to assure 
the lord-lieutenant that "the elections will 
generally go well."* Tn short, by the dis- 
franchisement of five-sixths of the people, by 
a judicious distribution of patronage and 
place amongst the rest, and by the cver- 
ready resource of the indefatigable primate, 
the Parliament had become perfectly man- 
ageable, and the "Patriot," party was effect- 
ually kept down. Swift has described the 
Irish Parliament at this time as being 

"Always firm in its vocation, 

For tlie Court, nguinst the nation." 

So that Lord Carteret's administration was 
naturally considered in England as quite a 
success. 

But the famine that had been so greatly 
feared, now really visited the country with 
great severity, and slew its thousands for two 
years. No register, nor even approximate 
estimate of the amount of destruction of hu- 
man life caused by this famine was made at 
the time, but in many counties people fed on 
weeds and garbage. Ireland was then im- 
porting corn, and it is mentioned, as a re- 
markable fact, that between two and three 
undred thousand pounds worth of grain 
was imported in one year during the dearth. 
The famine returned a few years later, in 
17-11 ; and, in fact, famine may be said to 
have become an established institution of 
the country and constant or periodical agent 
of British government from this time forth. 
There now began a very considerable emi- 
gration to America and the West Indies, 

* Boulter' 3 Correspondence. 



and this emigration was almost exclusively 
of Protestants from the North of Ireland. 
Primate Boulter, in one of his letters, com- 
plains of this circumstance, but takes care, 
at the same time, to libel the emigrating 
Dissenters, alleging that most of them were 
persons who, having contracted debts they 
could not or would not pay, were living the 
country to avoid their creditors. lie takes 
care not to tell his correspondent in England 
the true reasons of this movement : first, 
decline of trade and hunger and hardship; 
next, the oppression of the Test Act, and ot 
the "Schism" Act, a new law which had 
been very lately extended to Ireland by the 
sole authority of the British Parliament. 
The migration of Protestant Dissenters from 
Ulster, which commenced in Lord Carteret's 
administration, afterwards took huge pro- 
portions, and Pennsylvania, Western Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, and Georgia were in 
a great, measure peopled by these " Scotch 
Irish," as they are called in the United 
States. 

Carteret was succeeded by the Duke of 
Dorset, in 1731, but the change made no 
alteration in the even tenor of the Govern- 
ment, seeing that Primate Boulter was still 
really and effectively the viceroy of the coun- 
try. The Catholics were now giving no 
trouble — too happy if they could avoid ob- 
servation ; but there arose a most vehe- 
ment agitation on the part of the Dissenters. 
These Presbyterians had contributed power- 
fully to the subjugation of Ulster under King 
William ; had fought at Deiry and at New- 
townbutler, as well as at the Boyne and 
Aughrim ; were devoted adherents to the 
Protestant succession and the House of Han- 
over, and had always aided and applauded 
the enactment of penal laws against the 
"common enemy." Now, when the com- 
mon enemy was put down under foot, never, 
it was hoped, to rise again, the Dissenters 
naturally enough thought they should be 
entitled -to the privilege of silting in Parlia- 
ment and entering the municipal corpora- 
tions without taking the sacrament accord- 
ing to the rites of the Church of England, 
which was contrary to their conscience, but 
was imposed on them by law. They even 
made a merit of not having made common 
cause with the Catholics, although joined 













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FAMINE — EMIGHATION- 






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with them in <i common injury on the pas- 
sag' 1 of the "Act to prevent the further 
growth of Popery;" they had preferred to 
endure disabilities and insults themselves 
rather than in any way embarrass the Gov- 
ernment in its measures against the common 
enemy. For this base compliance they had 
their reward, and remained subject to the 
Test Act for three generations afterwards. 

In their attempts to obtain a relaxation of 
this code during Dorset's administration, the 
Catholics found, of course, the sternest and 
most uncompromising opponent in the pri- 
mate; but — what they bad not perhaps ex- 
l„ ,-'. ,]-_ th.> most indefatigable, the most effi- 
cient, the most offensive and disdainful 
enemy they had, was the Dean of St. Pat- 
rick's. For once the primate and the dean 
were on the same side. It does not appear, 
indeed, that there was the least chance at that 
time of breaking down in favor of Dissent- 
ers the strong barriers that fenced round the 
interest of the Established Church on every 
side; but there was much discussion by po- 
litical pamphlets, and for two years Swift 
poured forth in very powerful papers his 
horror of Puritans and scorn of Scotchmen. 
The most remarkable of these productions 
is that entitled "Reasons; humbly offered 
to the Parliament of Ireland, for repealing 
the Sacramental Test in favor of the Catho- 
lic." This, like his "Modest Proposal," is 
a master-piece of cold and biting irony; in- 
tendi 'It" show that the I >issentefs could not 
nrge a single plea in favor of their own 
emancipation which the very Papists could 
not bring forward with Still greater force. 
The writer seems throughout to plead the 
cause of the Catholics, "called by their ill- 
willers Papists," with so much earnestness, 
thai very intelligent Catholic writers, as 
Plowden, Lawless, Curry, and others, have 
quoted it as a serious argument on their be- 
half. Indeed, it is nol « lerl'ul if straight- 
forward, unsophisticated minds that under- 
stand no joking on SO crave a subject, have 
been sometimes mystified by passages like 
this : 

" Ai -1 whi reas another author among onr 
brethren, the I 'issentcre, has very justly com- 
plained that by this persecuting Test Act 

great onmbere i ftrue Protestants have I n 

forced to leave the kingdom and fly to the 



plantations, rather than stay here branded 
with an incapacity for civil and military 
employment; we do affirm that the Catho 
lies can bring many more instances of th 
same kind ; some thousands of their religion 
have been forced by the Sacramental Tc-t 
to retire into other countries rather than live 
here under the incapacity of wearing swords, 
sitting in Parliament, and getting that share 
of power and profit which belongs to them 
as fellow-Christians, whereof they are de- 
prived merely upon account of conscience, 
which would not allow them to take the 
sacrament after the manner prescribed in the 
liturgy. Hence it clearly follows, in the 
words of the same author, 'That if we [Caih- 
olics] are incapable of employment, we are 
punished for our dissent, that is, tor our con- 
science,' " &c. 

It gives us a singular idea of the narrow- 
ness of this "Irish patriot's" idea of patriot- 
ism, that he could conceive no more effect- 
ual way of casting odium and ridicule on 
the pretensions of Dissenters, than by show- 
ing that even the Papists themselves might 
plausibly urge similar pretensions; and al- 
though he was aware of the effect of these 
penal laws in driving both Catholics and Dis- 
senters away from their native land, to cany 
their energy, their industry, and their resent- 
ments into foreign countries, he was yet 
earnestly in favor of retaining the whole sys- 
tem of penal laws unbroken against them 
both. The controversy soon died out, and 
was only occasionally and faintly renewed 
during the remainder of the century ; but it 
is impossible to refrain from the expression 
of a regret that the sovereign genius of Swift 
could not raise him up to a loftier and more 
generous idea of patriotism for the country 
of his adoption — or, as he always called it, 
of his exile — than this narrow and intolerant 
exclusiveness, which would drive from their 
native land both Catholics and Protestants 
wdio could not take the sacrament as he ad- 
ministered it. lie opposed English domina- 
tion over Ireland, yet equally opposed the 
union of Irishmen to resist it. Therefore 
the verdict of history must forever be, that 
he was neither an English patriot, nor an 
Irish one. As was said long afterwards of 

O'Connell, "he was a bad subject and a 
worse rebel." Yet the toue of indepeudeut 



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68 



niSTORY OF IRELAND. 



thought which rings through his inimitable 
essays, and the high anil manly spirit with 
which lie showed Irishmen how to confront 
unjust power, did not pass away ; they pen- 
etrated the character of the whole English 
colony, and bore fruit long after that unquiet 
and haughty heart lay at rest in the aisle of 
St. Patrick's. Ubi sceua indignatio ulterius 
cor lacerate nequit. 

The disfranchised Catholics being now de- 
prived of their last and only means of gain- 
ing the favor and indulgence of their neigh- 
boring magistrates, by promising to vote for 
their party (all parlies being alike to the 
Catholics); were made to feel the full atrocity 
of the penal laws. It seems really to have 
been the design of Primate Boulter to wear 
down that population by ill-usage, to force 
them to fly the country, to get rid of them 
somehow altogether, so that the islaud might 
lie open to be wholly peopled by English 
Protestants. 

Boulter was by no means the inventor of 
this policy; neither was he the last who 
acted upon it; but none ever pursued it 
with more diabolical malignity. If any 
clergyman desired to win the primate's 
favor, he forthwith preached furious and 
foaming sermons against the execrated 
Papists. If any pamphleteer desired to 
make himself conspicuous as a "king's ser- 
vant," and so gain a profitable place, he set 
to work to prove that all Catholics are by 
nature and necessity murderers, perjurers, 
and adulterers. The resolutions passed so 
frequently in both Houses of Parliament, ex- 
horting magistrates to be active in enforcing 
the laws against the common enemy, had 
sometimes been only partially effective, be- 
cause the Catholics had away of influencing 
country gentlemen to a certain extent. But 
now, under the primate's auspices, it was not 
intended that such resolutions should be a 
dead letter. 

On the Oth of March, 1731, it was "Re- 
solved unanimously that it is the indispens- 
able duty of all magistrates and officers to 
put the laws made to prevent the further 
growth of Popery in Ireland in due execu- 
tion.'' It was also at the same time resolved, 
vein, con. (being the end of the session), 
''thai ihe men, hers of that house, in their 
respective couuties and stations, would use 



their utmost endeavors to put the sev- 
eral laws against Popery in due execu- 
tion." 

These frequent resolutions of the Com- 
mons, aided by inflammatory anniversary 
sermons and equally inflammatory pam- 
phlets, occasionally preached and published, 
diffused such a spirit of rancor and ani- 
mosity against Catholics, among their Prot- 
estant neighbors, as made the generality of 
them believe that the words Popery, rebel- 
lion, and massacre really signified the same 
thing, and thereby excited such real terrors 
in these latter as often brought the liberties 
and sometimes the lives of the former into 
imminent danger. The most shocking fables 
that had been invented concerning the Irish 
insurrection in 1041, and of the English gun- 
powder treason in 1G05, were studiously re- 
vived ami aggravated in these sermons and 
pamphlets, with a degree of virulence and 
exaggeration which surpassed the most ex- 
travagant fictions of romance gr poetry, and 
posses-ed their uninformed, though often 
well-meaning, hearers and readers with last- 
ing and general abhorrence of these people. 
The crimes, real or supposed, of Catholics, 
dead more than a century before, were im- 
puted, intentionally, to all those who sur- 
vived them, however innocent, of the same 
religious persuasion. 

Doctor Curry affirms that by all these 
means the popular passion was so fiercely in- 
censed against Papists as to suggest to some 
Protestants the project of destroying them 
by massacre at once; and that "an ancient 
nobleman and privy councillor," whom the 
author, however, does not name, " in the 
\ car 1/43, on the threatened invasion of 
England by the French, under the command 
of Marshal Saxe, openly declared in council 
'that as the Papists had begun the massacre 
on them, about a hundred years before, so 
he thought it both reasonable and lawful, 
on their parts, to prevent them, at that 
dangerous juncture, by first falling upon 
them.'" 

The same respectable author, who was a 
contemporary of the events he relates, states 
that "so entirely were some of the lower 
northern Dissenters possessed and influenced 
by this prevailing prepossession and rancor 
against Catholics, that in the same year, and 



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imnnini.E scheme yon the massacre oy catholics. 




for the saint- declared purpose of prevention, 
a conspiracy was actually formed by some of 
the inhabitants of Lurgan to rise in the 
night time and destroy all their neighbors of 
thai denomination in their beds. But tins 
inhuman purpose was also frustrated l>y an 
information of t i i *- honest Protestant publi- 
can in whose house the conspirators had met 
to settle the execution of their scheme, 
swore before the Rev. Mr. Ford, a justice of 
the peace in that district, who received it 
with horror, and with difficulty put a stop 
to the intended massacre."* 

The Irish House of Commons, during 
Lord Dorset's administration, was chiefly oc- 
cupied by debates on money and finances. 
The latter years of Carteret's terra had been 
much disquieted on account of an attempt, 
made by the king's servants, to get a vote of 
£■274,000 to the crown. The country party 
resisted vigorously; and then began a series 
of acrimonious debates on monetary affairs, 
which "the Patriots" treated with a view to 
assert, as often and as strongly as possible, 
the right of the Irish Legislature to control 
at least the matter of Irish finances. In 
this first session, held in the Dnke of Dor- 
set's government, the question came up 
again under another form on the vote for the 
supplies. The national debt, on Lady Day, 
1733, was £371,312 13s. 2d.,f and for the 
payment of the ptincipal and interest the 
supplies were voted from session to session. 
A ".':<>ss attempt was now made to grant 
the supplies, set aside to pay the debt and 
the interest, to the king and his successors 
("fever. 

This proposition was violently resisted by 
the Patriots, who asserted that it was uncon- 
stitutional to vote the sum for a longer period 
than from session to session. The Govern- 
ment, defeated in tins attempt, sought to 

gran) it for twenty-one years, and a warm 

debate ensued. Just as the division was 
ab rot taking place, the Ministerialists and 
Patriots being neatly equal, Colonel Totten- 
ham, an Oppositionist, entered. Lie was 
.i ised in boots, contrary to the etiquette of 
the House, which prescribed full dress. His 
vote gave the majority to the Patriots, and 
the Government was defeated by Tottenham 




Curr^'a Historical Review. 



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in his boots. This became one of the toasts 
of patriotism, and was given in all the social 
meetings. 

But such triumphs of the country party' 
were rare, and their effects were precarious. 
Every sueh event as this, however, stimu- 
lated and kept alive the aspiration after inde- 
pendent nationality; and the same Duke of 
Dorset, when he was in Ireland as viceroy 
for the second time, had an opportunity to 
verify and measure the progress of that na- 
tional spirit. 

In 1 7:3 7 Dorset was recalled, and was suc- 
ceeded by the Duke of Devonshire, a noble- 
man of great wealth, who kept a splendid 
court in Dublin, and by the expenditures 
thereby occasioned made himself extremely 
popular amongst the tradesmen of that city.* 
In fact, the English Government and its crafty 
chief, Sir Robert Walpole, saw the necessity 
of counteracting the perilous doctrines of 
the "Patriots," b'y all the arts of seduction, 
by the charm of personal popularity, and 
especially by corruption — an art which, un- 
der Sir Robert Walpole, reached, both in 
England and in Ireland, a degree of high 
development, «hieh it had never before at- 
tained in any country. As it was that min- 
ister's avowed maxim that "every man has 
his price," he saw no reason to except Irish 
patriots from that general law; and Primate 
Boulter was precisely the man to test its 
accuracy in practice. All the influence of 
the Government was now needed to over- 
come the rev,, lute bearing of the Opposition 
upon the grand subject of "supplies." The 
Patriots were determined, if the Irish Par- 
liament was to be politically subordinate to 
that of England, that they would at least 
endeavoT to maintain its privilege of voting 
its own money. It is in these debates we 
first find amongst the Patriot party the 
names of Sir Edward O'Brien, of Clare, and 
his son, Sir Lucius O'Brien, an illustrious 
name then, both at home and abroad, des- 
tined to be more illustrious still before the 
close of that century, and to shine with a 
vet purer fame in the present age. Henry 
Bovle, Speaker of the House of Commons, 
and afterwards Earl of Shannon, and Antony 
Malone, son of that Malone who had pleaded 

* Ilo also built Devonshire Quay, at his own es- 
pouse, and presented it to the city. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND 



along with Sir Toby Butler against the penal 
laws of Queen Anne's time, were also leading 
members of the Opposition. 

In 1741 there was another dreadful famine. 
It is irksome to record, or to read the de- 
tails of this chronic miser}' ; but in the His- 
tory of Ireland the gaunt spectre of Famine 
must be a prominent figure of the picture, 
while English connection continues. The 
learned and amiable Dr. George Berkeley 
was then Bishop of Cloyne. A season of 
starvation first, and then, in due rotation, a 
season of pestilence, thinned the people 
miserably ; and the good bishop's sympathies 
were strongly moved. In a letter to Mi'. 
Thomas Prior, of Dublin, he writes thus, 
under date the 19th May, 1741:— '"The 
distresses of the sick and poor are endless. 
The havoc of mankind in the counties of 
Cork, Limerick, and some adjacent places, 
hath been incredible. The nation, probably, 
will not recover this loss in a century. The 
other day I heard one from the county of 
Limerick say that whole villages were en- 
tirely dispeopled. About two months since 
I heard Sir Richard Cox say that five hun- 
dred were dead in the parish, though in a 
county, I believe, not very populous. It 
were to be wished people of condition were 
at their seats in the country during these 
calamitous times, which might provide relief 
and employment for the poor. Certainly, 
if these perish, the rich must be sufferers in 
the end." 

It was wdiile under the impression of these 
terrible scenes of suffering that Berkeley 
wrote his celebrated pamphlet, entitled "The 
Querist," which sets forth, under the form of 
questions, without answers, the bishop's 
views of the evils and requirements of his 
country ; for Berkeley, unlike Swift, called 
himself an Irishman. Two or three of his 
queries will show the drift of the work. 
"Whether a great quantity of sheepwalk 
be not ruinous to a country, rendering it 
waste and thinly inhabited';" "Whether it 
be a crime to inquire how far we may do 
without foreign trade, and what would fol- 
low on such a supposition?" "Whether, if 
there were a wall of brass a thousand cubits 
high round this kingdom, our natives might 
not, nevertheless, live cleanly and comfort- 
ably, till the land, and reap the fruits of it V 



Such queries as these, though very cautiously 
expressed, showed plainly enough that the 
excellent bishop attributed all the evils of 
Ireland to the greedy commercial policy of 
England; .and accordingly this pamphlet 
was quite enough to stop his promo; ion. 
The next year there was a vacancy for the 
primacy; and as Berkeley was the most 
learned and famous man in the Irish Church 
(Swift being then in his sad dotage), the 
friends of the Bishop of Cloyne naturally 
thought him entitled to the place, especially 
since Sir Robert Walpole owed him some 
compensation for having broken faith with 
him in the matter of his Bermuda mission- 
ary college. But Berkeley himself expected 
no such favors. He writes to Mr. Prior with 
a touching simplicity : "For myself, though 
bis excellency the lord-lieutenant might 
have a better opinion of me than I tie- 
served, yet it was not likely that Jie would 
make an Irishman primate." And assuredly, 
Berkeley was not the kind of man needed 
to "do the king's business" in Ireland. Dr. 
Hoadley was the person appointed, and was 
soon succeeded by the notorious George Stone. 
It would require a large volume to detail 
the numberless and minutely elaborated 
measures by which the English Government 
has at all times contrived to regulate the 
trade and industry of Ireland in all their 
parts with a view to her own profit;, a s\s- 
tem whereby periodical famines are insured 
in an island endowed by nature with such 
boundless capacity for wealth. We hive 
seen that both Swift and Berkeley attacked 
the extensive " sheepwalks." In those years, 
corn was brought from England to Ireland 
because it suited the interest of England 
then to discourage agriculture here, and to 
encourage sheep-farms, ail her efforts being 
directed to secure the woollen trade to her- 
self. Accordingly it was forbidden the Irish 
to export black cattle to England, and, 
therefore, sheep became the more profitable 
stock ; but as the Irish could make nothing 
of the wool, they had to send it in the 
fleece, and thus Yorkshire was supplied with 
the raw material of its staple manufacture. 
But afterwards, when England had full pos- 
session of the woollen manufacture, and that 
of Ireland was u'terly destroyed, it bjcame 
apparent to the English, that the best use 



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they could make of Ireland would be to 
Inrn it into a general store farm for agricul- 
tural produce of all kinds. Anderson {His- 
tory of Commerce) explains the matter thus : 
"Concerning these laws, many think them 
hurtful, and that it would be wiser to suffer 
the [rish to be employed in breeding and 
fattening their black cattle for us, than to 
turn their lands into sheepwallcs as at pies- 
cut; in consequence of which, in spite of all 
the laws, they supply foreign nations with 
their wool." 

It is observable that this English writer, 
when he says many think the laws regulat- 
ing Irish commerce "hurtful," means hurt- 
ful to the English. Therefore, the system 
was afterwards so far changed, that England 
was willing to take any kind of agricultural 
produce from us, and to give us, in return, 
manufactured articles made either of our 
own or of foreign materials. So it has 
happened that Irishmen have been per- 
mitted ever since to sow, to reap, and to 
feed cattle for them, as Anderson recom- 
mended. But which of the systems bred 
more Irish famines we shall have other and 
too many opportunities of inquiring. 



CHAPTER X. 

1741—1745. 

War nn the Continent — Dr. Luons — Primate Stone 
— Biitile of DettingeD — Lally— Fontenoy — Tne 
Insli Brigade. 

King George II., like his predecessor, 
felt much more personal interest in German 
politics and the "balance of power" on the 
Continent, than in any domestic affairs of 
the English nation. He had adhered to the 
" Pragmatic sanction," that favorite measure 
of the Austrian Emperor Charles Yl., for se- 
curing the succession of the possessions of 
the House of Austria to the Archduchess 
Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary. On the 
20th of October, 1740, the Emperor Charles 
i. I, and all Europe was almost immediately 
plunged into general war. King Frederick, 
Btvled the Great, was then king of Prussia; 
and as the Austrian army and finances were 
then in great disorder, and he could expect 
no veiy serious opposition, be suddenly set 



up his claim to the Austrian duchy of Si- 
sia, and marched an army into it, in pur- 
suance of that usual policy of Prussia, which 
borately prepares and carefully conceals 
plans of aggression until the moment of 
putting them in execution, and then makes 
the stealthy spring of a tiger. France em- 
braced the cause of the Elector of Bavaria 
and candidate for the imperial throne; sent 
an army into Germany under Marshal Brog- 
lie, and after some successes over the Ans- 
trians, caused the elector to be proclaimed 
emperor at Prague. In April, 1741, King 
I feorge II. delivered a speech to both Houses 
of his Parliament, informing them that the 
Queen of Hungary had made a requisition 
for the aid of England in asserting her title 
to the throne, pursuant to the Pragmatic 
sanction ;, and thereupon he demanded war 
supplies. Some honest and uncorrnpted. 
members of Parliament protested against this 
new Continental war; but Sir Robert Wal- 
pole still ruled the country with almost ab- 
solute sway ; and to hold his place he sup- 
ported the policy of the king. So began 
that long and bloody war: a war in which 
Ireland had no concern, save in so far as it 
was an occasion for larger exactions from 
the Irish Parliament; and also gave to her 
exiled sous some further opportunities of 
meeting their enemies in battle. 

It was in 1741 that the famous Dr. Lucas 
first appeared in the political arena. He 
was a man of great energy and honesty ; 
fully imbued with the opinions of Swift on 
the rights and wrongs of his country, that 
is of the English colony. He was even 
more offensively intolerant than Swift to- 
wards the Catholics ; but within the sacred 
limits of the "Protestant interest" he sup- 
ported the principles of freedom ; and if he 
fell very far short of his great model ill 
genius, lie perhaps equalled him in courage. 
Charles Lucas was born in 1713, and his 
family was of the farming class in Clare 
county. He established himself as an apothe- 
cary in Dublin, where he was elected a mem- 
ber of the Common Council. He tin re 
found abuses to correct. The appointment 
of aldermen had been a privilege Usurped 
by the board of aldermen, while the right 
appertained to the whole corporate body. 



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grew holder wish his increasing popularity, 
mid published some political tracts mi the 
sovereign right of 1 1i«- Irish Parliament. 
This attracted attention arid excited alarm ; 
for, "to make any man popular in Ireland," 
as the primate bitterly remarks, "it is only 
necessary to set up the Irish against the 
English interest." Henceforward Dr. Lucas 
pursued, in his own way, an active career of 
patriotism, as he understood patriotism; and 
the reader will hear of him again. 

Iii 1742 the primacy of the Irish Church 
being vacant, by the death of Dr. Boulter, 
lloadlev was first, appointed to the See of 
Armagh, but was soon after succeeded by 
that extraordinary prelate, George Stone, 
bishop of Deny. It had long been Sir 
Robert Walpole's policy to govern Ireland 
mainly through the chief of the Irish Es- 
tablished Church, and Stone was a man al- 
together after his own heart. He was English 
by birth, and the son of a keeper of a jail; 
was never remarkable for learning, and his 
character was the worst possible; hut he 
had qualities which, in the minister's judg- 
ment, peculiarly titled him to hold thai 
wealthy and powerful see — that is to say, he 
would scruple at no corruption, would re- 
volt at no infamy, to gain adherents "for 
the court against the nation ;'' and would 
make it the single aim of his lite to main- 
tain the English interest in Ireland; and 
this not only by careful distribution of the 
immense patronage of Government, but by 
still baser arts of seduction. Memoirs and 
satires of that time have made but too no- 
torious the mysteries of his house near Dub- 
lin, where wine in profusion and bevies of 
beautiful harlots baited the trap to catch the 
light youth of the metropolis. Primate 
Stone was a very handsome man, of very 
dignified presence and demeanor; and with 
such a man for lord-justice and privy coun- 
cillor, the Duke of Dorset was able to pre- 
vent any dangerous assertion of indepen- 
dence during his viceroyalty. There were, 
however, continual debates over the ques- 
tion of supplies, the rapidly increased ex- 
penses of the public establishments, and the 
notorious corruption practised by Govern- 
ment. 

So long as the common interest of the 
Protestants was kept secure against the mass 



of the people, all was well ; but during the 
Devonshire administration alarm was taken 
about that vital point, on account of a bill 
to reverse tin attainder which Lord Clancarty 
had succeeded in having presented to the 
Irish Parliament during the preceding vice- 
royalty, and which there seemed to be some 
danger might be passed. The Clancarty 
estate, which would have been restored by 
this attainder, was valued at £60,000 per 
iii)i,iun ; and it was then in the hinds of 
many new proprietors who hail purchased 
under the confiscation titles, and who now, 
of course, besieged and threatened Parlia- 
ment with their claims and outcries. It was 
also found that other persons, w hose lauds 
bad been confiscated (unjustly as they said 
they were ready to prove), had instituted 
proceedings for the recovery of certain pieces 
of land or bouses. In short, there were 
eighty-seven suits commenced ; ami the 
House felt that it was time to set at least 
that affair at rest. If Papists were to be 
allowed to disquiet Protestant possessors by 
alleging injustice and illegality in the pro- 
ceedings by which they had been despoiled, 
it was clearly perceived that there would be 
an end of the Protestant interest, which, in 
fact, reposed upon injustice and illegality 
from the beginning. Therefore, a series of 
very violent resolutions was passed by the 
i 'ominous, denouncing all these proceedings 
as ti disturbance of the public weal, and de- 
claring till those who instituted any such 
suits, or acted in them as lawyer or attorney, 
to he public enemies. It may be remem- 
bered that not only were Catholic barristers 
debarred from practice, but, by a late act, 
Catholic solicitors too ; so that after these 
resolutions there could not be much chance 
of success in any lawsuit for a Catholic. 
Thus the Protestant interest was quieted for 
that time. 

Meanwhile, war was racing over the Con- 
tinent, and King George II., with his son, the 
Duke of Cumberland, bad gone over to take 
command of the British and Hanoverian 
troops, operating on the French frontier, 
while Central Germany was fiercely debated 
between the Empress Queen, allied with 
England, and Frederick of Prussia, allied with 
France. The first considerable battle aftef 
the king took command was at Detlingen 



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BATTLE OF BETTIXGEX COUNT DE LALLY. 



63 



the 27th of June, 1743. This place is on 
the Mein or Miiyn river, and very near the 
city ot' Frankfort. Tin; French were com- 
manded by the Marichal de Noailks; the 
allies by King George osiensil.lv, bul really 

by the Earl of Stair. The day went against 

the French, and ended in almost a r<m t of 
their army, which would have become a to- 
tal rout but for the exertions of the Count 
de Lal|y, then acting as aide-major-general 
to Noajlles, The maieehal himself gives him 
this very high testimony : " He three several 
times rallied the army in its rout, and saved 
it in its retreat by his advice given (o the 
council of war after the action."* As this 
celebrated soldier will reappear in the nar- 
rative, and especially on one far greater and 
more terrible day, it may be well to give 
some account of him. His father was Sir 
Gerard LaJly (properly O'Mullally), of Tul- 
lilldal ; and had been one of the defenders 
of Limerick, and one of those who volun- 
teered tor France with Sarsfield. Sir Gerard 
became immediately an officer in the French 

service, and his son, the Count Lally, was 

born at Romans, in Dauphine, when his 
father was there in garrison. lie first 
mounted a trench at the siege of Barcelona, 
in Spain, when he was twelve years of age, 
but already a captain in Dillon's regiment. 
This was in 1714. \W next hear of him 
planning a new descent upon some point of 
England or Scotland, in order to retrieve the 
fortunes of " the Pretender," and had actual- 
ly a commission for this purpose from King 
James III. To conceal bis plans, he an- 
nounced that he was preparing to make a 
campaign as volunteer under his near rela- 
tive Marechal deLascy (l>c Lacy), who then 
commanded the Russian army against the 
Turks. Cardinal Fletiry induced him to lay 
aside every other design and to go t" Rus- 
sia, not in a military but in a civil capacity; 
in short, as a diplomatist with special mis- 
sion. As this mission was to endeavor to 

detach Russia from English alliance, and so 
Weaken England in the war, he gladly ac- 
cepted, for the great object of Lally's life, to 
the very last, was to strike a mortal blow at 
England in any part of the earth or sea. He 



* Letter of Mareoba] de Noailles, quoted in Bk>g. 
Univ., art, Lilly. 



did not succeed in Ids Russian embassy, and 
left St. Petersburg in a fit of impatience, for 
which the cardinal rebuked him ; then served 
under Noailles in the Netherlands, who par- 
ticularly requested him to act as the chief of 
his staff. It is thus we find him at the disas- 
trous battle of Dettingen; but for the re- 
pulse that day both Lally and the French 
were soon to have a choice revenge. After 
the battle, a regiment of Irish infantry was 
created for him, and attached to the Irish 
brigade. The brigade consisted now of 
seven regiments, and it saw much service 
that year and the next under the Count de 
Saxe, who took the various towns of Menin, 
Ypres, and Fumes, in the Netherlands, all 
which the Duke of Cumberland endeavored 
to prevent without avail, and without com- 
ing to a battle. 

In this year, 1714, however, great prep- 
aration was made on both sides for a de- 
cisive campaign. The 'French army was 
increased in the Netherlands, and on the 
other side the English court had at length 
prevailed on the States-General of Holland 
to join the alliance against France. In Sep- 
tember of that year, the allies, then in camp 
at Spire, were reinforced by 20,000 Dutch, 
who were time enough, unluckily for them, 
to take a share in the great and crowning 
battle of Fontenoy. 

It might be supposed that the incidents 
of this famous battle have been sufficiently 
discussed and described to make them gen- 
erally known ; but, in fact, the plain truth 
of that affair (especially as it affects the Irish 
engaged) is very difficult to ascertain with 
precision, and for the very reason that there 
are so many accounts of it handed down to 
us by French, Irish, and English authorities, 
all with different national prejudices and 
predilections. Reading the usual English 
accounts of the battle, one is surprised to 
find in general no mention of Irishmen hav 
ing been at Fontenoy at all ; the English 
naturally dislike to acknowledge that they 
owed that mortal disaster in great part to 
the Irish exiles whom the faithlessness and 
oppression of their own Government had 
driven from their homes and filled with the 
most intcn-e passion ot' vengeance: tin) 
French, witli a sentiment of national pride 
equally natural, wish to appropriate tu 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 





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French soldiers, as far as possible, the honor 
of one of ilieir proudest victories; but it' we 
read certain enthusiastic Irisli narratives of 
Fontenoy, we might be led to suppose that 
it was the I r i ~- 1 1 brigade alone which saved 
the French army and ruined the redoubt- 
able column of English and Hanoverians. 

It is well, then, to endeavor to establish the 
simple laets hv reference to such authorities 
as are beyond suspicion. 

In the ond of April, 1745, the Marechal 

de Saxe, now famous for liis successful sieges 
in the Netherlands, opened trenches before 
Tournay, on the Scheldt river, winch, in this 
place, runs nearly from south to north. 
King Louis, with the young dauphin, " m t to 
speak of mistresses, play-actors, and cookery- 
apparatus (in wagons innumerable) hastens 
to be there," says Carlyle.* Tournay was 
ver) strongly fortified, and defended by a 
Dutch garrison of nine thousand men, and 
Saxe appeared before il with an army of 
about seventy thousand men. The allies de- 
termined at all hazards to raise the siege, 
and King George's son, the Duke of Cum- 
berland, hastened over from England to take 
command of the allied forces — English, 
Dutch, Hanoverian, and Austrian — destined 
for that service. Count Konigseck com- 
manded the Austrian quota, and t lie Prince 
of Waldeok the Hutch. The army was 
mustered near Brussels on the 4th of May, 
and thence set forth, sixty thousand strong, 
for Tournay, passing near the field of Siein- 
Icirk — a name remembered in the English 
army. On Sunday, the Dlh of May (new 
style), the duke reached the village of Vazon, 
six or seven miles from Tournay, in a low, 
undulating country, with some wood and a 
few streams and peaceable villages. The 
ground which was to be the field of battle 
lies all between the Brussels road and the river 
Scheldt. Tournay lay to the north-west, 
closeh beleaguered by the French, and the 
Marechal de Saxe, .aware of the approach of 
the allies, had thrown up some works, to 
bar their line of advance, with strong bat- 
teries in the villages of Antotne and Fon- 

* Life of Frederick. Mr. Carlyle, who devotes 
ninny pages to a minute account of tbo buttle of 
Fonteui y, d ea not seem to have been made aware, 
in the course of lis reading, of the presence of any 

Irisli troops :il all oil that field. 



tenoy, and on the edge of a small wood, 
called Bois de Barri, which spreads out to- 
wards the east, but narrows nearly to a point 
in the direction of Tournay. In these works 
connected by redans and abatis, and mount- 
ed with probably a hundred guns, the Mare- 
chal took his position with fifty-five thou- 
sand men, leaving part of his force around 
Tournay and in neighboring garrisons. Near 
the point of the wood is a redoubt Called 
"redoubt of Eu," so called from the title of 
the Norman regiment which occupied it that 
day. < Mi a hill a little farther within the 
French lines the king and the dauphin took 
their post. 

And now Saxe only feared that the allies 
might not venture to assail him in so strong 
a place; and the old Austrian, Kbnig-cck, 

was strongly of opinion that the attempt 

ought not to be made; but the Duke of 
("umbel Ian. 1 and Waldeck, the DutcU com- 
mander, were of a different opinion, and, in 
short, it was determined to go in. Early in 
the morning of the 11th the dispositions 
were made. The Dutch and Austrians were 
on the enemy's left, opposite the French 

right, and destined to carry St. Antoine and 
its works; the English and Hanoverians in 
the centre, with their infantry in front and 
cavalry in the rear, close by the wood of 
Barri. The map contained in the " Memoirs 
of Marechal Saxe" gives the disposition of 
the various corps on the French side ; and 
we there find the place of the Irish brigade 
marked on the left of the French line, but 
not the extreme left, and nearly opposite the 
salient point of the wood of Barri. The 
brigade was not at its full strength ; and we 
know not on what authority Mr. Davis* 
states that all the seven regiments were on 
the ground. There were probably four regi- 
ments : certainly three — Clare's, Dillon's, and 
Lally's — Lord t Jlare being in chief command. 
Neither Clare, nor Dillon, nor Dally was 
Irish by birth, but all were sons of Limerick 
exiles. Of their troops ranked that day 

under the green flag, probably not one had 
fought at Limerick titty-four years before. 
They were either the sons of the original 
'• Wild-geese," or Irishmen who had migra- 
ted since, to flv from the degradation of the 



Kote to his splendid ballad of " Fonteuoy." 




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iuat laws, and seek revenge ii]«'n tbeir 
country's eneuiii s. Judging from the space 

which tli" brigade is made I seupy on the 

map, ii appears likely that its effective force 
a' Fontenoy did not exceed five thousand 
men, c* the tenth part of the Fi.-n< li army. 
I lie various attacks ordered by tin- Duke 
of Cumberland on the several parts of the 
French line were made in due form, after 
boom pi'eliminary cannonading. None of 
them succeeded. The Dutch and Anstrians 
were to have stormed St. Antoine, their 
right wing at the same time joining hands 
with the English and Hanoverians opposite 
Fontenoy. But they found the fire from 
Antoine too heavy, and, besides, a battery 
they were not aware of opened upon them 
from the opposite bank of the Scheldt, and 



sage in that place."* In fact, no general 
ought to have done so. However, a C r 
lyle describes this advance, '-His Royal High 
ness blazes into resplendent Plalt-Deutscl 
rage, what we may call spiritual whiti heat, 
a man sans pew at any rate, and pretty 
much sans avis — decides that he must and 
will be through those lines, if it please 
God; that he will not be repulsed at his part 
of the attack— not he, for one; but will 
plunge through by what gap there is (nine 
hundred yards Voltaire measures it), between 
Fontenoy and that redoubt, with its laggard 
Ingoldsby, and see what the French interior 
is like."f In fact, he did come through the 
lines, and saw the interior. 

lie retired for a space, rearranged his 
English and Hanoverians in three thin col- 



t them up so effectually that after two umns, which, in the advance, under heavy 




a i int. assaults they were fain to retire to 
then- original position. Of course the Eng- 
lish have complained ever since that it was 
the Dutch and Austrians who lost them 
Fontenoy. In the mean time the English 
and Hanoverians were furiously attacking 
the village of Fontenoy itself, but had no 
I tl r success. Before the attack a certain 
Brigadier-General [ngoldsby had been de- 
tached with a Highland regiment, "Semple's 
Highlanders," and some other force, to si- 
lence the redoubt of Eu, on the edge of the 
wood, which seriously incommoded the Eng- 
lish liirlit. [ngoldsby tried, but could not 
doit (on which account he underwent a 
court martial in England afterwards). So 
the duke had to make his attack on Fon- 
tenoy with the gnus of that redoubt ham- 
mering his ri^ht tlank. The attack was 
made, however, and made with gallantry 
and persistency, three times, but completely 
repulsed each time with considerable loss. 
No hing but repulse everywhere — right, left 
and (cntre: hut now the Duke of Cumber- 
land perceived that between Fontenoy and 
the wood of Barri, with its redoubt of Eu, 
there wa- a passage practicable, though with 
.; peril and loss from the cro-s-fire. 
"Sire," said Saxe to the king on the even- 
ing of that triumphant day, "I have one 
fault to reproach myself with — I ought to 
have put one more redoubt between the 
wood and Fontenoy; hut I thought there 

was no general bold enough to hazard a pas- 



fire from both sides, were gradually crowded 
into one column of great depth, full sixteeu 
thousand strong.J They had with them 
twelve field-pieces — six in front and six in 
the middle of their lines. § The column 
had to pass through a kind of hollow, where 
they were somewhat sheltered from the fire 
on each flank, dragging their cannon by 
hand, and then mounted a rising g ound, 
and found themselves nearly out of direct 
range from the guns both of Fontenoy and 
the redoubt of Eu — fairly in sight of the 
French position. In front of them, as it 
chanced, were four battalions of the Gardes 
Franpaises, with two battalions of Swiss 
guards on their left, and two other French 
regiments on their light. The French offi- 
cers seem to have been greatly surprised 
when tiny saw the English batteiy of can- 
non taking position on the summit of the 
rising ground. " English cannon !" they 
cried; "let us go and take them." They 
mounted the hill with their grenadiers, but 
were astonished to find an army in their 
front A heavy discharge, both of artillery 

♦Voltaire. Louis XV. His account of the battle 
it in general very clear and precise; but Voltaire, 
both in tiiis work ami in his ).oem of Fontenoy, 
though lie cannot altogether avoid all mentian of the 
Irish troops, takes care to say as little about them as 
Mile. 

t Life of Frederick. 

{Davis, both in liis ballad and his note on this 
battle, by some uuaccountable oversight, stater- it at 
tdx thousand. 

§ Voltaire. 



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ma musketry, made them quickly recoi 
with huavy loss. The English column con- 
tinued to advance Bteadily, and the French 
guards, with the regiment of Courten, sup- 
ported by otlicr troops, having re-formed, 
came up to meet them. It is at this point 
that the ceremonious salutes are said to have 
passed between Lord Charles Bay, whocora- 

inandcd tin- advance of tin- Knglish, and the 

Comte d'Auteroche, an officer of the French 
grenadiers — the former taking off his hat 
and politely requesting Messieurs of the 
French Guards to fire — the latter, also, with 
hat off, replying, "After you, Messieurs." 
D'Espagnac and Voltaire both record tins 
piece of stage - courtesy. Hut Carlyle, 
though he says it is a pity, disturbs the 
course of history by means of "a small ir- 
refragable document « hich lias come to him," 
namely, an original letter from Lord Hay to 
his brother, of which tins is an excerpt : " It 
was our regiment that attacked the French 
Guards; and when we came within twenty 

or thirty paces of them, I advance.) before 
our regiment, drank to them (to the French), 
and told them that we were the English 
Guards, and hoped they would stand till we 
came quite up to them, and not swim the 
Scheldt, as they did the Mayn at Dettingen ; 
npi n which 1 immediately turned about to 
our own regiment, speeched them, and made 
them huzzith. An officer (d'Auteroche) came 
out of the lank-', and tried to make his men 
huzzah. However, there were not above 

three or tour in their brigade that did," &C. 

In fact, it appars that the French, who, ac- 
cording to that chivalrous legend, " never 
tired first," did fire first on ilns occasion ; 
but both < iiii des Frmif wises and Swiss (I tiards 

were driven off the field with considerable 
slaughter. And still the English column ad- 
vanced, with a terrible steadiness, pouring 
forth a tremendous fire of musketry and ar- 
tillery, suffering grievously by repeated at- 
tai k's, both in Mont and flank, but still closing 

up iis gapped ranks, and showing i resolute 

face on both sides. There was some con- 
fusion in the French army, owing to the 
surprise at this most audacious advance, and 
the resistance at first was unconcerted and 
de-ultory. Regiment after regiment, both 
foot and horse, was hurled against the re- 
doubtable column, but all were repulsed by 



an admirably sustained fire, w hich the French 

called feu d'eiifer. Voltaire states that 
among the forces which made these ineffec- 
tual attacks were certain Irish battalions, 

and that it was in this charge that the Colo- 
nel Count Dillon was killed. And still the, 
formidable column steadily and slowly ad- 
vanced, calmly loading and firing, " as if on 
parade," says Voltaire, and were now full 
three hundred paces beyond the line of fire 
from Fontenoy and the redoubt of the wood, 
resolutely marching on towards the French 
headquarters. By this time Count Saxe 
found that his batteries at Fontenoy had 
used all their balls and were only answering 
the guns of the enemy with discharges of 
powder, lie believed the battle to be lost, 
and sent two several times to entreat the 
king to cross the Scheldt, and get out of 
danger, which the king, however, steadily 

refused tO do. « 

Military critics have said that at this crisis 
of the battle, if the English had been sup 
p irted by cavalry, and due force of artillery, 
to complete the disorder of the French — or, 

if the Dutch, under Waldeck, had at that 
moment resolutely repeated their assault 
upon St. Antoine, the victory was to the 
Duke of Cumberland, and the whole French 
army must have been fiung into the Scheldt 
nver. fount Saxe was now in mortal anxi- 
ety, and thought the battle really lost, when 

the Duke de Richelieu rode up at full gallop 
and suggested a plan, which was happily 
adopted. It was the thought of that same 

Colonel Count de I. ally, who has been heard 
of before at Dettingen.* In fact, this fa- 
mous plan does not appear to have required 
any peculiar strategic genius to conceive, 
for it was neither more nor less than to open 
with a battery of cannon right in front of 
the advancing column, and then attack it 
simultaneously with all the reserves, includ- 
ing the king's household cavalry, and the 
Irish brigade, which stiil stood motionless 
near the western point of the wood of Barri, 
and now abreast n\ the English column on 



* '■ Tt is said tlic Jacobite Irishman, Count Lnlly, 
of the- Irish brigade, was prune author of this ii"- 
tion." — Carlyle. Frederick. This is the only indi- 
cation it] all Citrlyle's labored account of the battle 
that lie woe' aware even of the presence of one 
Irishman. 



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THE IRISH BRIGADE AT FONTENOT. 



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its right flank. Tliere was also in the sa 

quarter the French regiment of Norman. lie, 
and several other corps which had already 
been repulsed and broken in several inef- 
fectual assaults on the impregnable column.* 
A French authority f informs us that "this 
last decisive charge was determined upon, in 
the very crisis of the day, in a conversation 
rapid and sharp as lightning between Riche- 
lieu, galloping from rank to rank, and Lally, 
who was out of patience at the thought that 
the devoted ardor of the Irish brigade was 
not to be made use of." lie had his wish, 
and at the moment when the battery opened 
on the front of the column, the brigade had 
orders to assail its right flank and to go in 
with the baronet. 

The English mass was now stationary, 
but still unshaken, and never doubling to 
finish the business, but looking wistfully back 
for the cavalry, and longing for the Dutch. 
Suddenly four guns opened at short range 
straight into the head of their column ; and 
at the same moment the Irish regiments 
plunged into their right flank with bayonets 
levelled and a hoarse roar that rose above all 
the din of battle. The words were in an 
unknown tongue; but if the English had 
understood it, they would have known that 
it meant "Remember Limerick!'' That 
fierce eharge broke the steady ranks, and 
made the vast column waver and reel. It 
was s,.c ( ,nded by the regiment of Normandie 
with equal gallantry, while on the other flank 
the cavalry burst in impetuously, and the 
four guns in front were ploughing long lanes 
through the dense ranks. It was too much. 
The English resisted for a little with stub- 
born bravery, but at length tumbled into 
utter confusion and tied from the field, leav- 
ing it covered thickly with their own dead 
and their enemies'. They were not pursued 
far, for, once outside of the lines, their cav- 

* The Marquis d'Argenson, minister of Foreign 
Atfer-, uii- present in the battle, and immediately 
aftei wrote a narrative of it. which lie addressed to 
M. de Vo i listorio i ipher t" tie- King." 

It ays: " \ false corps de rtservs was then brought 
u|>; ii consisted of the same cavalry which had at 
tir-t cliurged ineffectually, the household troops of 
the king, the carbineers of the French guards, who 
oen engaged, and a bo |\ of Iri h troops, 

vi ere excel lout, e peeially w ben opposed to 
the Knglisli ond Hanoverians." 

g. Univ. Lully. 



airy was enabled to cover their retreat. The 
allies lost nine thousand men, including two 
thousand prisoners, and the French live 
thousand. So the battle of Fotitenoy was 
fought and won.* 

It cost the Irish brigade dear. The gal- 
lant Dillon was killed, with one-fourth of 
the oflicers and one third of the rank and 
file ; but the immediate consequences to 
France were immense — Tournay at once 
surrendered; Ghent, Oudenarde, Bruges, 
Dendermonde, Ostend, were taken in quick 
succession; and the English and their allies 
driven back behind the swamps and canals 
of Holland. 

None of all the French victories in that, 
age caused in Paris such a tumult of joy 
and exultation. In England there were 
lamentation, and wrath, and courts-martial ; 
but not against the Duke of Cumberland, 
for the king's son could do no wrong. In 
Ireland, as the news came in, first, of the 
British defeat, and, then, gradually, of the 

*M. de Voltaire, though he gives :i long account 
of tins battle, and cannot avoid naming at least Hie 
Irish brigade, has not one word of praise for it. 
This is tho more notable, as ho had D'Argensonfs 
Memoir before him, who speaks of them as pro' 
themselves excellent troops, especially against the 
English. But Voltaire always grudges any credit to 
the Irish troops, and never speaks of them at all in 
his histories when he can possibly avoid it. D'Ar- 
genson himself was well known to be no friend of 
theirs, and would not have praised them on this oc- 
casion it their bravery had not attracted the notice 
of all. Indeed, in the same letter to Voltaire this 
courtier says very emphatically — " The truth, the 
positive fact, without flattery, is this — the king 
gained tht battU himself" 

The services of the brigade, however, on that 
great day, were too notorious in the French army to 
he altogether concealed. The Memoir cited before 
from the Biographic UnivtrstUt Bays : ''It is noto- 
rious how much the Irish brigade contributed to the 
victory by bursting at the point of the bayonet into 
the think of the terrible English column, while 
Richelieu cannonaded it in front." 

Euglish historians scarce mention the brigade at 
this occasion ; but Lord Mahon is a creditable 
exception. He says Count Save "drew toe, tier the 
household troops, the whole reserve, and every 
ether man that could he mustered; but foremost of 
all "ere the gallant exiles of the Iri--h brigade." 
Voltaire, however, speaking of the troops who 
charged on the riLdil Hank, takes care to say ••/.<< 
Irlandais Us seamdent." But, perhaps, the best at- 
testation to the services of the brigade was the im- 
precation on t lie 1'ennl Code wrung from King 
i leorge when he was told of the events of that da} , 
" Cursed be the laws which deprive me of such sub- 



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glorious achievements of the brigade and 
the honors paid to Irish soldiers, a sudden 
Lul silenl flush of triumph and of hope broke 
upon the oppressed race ; and many a gloomy 
countenance brightened with a gleam of 
s em joy, in the thought that the long- 
mourned " Wild geese" would one day re 
turn, with freedom and vengeance in the 
flash of the bayonets of Fontenoy. 



CHAFFER XI. 

1743- 1768. 

Alarm in England Expedition of Prince Charles 
Edward— " A Message of Peace to Ireland"— Vice- 
royalty of Chosterfii Id Tern o irj I o ration of 
,1:',. Catholics Berkelej The Scottish Insurrea 
tion Cullodon— " Loyalty" of the Irish - Lucas 
and the Patriots Debates on the Supplies B j li 
and Malone— Population of Ireland. 

Thb battle of Fontenoy was an event in the 
history of Ireland — not only by the reflected 
glory of Irish heroism, but because disaster 
to England was followed, as usual, by a re- 
laxation of the atrocities inflicted upon Irish 
Catholics, under the Penal * lode. England, 
r deed, was in profound alarm, and not with- 
out cause, for, not only had the campaign in 
the Netherlands gone so decidedly againsl 
her, l>ut almost immediately after it became 
known that preparations were on fool in 
France for a new invasion ou behalf of 
Charles Edward, the "Young Pretender." 
The prince was now twenty-five years of 
He had been wasting away his youth 
at Rome, where his father, James 111., then 
res ded. In 174. he was recalled to France, 
and some hopes were held out of giving 
him an armed force of French, Scotch, and 
Irish, to assert his father's rights to the crow n 
of England. For three years he had waited 
impatiently for his opportunity ; but the 

times were then so busy that nobody thought 

of him. It was the Cardinal de Tencin 
who one day advised him to wail no longer, 
but go with a few friends to some point in 
the north of Scotland. "Your presence 
i " said the cardinal, "will create for 
you a party and an army; then France must 
tend \ ou succor." In short, the prince co 
suited witli a few of his friends, chiefly Irish 
officers; an armed vessel of eighteen guns 




was placed a: his disposal by an Irish mer- 
chant of Nantes, named Walsh ; a French 
ship-ot' war was ordered to escort him; and 
on the 12th of June, just one month after 
Fontenoy, he set sail with only seven at- 
tendants upon his adventurous errand. The 
seven who accompanied him were the Mar- 
quis of Tullibardine, brother to the Duke of 
Athol, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Colonel O'Sul- 
livau (" who was appointed," says Voltaire, 
•• Marichal des Logis of the army not yet 
in being"), a Scotch officer named MaeDon- 
ald, an Irish officer named Kelly, and an 
English one named Strickland. They land- 
ed on the bare shore of Moidart, in the 
highlands, where the prince was quickly 
joined by some of the Jacobite elans, the 
MacDonald, Lochiel, Cameron, and Fra- 
ser. The Duk s of Argyle and Queens- 
berry, however, who controlled other pow- 
erful elans, kept aloof and prepared to take 
the pari of the reigning king. Kine««George 
was at this moment in Hanover; but the 
lords of his council of regency made tin 
best arrangements possible for resistance in 
a country so nearly stripped of all its regu- 
lar troops, and set a price upon the prince's 
head. 

In this emergency it was necessary to 
think of Ireland, as it. was considered cer- 
tain that the prince mtl-t have had agents 

in that country to stir up its ancient Jacobite 
spirit; besides, it was known that the prin- 
cipal chiefs of the enterprise were officers of 
the Irish brigade, coming flushed from Fon- 
lenoy; and ihe Government thought it was 
not in the nature of things that there could 
be tranquillity in Ireland. There must sure- 
\ be an arrangement either for stirring an 
insurrection in the island itself or for send- 
ing fighting men to Scotland. I'll the 

whole, it was judged needful, in this danger- 
ous crisis of British affairs, to show some in- 
dulgence to the Irish, and, accordingly, in 
the mouth of September, just as Prince 

Charles Edward was leading his moun- 
taineers iulo Ediuburgb, an amiable vicer y 
was sent to Dublin, bearing what might be 
ca hd a " message of p< ace to Itvbm ." 
I'hs was the Earl of Chesterfield, who had 
a reputation for gallantry, accomplishments, 
and an easy disposition. What Foul Ches- 
terfield's secret instructions were, we lain 



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A MESSAGE OF PEACE TO IRELAND. 



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only jndgc by tin- course of his administra- 
tion. II ■ at once put a stop to the business 
of priest-hunting, ami allowed the Catholic 
chapels in Dublin and elsewhere t<> be opened 
for service. On the <vth of October he met 

Parliament; an.) although in his s] h on 

that occasion he recommended tin- Lionses 
to turn their attention to tlic laws against 
Popery and consider whether they needed 
any amendment, yet this was expressed in a 

cold an. I lather equivocal manner, which 

greatly disgusted tie' fierce and gloomy 
bigots of the "Ascendency." He recom- 
mended no new penal laws, thinking prob- 
acy there were quite enough already, and 
did not even introduce that traditional ex- 
hortation to the Houses — to exercise extreme 
vigilance in putting in force that renal Code 
which they already had in such high per- 
fection. 

He soon made it evident, in short, that 
active persecution was to be suspended, al- 
though that indulgence was contrary to law ; 
and tho-e too zealous magistrates who had 
earned distinction by active prosecution of 
Papists under firmer viceroys found onlv 
discouragement and rebuke at the Castle. 
Chancellors, judges, and sheriffs were made 
10 understand that if they would do the 
king's business aright this time, they must 
leave the "common enemy" in peace for the 
prcs.nt. But Lord Chesterfield, immediate- 
lv on coming over, employed many confi- 
di ntial agents, or, in short, spies, to find out 
whi t the Catholics were dointr, thinking of, 
and talking about — whether th.'ie w.ie any 
secret meetings — above all, whether there 
was any apparent diminution in the numbers 

of young nieii at fairs and other gatherings; 
iii sli.ut, whether there was any migration 
to Scotland, or any uneasy movement of the 
people, as if in expectation of something 
coining.* Nothing of all this did, he find, 
and, in truth, nothing of the kind existed. 
Tie- people were perfectly tranquil, m tmuch 

• Plowden. Thia worthy writer, as well as his 
predeoexsor, Dr. Curry, is very c- n j ; . li :r -, it; in estab- 
lishing the ll l.-y ;il'* attitude of the Irish people u] 

I ceamoil. Dr. Curry takes paiiw t<. pro* e " Unit 
no Irish Cutholie. lay or olericol, was any w-.r 

Ltig] 
unle that Sheridan, O'Sullivaii, Kelly, ami 
French-IrUh offl ithuid, were 

. by birth, like bally, Dillon, and C'luro. 



seeming even to know or to care what was 
going on in Scotland, enjoying quietly their 
unwonted exemption from the actual lash of 
the penal laws, and even repairing to holy 
wells again without fear of fine and whipping. 
It is true the. lash was still held over them, 
and they ware soon to feel it; true, also, 
that they were still excluded from all rights 
and franchises as strictly as ever. Not one 
penal law was repealed or altered ; but there 
was at least forbearance towards their wor- 
ship ami their clergy. They might see a 
venerable priest now walking, in daylight, 
even from bis " registered"' parish into an- 
other, to perform some rite or service of re- 
ligion, without fear of informers, of hand- 
cuffs, and of transportation. Nay, bishops ami 
vie irs apostolic could venture to cross the 
sea, and ordain piiests and confirm children, 
in a quiet way ; and it was believed I hat not 
even a monk could frighten Lord Chester- 
field, who, in fact, had lived for years in 
Fiance, and respected a monk quite as much 
as a rector of the Establishment. 

Having one- satisfied himself that there 
was no insurrectionary movement in the 
country, and none likely to be, he was not 
to be moved from his tolerant course by any 
cinplain is or remonstrances, Far from yield- 
ing to the feigned ahum of those who soli- 
cited him to raise new regimen's, he sen! 
four battalions of the soldiers then in Ireland 
to reinforce the Duke of Cumberland. He 
discouraged jobs, kept down expenses, took 
his pleasure, ami made himself exceedingly 
popular in his intercourse with Dublin so- 
ciety; and not, having forgotten the pre- 
cepts which he had given to his son, the old 
beau (he was now fifty-two) pretended, from 
habit, to be making love to the wives of 
men of all parties. When some savage As- 
cendency Protestant would come to him 
with tales of alarm, he usually turned the 
conversation into a tone of light badinage, 
which perplexed and baffled the num. < Ine 
to seriously put his lordship on his 
guard l.v acquainting him with the fact that 
his own coachman was in the habit-of going 
to Mass. "Is it possible?" cried Chester- 
field ; " then I will take care tie- fellow shall 
not drive me there." A courtier burst into 
his apartment one morning, while he w is 
sipping his chocolate in bed, with the st . 






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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




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ing intelligence that "the Papists were 
rising" in Connaught. " Ah !" he said, look- 
ing at his watch, " 'tis nine o'clock ; time 
for them to rise." There was evidently no 
dealing with such a viceroy as this, who 
showed such insensibility to the perils of 
Protestantism and the evil designs of the 
dangerous Papists. Indeed, he was seen to 
distinguish by his peculiar admiration a 
Papist beauty, Miss Ambrose, whom he de- 
clared to be the only " dangerous Papist" he 
had met iu Ireland. 

It was during this period of quietude and 
comparative relief that the excellent Bishop 
Berkeley, of Cloyne, wrote a pamphlet in 
the form of an address to the Roman Catho- 
lics of his diocese of Cloyne. lie had evi- 
dently feared that the Irish Catholics were 
secretly engaged in a conspiracy to make an 
insurrection in aid of the Pretender; and 
writes iu a kind and paternal manner, ex- 
horting them to keep the peace and attend 
quietly to their owu industry, though, in- 
deed, the bishop is evidently at a loss for 
arguments which he can urge upon this pro- 
scribed, disfranchised race, why they should 
take their lot quietly and be loyal to a Gov- 
ernment that does not recognize their exist- 
ence. 

In the meanwhile, Prince Charles Edward, 
with his highbinders, had won the baltle of 
Preston-pans, near Edinburgh (2d of Octo- 
ber), and a few days after that, victory ar- 
rived a French and a Spanish ship, bringing 
money and a supply of Irish officers, who, 
having served in France and Spain, were ca- 
pable of disciplining his rude troops.* He 
inarched south-westward, took and garrison- 
ed Carlisle, advanced through Lancashire, 
where a body of three hundred English 
ioined his standard, and theuce as far as 
Derby, within thirty leagues of London. 
Report, which exaggerates every thing, rep- 
resented his army as amounting to thirty 
thousand men, and all Lancashire as having 
declared in his favor. The Habeas Corpus 
Act was suspended ; the shops were closed 
for a day or two; and Dutch and Hessian 
troops were brought over in a great hurry 
from the Continent. The Franco-Irish sol- 
diers in the service of France uow be- 

* Voltaire. 



came violently excited and impatient. They 
imagined that a descent upon England, in 
the neighborhood of Plymouth, would be 
quite practicable, as the passage is so short 
from Calais or Boulogne. The. plan was to 
cross bv night with ten thousand men and 
some cannon. Once disembarked, a great 
part of England would rise to join them, 
and they could easily form a junction with 
the prince, probably near London. The 
officers, of whom the most active in this 
business was Lally, demanded, as leader of 
the expedition, the Duke de Richelieu, who 
had fought with them at Fontenoy. They 
urged their point so earnestly that at length 
permission was granted. But the expedi- 
tion never took place on any thing like the 
scale on which it. was projected. M. de 
Voltaire, in describing the preparations, for 
once departs from his usual rule so far as to 
praise an Irishman. He says: "Lally, who 
has since then been a lieutenant-general, and 
who died so tragic a death, was the soul of 
the enterprise. The writer of this history, 
who long worked along with him, can affirm 
that he has never seen a man more full of 
zeal, and that there needed nothing to the 
enterprise but possibility. It was impossible 
to go to sea in face of the English squadrons ; 
and the attempt was regarded in London as 
absurd."* 

Iu fact, only a handful of troops was ac- 
tually sent; and those troops were not Irish, 
but Scotch. Lord Drummond, brother of 
the Duke of Perth, an officer in the French 
service, set forth in one vessel, by way of the 
German Sea, and arrived safely at Montrose 
with three companies of the Royal Ecossais, 
a Scottish regiment in French service. But 
before this small reinforcement arrived, the 



* Any attempt of any kind is always regarded in 
London as absurd; and Voltaire was always too 
ready to adopt the view of English alfairs which 
the English clmsc to give. He never wished for the 
success of the Stuarts: considered t lie House of 
Hanover a blessing n> England, and did not care \'o\- 
Ireland at all. Tlio reasons why he disliked the 
Irish were, first, 'hat they were ?ood Catholics* and, 
next, that the Irish in France were not very modest 
in asserting their pretensions and demanding recog- 
nition of their services. It was Voltaire's corre- 
spondent, D'Argenson, when minister, that said 
once to Xing Louis, "Those Irish troops «ive more 
trouble than all the rest of your majesty's army." 
" My enemies say so," answered the king. 



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iuckkeley — the Scottish insurrection 



army of the Prince had already retired 
from the centre of England ; it had been 
diminished and weakened by various causes, 
the principal of which were jealousies of 
highland chiefs against one another, and of 
lowland lairds against them all, together 
with a general lack of discipline, and ere 
long a lack of provisions also. The Jacobite 
force made the best of its way back to Scot- 
land, and soon after (January 28, 1746), ut- 
terly defeated an English force at Falkirk. 
This was the last of its successes. The 
Duke of Cumberland was now marching 
into Scotland with a considerable army, and 
arrived in Edinburgh on the 10th of Febru- 
ary. Prince Charles Edward was obliged to 
raise the siege of Stirling Castle. The win- 
ter was severe, and subsistence was scarce. 
His last resource was now iu the northern 
highlands, where there was still a force on 
foot, watching the seaports to receive the 
supplies which might still be sent from 
France ; but most of the vessels destined 
to that service were captured by English 
cruisers. Three companies of the Irish 
regiment of Fitzjames arrived safely, and 
were received by the highbinders with ac- 
clamations of joy — the women running down 
to meet them and leading the officers' horses 
by the bridles. Still the prince was now 
hard pressed by the English ; he retired to 
Inverness, which he made his headquarters ; 
and on the 23d of April he learned that the 
duke, steadily advancing through the moun- 
tains, had crossed the river Spay, and felt 
that a decisive battle was now imminent. 
On the 27th the two armies were in presence 
at Culloden — the prince with five thousand 
men or less, the duke with ten thousand, 
well supplied with both cavalry and artillery. 
The English were by this time accustomed 
to the highland manner of fighting, which 
had so intimidated them at first, and with 
such superiority of numbers and equip- 
ments the event could scarcely be doubtful. 
The prince's small army was totally defeated, 
with a loss of nine hundred killed and three 
hundred and twenty prisoners. The prince 
himself made his way into the mountains, 
■ in] aided by his faithful friends, Sheri- 
dan and O'Sullivan; and his adventures, 
concealments, and ultimate escape are suffi- 



struggle of the Stuarts, and their cause was 
now lost utterly and forever. There were 
still, from time to time, plots, and even at- 
tempts by the Scottish Jacobites to make at 
least some commencement of a new insur- 
rection, but all in vain. Ever after Jacohitism 
existed only in songs and toasts, sung and 
pledged in private society; and many a 
house in Edinburgh and glen in the high- 
lands is yet made to ring with those plaintive 
or warlike lvrics. So long as the prince 
lived, the health of Prince Charlie was often 
drunk, or, "The King over the Water ;" but 
he died in Florence in 1788, without legiti- 
mate posterity, and the cause of the ancient 
family sank definitively into the domain of 
sentimental associations and romantic sou- 
venirs. 

Almost at the very moment of the battle 
of Culloden the conciliatory Earl of Ches- 
terfield was recalled from Ireland. His 
work was done, and done well. " England," 
says Plowden, with more than his usual 
point and force, " England was out of danger, 
and Ireland could securely be put again un- 
der its former regime." After a short in- 
terregnum, under three lords-justices, the 
Earl of Harrington was appointed lord-lieu- 
tenant on the 13th of September. 

There was certainly no excuse for bring- 
ing the Irish back under the unmitigated 
terrors of the penal laws, on account of any 
manifestation of turbulence, or of a design 
" to bring in the Pretender" during the last 
insurrection. On this point the most hostile 
authorities agree, and, although -we do not 
take credit for the fact as a proof of " loyalty" 
to the House of Hanover, the fact itself is 
indisputable. One remarkable witness is 
worth hearing on this question. In the 
year 1762, upon a debate in the House of 
Lords about the expediency of raising five 
reo-iments of these Catholics, for the service 
of the King of Portugal, Doctor Stone (then 
primate), in answer to some commonplace 
objections against the good faith and loyalty 
of these people, which were revived with 
virulence on that occasion, declared publicly, 
in the House of Lords, that "in the year 
1747, after that rebellion was entirely sup- 
pressed, happening to be in England, he had 
an opportunity of perusing all the papers ot 
bels and their corresponde 



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IIISToKY OF IKKLAN'D. 



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were seized in tlie custody of Murray, the 
Pretender's secretary ; and that, after having 

spent much li .-mil taken great pains in 

examining them (not without some share o1 
the then common suspicion, that there might 
be some private understanding and inter- 
course between them and the I ii>li Catho- 
lics), lie coul'l nol discover the least trace, 
hint, or intimation of such intercourse or 
correspondence in them; or of any of the 
latter's favoring, abetting, or having been bo 
much us made acquainted with the designs 
or proceedings of these rebels. And what," 
he said, ''lie wondered at most of :ill was, 
that in all his researches, he had not met 
with any passage in any of these pa 
from which he could infer that either their 
Holy Father the Pope, or any of his cardi- 
nals, bishops, or other dignitaries of that 
church, or any of the Irish clergy, had, 
either, directly or indirectly, encouraged, 
aided, or approved of, the commencing or 
cairying on of that rebellion." 

Another, and still more singular attesta- 
tion to the same fact is in Thief Justice 

Marlay's address to t lie Dublin Grand-Jury, 
after the suppression of the Scottish insur- 
rei "When posterity read. . . that 

Ireland, where much the greatest part of the 
inhabit ints profess a religion which some- 
times lias authorized, or at least justified re- 
bellion, not mil) preserved peace at borne, 
but contributed to restore it amongst bis 
subjects of Great Britain, will they not be- 
lieve that the people o( Ireland wen 1 actu- 
ated by something more than their duty and 
allegiance .' Will they not be convinced 
that they were animated hv a generous sense 
of gratitude and zeal for their great bene- 
factor, and fully sensible of the happiness of 

being blessed by living under the protection 
of a monarch, who, like the glorious King 
William," &c. Thus, if Irish ("a: holies of 
the present day are willing to plume them- 
selves, as some Catholic writers have done, 
upon the unshaken loyalty of their ancestors 
in 1740, there is no doubt that they are fully 
entitled to all the credit which can come to 
diem from that circumstance. 

Under Lord Harrington's administration 
the debates on money bills formed the chief 
subject of public interest, and the only Held 
on which Irish "patriotism" and the cham- 



pions of English domination tried their 
strength. It was also becoming a matter 
more and more important to the English 
Government, because, notwithstanding the 
discouragements of trade and the distresses 
iA' the country people, Ireland had now a 
surplus revenue to dispose of, and the Pa- 
triots naturally supposed this to be fairly ap- 
plicable to public works within the island. 
Primate Stone, however, who was now in 
possession of all the influence of Rotllter, and 
imbued with the same thoroughly British 
principles, contended that all the surplus 
revenue of Ireland, as a dependent, kingdom, 
belonged of right to the Crown. The Pa- 
triot party were led chiefly by two men- 
Henry Boyle, the Speaker of the House, and 
the Prime Sergeant Antony Malone — the 
former an ambitious and intriguing politi- 
cian, the latter an eloquent debater and most 
aide constitutional lawyer. Outside of the 
House the patriotic spirit of the people, — that 
is, the Protestant people — was inflamed by 
the writings of Dr. Charles Lucas, who had 
now, from petty corporation politics, risen 
to the height of the gTeat argument of na 
tional independence. But it soon appealed 
that the Irish House of Commons was not 
yet prepared for the reception of such bold 

doctrines. Lucas and his writings were 
made the subject of a resolution in the 
House of Commons; he was bill faintly de- 
fended by his own partisans, and the resolu- 
tion passed, declaring him as "an enemy to 
his country," even for asserting the rightful 
independence of thai very Parliament which 
proscribed him. This event befell in 1"4!>; 
a reward was offered for the apprehension of 
Lucas, and he fled from the kingdom. As 
usual in such eases, the persecution directed 
against him attracted more attention to his 
writings and bred more sympathy with his 
principles; so that when he returned a few 
years after, he became for a time the most 
popular man in the kingdom. To interna- 
tional questions thus narrowed down to the 
mere right of voting or withholding money, it 
was impossible to give any high constitutional 
interest, and, in fact, during this administra- 
tion not a single step in ad\ auee was gained by 

the " Patriot" party. The struggle for power 

and influence between Primate Stone and 
Speaker Boyle '' was no more," says Mac 



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than tin' struggle of two ambitious 




in mi for their own ends. 
In 1751 Lord Harrington was recalled. 
The Duke of Dorset, for the Becond time, 
came to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, and the 
question of Irish parliamentary control over 
the revenues of the country came at last to 
a cti.-is, and received a solution very little to 
the comfort of the Patriots. In the last 
session under Harrington's viceroyalty, as 
there was a considerable surplus in the Irish 
Exchequer, the House of Commons deter- 
mined to apply it towards the discharge of 
the national debt. A bill bad been accord- 
ingly prepared and transmitted to England 
with this view, to which was affixed the pre- 
amble: "Whereas, on the 25th of March 
last a considerable balance remained in the 
hands of the vice-treasurers or receivers- 
gi n. ral of the kingdom, or their deputy or 
di puties, unapplied ; and it will be for your 
majesty's service, and for the ease of your 
faithful subjects in this kingdom, that so 
much thereof as can be conveniently spared 
Bhould be paid, agreeably to your majesty's 
most gracious intention, in discharge of part 
of ili" national debt," &c. On the trans- 
mission of this bill to London (Mr. Pelham 
being then prime minister), it was urged by 
the warm partisans of prerogative in the 
council that the Commons of Ireland had 
no right to apply any part of the unappro- 
priated revenue, nor even to take into con- 
sideration the propriety of such appropria- 
i i . without the previous consent of the 
noun formally declared. When the Duke 
I 'oiset came over, and opened the —ion 
of 1751, he informed the two Houses that 

he was manded by the king to acquaint 

them that his majesty, ever thoughtful of the 
welfare and happiness of bis subjects, would 
graciously consent -md recommend it to them 
that such part of the money then remaining 
in In- treasury, as should be thought con- 
Bistent with the public service, be applied 
towards the further reduction of the na- 
tional debt. " Consent" involved a principle, 
and the Commons took fire at the word. 
They famed the bill, appropriating £120,000 
for the purpose already stated, and omitted 
i„ , | e all mention of the consent. 

Bui ministers returned it with an alt. 'ration 
in the preamble signifying the consent and 
10 



containing the indispensable word. And 
ilu- House, unwilling to drive the matter to 
extremities, passed the bill without further 
notice. Thus was established a preceden 
for the King of England consenting to the 
Irish Parliament voting their own money. 
So far had the differences proceeded, when 
Mr. Pelham died, and the Duke of New- 
castle, who succeeded him as prime minister, 
zealous to uphold the prerogative, to improve 
upon the precedent, and to repeat thelesson 
just given to the aspiring colonists of Ireland, 
sent positive directions to Dorset, in open- 
ing the session of 1753, to repeat the ex- 
pression of his majesty's gracious consent in 
mentioning the application of surplus reve- 
nue. The House, in their Address, not only 
again omitted all reference to that gracious 
consent, hut even the former expressions of 
grateful acknowledgment; and tin- hill of 
supplies was actually transmitted to England 
without the usual complimentary preamble. 
The ministers of the crown in England, 
in their great wisdom, thought fit to supply 
it thus: "And your majesty, ever attentive 
to the ease and happiness of your faithful 
subjects, has been graciously pleased to sig- 
nify that you would cdnsent," and so forth. 

When the hill came over thus amended 
there was much excitement both in Parlia- 
ment ami in society. Malone was learned 
and convincing. Boyle, by bis extensive 
influence and connections in Parliament, 
powerfully seconded, or rather led, the opposi- 
tion. And, notwithstanding the utmost ex- 
ertions of the king's servants to do the king's 
business, the spirit of independence was 
sufficiently roused to cause the entire defeat 
of the amended bill, though only by a ma- 
jority of five votes. The Commons wished 
to appropriate the money — the king con- 
sented, and insisted upon consenting; and 
then the Commons would not appropriate it 
at all, because the king consented. The de- 
feat of the hill was considered as a victory of 
Patriotism, and was celebrated with universal 
rejoicings — even the Catholics joiningin the 
general joy, for they felt instinctively that 
it w the weight of English predominance 
which kept them in their degraded position, 
and necessarily sympathized with every 
struggle against that. Yet, after all, this 
spirited conduct of the Commons was but 



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an impotent protest; for the public ser- 
vice was now left wholly unprovided for, the 
circulation of money almost ceased, trade 
and business suffered, and a clamor soon 
arose, not more against the Government than 
against the Patriots. Thus the Court party 
had its revenge. The lord-lieutenant took 
the whole surplus revenue out of the treas- 
urv by virtue of a "royal letter"; so the 
kino-, after all, not only consented to the act, 
but did the act wholly himself; and Speaker 
Boyle was removed from his seat at the Privy 
Council, aud Malone's patent of precedence 
as prime sergeant was annulled. The viee- 
ioy and the primate took care to put some 
mark of royal displeasure upon every one 
who had voted down the Supply Bill ; and 
it may be doubted whether the English in- 
terest did not gain a more decisive victory 
by thus trampling with impunity upon all 
constitutional forms, than if the Irish Parlia- 
ment had quietly submitted to the servile 
form prescribed to it. There was no visible 
remedy ; the mob of Dublin might hoot the 
viceroy when his coach appeared in the 
streets; they could threaten and mob the 
primate or Hutchinson, or others who were 
conspicuous in asserting the obnoxious royal 
prerogative; yet they had no alternative 
bul to submit. In the discussion of this 
question we might repeat the words of Swift 
when speaking of the case of Molyneux : 
''The love aud torrent of power prevailed. 
Indeed, the arguments on both sides were in- 
vincible. For, in reason, all government 
without the consent of the governed is the 
v. -rv definition of slavery; but, in fact, 
eleven men well armed will certainly subdue 
one single man in his shirt."' 

Up to this period we have invariably 
found the struggles of the colony to take 
rank as a nation — of its Parliament to as- 
set t its independence — successfully resisted 
and triumphantly crushed down. The as- 
sertion of the jurisdiction of the Irish lords 
in the case of " Sherlock and Annesley" was 
instantly followed by the Declaratory Act, 
which enacted that the Irish lords had no 
jurisdiction at all. The more anxiously our 
Irish Parliament affirmed its sovereign right, 



the more systematically were acts passed by 
the English Parliament to bind Ireland. 
And now the attempted vindication by the 
Irish Legislature of its right to vote, or not 
vote, its own money, was only the occasion 
of a high-handed royal outrage, trampling 
upon every pretence of constitutional law ; 
and Irish " Patriots," if unanswerable in 
their arguments, were impotent to make 
them good in fact; for " the arguments on 
both sides were invincible." It is, in truth, 
impossible to avoid assent to the conclusions 
of Lord Clare (not O'Brien, King James's 
Lord Clare, but Fitzgibbon, King George's 
Lord Clare), in his often-quoted speech fifty 
years later, in so far as he demonstrated the 
anomalous and untenable relation between 
the two Parliaments of England and of Ire- 
land. This English Protestant colony in 
Ireland, which aspired to be a nation, 
amounted to something under half a million 
of souls in 1754.* It was out of tfie cpies- 
tion that it should be united on a footing of 
equality with its potent mother country, by 
"the golden link of the crown," because 
the wearer of that crown was sure to be 
guided in his policy by English ministers, in 
accordance with English interests ; and as 
the army was the king's army, he could al- 
ways enforce that policy. The fatal weak- 
ness of the colony was, that it would not 
amalgamate with the mass of the Irish 
people, so as to form a true nation, but set 
up the vain pretension to hold down a whole 
disfranchised people with one hand, and defy 
all England with the other. 

Still the colonists were multiplying am 
growing rich ; and happily for them, Eng- 
land was ou the eve of disaster and humilia- 
tion ; and a quarter of a century later a 
gracious opportunity was to arise which gave 
them real independence for at least a few 
years. 

* W'c take ttie estimate of the entire population 
for that year from the tables in Thorn's official Al- 
manac and Directory. For li'.i4 it is estimated at 
2,872,684 men, women, and children. At the rale 
of live Catholics to one Protestant (whioh is Dr. 
Boultcr'a estimate), the active part of the population 
was under halt' a million. Tho rest was assumed 
by law not to exist iu the world. 



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HART, of kildare: his address. 



75 



CIIArTER XII. 

1753—1760. 

Unpopularity of the Duko of Dorset — Earl of Kil- 
dare — His Address — Patriots it) power — Pension 
List— Duke of Bedford lord-lieutenant — Case of 
Saul— Catholic meeting in Dublin — Commence- 
ment of Catholic agitation — Address of the Catho- 
lics received — First recognition of tlio Catholics 
as subjects — Lucasian molts — Project of Union — 
Thurot's expedition — Death of George II. — Popu- 
lation — Distress of the country — Operation of the 
Penal Daws — The Geosrhcjruns — Catholic Petition 
— Berkeley's " Querist." 

After these high-handed measures of the 
English ministry, of which Dorset was hut 
the instrument, lie became intolerable to the 
people of Dublin, as well as his son, Lord 
tj» George Saokville, the primate, am] every 
one professing " to do the king's business in 
Ireland." The duke, even before being re- 
called, found it necessary to go over to 
England, partly to avoid the odium of the 
Irish, but chiefly lo lake care of his interests 
and those of his family at the court. The 
colonial patriotism ran high ; the mob of 
Dublin became " Lucasian." Tlie primate 
durst not appear on the streets ; and the 
maimer was then first introduced of express- 
ing, by toasts, at private supper parties, 
some stirring patriotic sentiment, or keen in- 
vective against the administration, in terse 
language, which would pass from mouth to 
mouth, and thence get into the newspapers. 
One of these toasts was, "May all Secretary- 
Bashaws and lordly high-priests be kept to 
their tackle, the sword and the Bible." An- 
other was, " May tlie importation of Gany- 
mede* into Ireland be discontinued," which 
was an allusion to unnamable vices attrib- 
uted to Primate Stone. 

However, the chief interest of the struggle 
bel ween court and country was now, for the 
moment, transferred to the cabinets and 
antechambers of ministers at London. The 
Earl of Kildare, afterwards Duke of Lein- 
ster, a bigh-spirited nobleman, as became bis 
Geraldine blood, was moved with indigna- 
tion at the late proceedings in his country; 
hr the Geraldines had always considered 
themselves Irish, and long before these 
Cromwellian and Williamite colonists had 
appeared iu the island his ancestors were 



not only Irish and chiefs of Clan-Geralt, but 
were even reproached as being actually more 
Irish than the Irish. Of course, the family 
had long ago " conformed," like most of the 
O'Briens and De Burghos, and many other 
ancient tribes of French and Irish stock; 
otherwise the earl could not have sat in 
Parliament, nor taken the bold step which 
so much astonished British courtiers at this 
period. De went over to London, had an 
audience of the king, and presented him 
with his own hand an address of remon- 
strance from himself against the whole course 
of the Irish Government under Lord Dorset. 
This document spoke very plainly to the 
king; told him ''his loyal kingdom of Ire- 
land wore a face of discontent ;" that this 
discontent proceeded not from faction, but 
from the malfeasance of ministers ; it com- 
plained of the odious duumvirate of the 
primate and the viceroy; compared the lat- 
ter with Strafford, the former with Laud and 
Wolsey, and especially exposed the insolent 
behavior of Dorset's son, Lord George Sack- 
ville, in mischievously meddling with all the 
public affairs of the kingdom. 

Ministers were surprised at what they 
considered the boldness of this proceeding. 
The Earl of Holderness writes to the Irish 
Chancellor Jocelyn, " My good lord chan- 
cellor — I am not. a little concerned that the 
noble Earl of Kildare should take so bold a 
step as he may repent hereafter, * * He 
was but ill received, and very coolly dis- 
missed, as, indeed, the presumption well 
merited; for why should his majesty re- 
ceive any remonstrances concerning his 
kingdom or government, but from the proper 
ministers, or through the usual channels, 
namely, both Houses of Parliament? I de- 
siic my compliments may attend his grace, 
my lord primate, and wish him success in 
all laudable endeavors for poor Ireland." 
Hut, in fact, although the earl's address 
was spoken of generally as an act of temeri- 
ty ''which nothing but the extreme mild- 
ness of government could allow to remain 
unpunished," yet it appears he felt extreme- 
ly easy about these hints of danger to him- 
self. If it be true that he was " coolly dis- 
missed" from the royal audience, yet the 
government of Ireland was very quickly 
modelled upon his views, or almost placed 




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HISTORY OF IRELAND, 



substantially in his hands; Dorset was soon 
recalled, and was succeeded by the Lop 
Harrington, a personal ami political ally of 
Kildare. Mr. Plowden alleges, and the re- 
suit seems to confirm it, that this viceroy 
came over to Ireland leagued by a secret 
treaty with the Patriot party, through the 
intermediation of Lord Kildare, and in es- 
pecial had a clear understanding with Boyle 
and Malone. Stone was removed from the 
privy council ; Boyle was made Earl of Shan- 
non, and entered the Upper House, accept- 
ing at the same time a pension of £'2,000 
for thirty-one years. Ponsonb} was elected 
Speaker in Ins place. The system of the 
English Court was now to buy up the Pa- 
triots with place and patronage. Even 
Malone was promised the succession to Boyle 
as Chancellor of the Exchequer; but the 
public, and his own respectable family, raised 
such an outcry against this that he was 
ashamed to accept it, and declined. Boyle 
continued nominal chancellor, and Malone 
condescended to receive the profits of the 
place. We hear but little more of any 
trouble given to English rule by this band of 
liisii Patriots, and the bitter reflection of 
Thomas MacNevin upon the whole transac- 
tion seems well justified. " Despotism, with- 
out corruption, was not considered as a fit 
exemplar of government, and the matter for 
the present terminated by a title and a pen- 
sion conferred on the greatest Patriot ol the 
day. Henry Boyle bore about the blushing 

honors of his public virtue, emblazoned on 
the coronet of the Earl of Shannon. The 
pinnate did not fare so well; he was re- 
moved from the privy council. The rest of 
the Patriots found comfortable retreats in 
various lucrative offices, and the most sub- 
stantial compliments were paid to those who 
were noisiest in their patriotism and fiercest 
iu their opposition." 

Iu 1756 the lord-lieutenant, now- Duke of 
Devonshire, after having thus gratified the 

"Patriots," returned to England in delicate 

health — leaving as lords-justices, Jocelyn, 
1 >rd chancellor, and the Earls of Kildare and 
Bessborough. 

It is painful to be obliged to admit that 
the transferrence of the power and patronage 

of the Irish Government into the hands of 
the Patriots was not productive of any whole- 




some effect whatsoever — neither in favor of 
the Catholic masses (for the Patriots were 
their mortal enemies), nor in favor of pub- 
ic virtue and morality, for nobody demands 
to be bought at so high a price as a patriot. 
Accordingly, we soon find the whole atten- 
tion of Parliament and of the country ab- 
sorbed by inquiries into the enormously in- 
creased pension list upon the Irish Estab- 
lishment. In March, 1756, some member 
(unpensioned) of the Commons, introduced 
a bill to vacate the seats of such members 
of the House of Commons as should accept 
any pension or civil office of profit from the 
Crown. It was voted down by a vote of 
eighty-five to fifty-nine — a fatal and ominous 
warning to the nation. On the day when 
that measure was debated, a return of pen- 
sions was brought in and read. Many of 
the first names in Ireland appear upon the 
shameful list; many foreigners or English- 
men; few or no meritorious servants of the 
sta'e. The Countess of Yai mouth stood 
upon that return for £4,000; Mr. Belling- 

ham Boyle, a near relative of the illustrious 

"Patriot," for £800 "during pleasure" (that 

is, so long as he should make himself gener- 
ally useful), and the Patriot himself, now 
Earl of Shannon, closed up the list with his 
pension of £2,000 a year. 

Although the bill to vacate the seats of 
pensioners was lost, the revelations of pre- 
vailing corruption were so gross that certain 
other members of Parliament, not yet pen- 
sioned, again returned to the charge upon 
this popular grievance. A series of resolu- 
tions was, in fact, reported by the committee 
on public accounts, not, indeed, making per- 
s 'ii. il and ungracious reference lo.the private 
concerns of members of Parliament, but 
stating in general terms that the pension 
list had become altogether too enormous ; 
that it had been increased since the 23d of 
March, 1755 — that is, within one year — by 
no less than £28,103 /hr annum; that 
these pensions were lavished upon foreigners, 
and upon people not resident in Ireland ; 
and that all this was a loss and injury to the 
nation and to his majesty's service. Upon 
these resolutions, which did not touch too 
closely the Patriots' own private arrange- 
ments, there was a patriotic struggle, anc 
even a patriotic triumph. The resolutions 



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CASK OF SAUL — CATHOLIC MEETING IN DUBLIN. 



w re passed, and were presented bj Speaker 
I', nsonb) to the vici roy, with the usual re- 
quest thai thej should he transmitted to the 
king. Be onlj replied that the matter was 
of too high a nature for him to promise at 
once thai he would forward such resolutions. 
Thereupon the Speaker returned to the 
Bouse and reported his reception. It was 
determined to make a stand, and next day a 
motion was made that all orders not yet pro- 
ceeded on should be adjourned, the House 
not havjng yet received any answer from the 
lord-lieuteuanl as to the transmission of their 
i' "Unions. This, of course, meant that 
they would vote no supplies until they should 
be satisfied on that point. The motion to 
adjourn every thing was carried, by a strict 
party vote — those in favor of the resolu- 
tions voting for the adjournment, and those 
opposed to them voting against it. The 
lord-lieutenant immediately sent a message 
that he would transmit the resolutions with- 
out delay. Thus a small patriotic victory 
was gained without any one being injured, 
for nothing whatsoever came of these reso- 
1 itions. 

In September, 1757, the Duke of Bed- 
ford came over as lord-lieutenant — specially 
instructed by Mr. Pitt to go upon the con- 
ciliatory policy. He was to employ all soft- 
ening and healing arts of government. In 
fact, it is to the Duke of Bedford's adminis- 
tration we are to go back for the commence- 
ment of that well-known Whig policy, of 
making use of the Patriotic Irish party,and 

even of the Catholics themselves, in support 

of the Whig party in England. There had 
bei n lately a considi ruble aggravation of the 
sufferings of the Catholics under the penal 
laws; lie gentleness and forbearance exer- 
cised towards them during Chesterfield's 
viceroyalty had no longer a sufficient reason 
and motive; the halcyon days of connivance 
and extra-legal toleration were over, and the 
Catholics were once more under the full 
pressure of the laws "for preventing the 
glow th of Popery." 

A remarkable example of this low condi- 
tion of the Catholics occurred the year fol- 
lowing. A young Catholic girl named 
O'Toole was importuned by some of her 
fi i.-ti oi in to ihe Established < 'linn h ; 

to avoid this persecution, she took refuge in 




the house of another friend and relative, a 
Catholic merchant in Dublin, named Saul. 
Legal proceedings were at once taken against 
Mr. Saul, in the name of a Protestant con- 
nection of the young lady. Of course, the 
trial went against Saul ; and on this occasion 
he was assured from the bench that Papists 
had no rights, inasmuch as "the law did not 
presume a Papist to exist in the kingdom ; 
nor could they so much as breathe there with- 
out the connivance of Government" And 
the court was right, for such was actually the 
" Law," or what passed for law in Ireland at 
that time. 

On the arrival of the Duke of Bedford 
there bad even been prepared, by some mem- 
bers of Parliament, the '-heads of a bill" for 
a new and more stringent penal law regula- 
ting the registration of priests, and intended 
to put an effectual end, by dreadful penalties, 
to the regular course of hierarchical church 
government, which had, up to that time, 
been carried on regularly, though clandes- 
tinely and against the law. The menace of 
this new law and the late proceedings re- 
specting Mr. Saul, caused a good deal of agi- 
tation and excitement among the Catholics, 
and the leading people of that religion in 
Dublin even ventured to hold small meetings 
in an obscure manner, to consult on the best 
way of meeting the fresh atrocities which 
w.rc now threatened. In these preliminary 
meetings two factions at once developed 
themselves; the long period of ui, acquaint- 
ance with all political and civil life had ren- 
dered the Catholic people almost incapable 
of efficient organization and co-operation ; 
and so they divided forthwith into two par- 
ties — the one led by Lord Trimbleston, the 
other by L>r. Fitzsimon. At length certain 
of the more rational and moderate leaders 
of the Cathi lies, Charles O'Conor, of Bel- 
anagar; Dr. Curry, author of the Historical 
Review of the Civil Wars; Mr. Wyse, a 
Waterford merchant, together with Lords 
Fingal, Taaffe, and Delviu, originated a new 
movement by a meeting in Dublin, which 
established the first ''Catholic Committee," 
and commenced that career of lf agitation" 
which has since been earned lo such great 
lengths. The first performances of this 
Catholic Committee have been, and will al- 
ways be, very variously appreciated by Irish- 



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men, in accordance with their different ideas 

.-.s to the policy and dnty of a nation held 
in so degrading a bondage. It became 
known, during the administration of Lord 
Bedford, that tin- Jacobites in France were 
prepariug auother expedition for a desoent 
somewhere on the British coast, or Ireland; 
and on the 29th of October, 1750, the lord- 
lieutenant delivered a message to Parlia- 
ment, in which he stated thai he had re- 
ceived a letter from Mr. Secretary Pitt, 
written by the king's express command, in- 
forming him that France was preparing a 
new invasion, and desiring him to exhort 
the Irish people to show on this occasion 
their tried loyalty and attachment to the 
House of Hanover. Immediately an ad- 
dress, testifying the most devoted "loyalty," 
was prepared by tic Catholic Committee. 
It was written by Charles O'Conor, and 
signed by three hundred vi' the most respect- 
able Catholic inhabitants of Dublin. But 
here a difficulty arose ; Catholics were not 
citizens, nor subjects; they were not sup- 
posed to exist at all; other attempts they 
had made to testify their "loyalty" had 
been repulsed with the most insolent disdain ; 
and they knew well they were exposing 
themselves to another humiliation of the 
same kind on the present occasion. How- 
ever, two bold Papists undertook to present 
the address to Ponsonby, Speaker of the 
House of Commons. These were Antony 
McDermott and John Crump. They wait- 
ed "ii the Speaker and read him the loyal 

manifesto. Mr. Ponsonby, a Whig and a 

" Patriot," took the document, laid it on the 
table, said not one word, and bowed the 
delegates out. There were a few days of 
agitated suspense; and then, on the 10th of 
December, the lord-lieutenant sent a gra- 
cious answer, lie did more ; he caused 
his answer to be printed in the Dublin 
Gazette, thereby officially recognizing the 
existence (though humble) of persons call- 
ing themselves Catholics in Ireland. The 
Speaker then sent for the two gentlemen 
who had presented the address, and ordered 

Mr. McDermott to read it to the House. 

Mr. McDermott read it, and then thanked 
the Speaker, in the name of the Irish Catho- 
lics, for his condescension. Mr. Ponsonby 
most graciously replied " that he counted it 



a favor to be put in the way of serving so 
respectable a body as the gentlemen who 
had signed that address." The Catholics, 
then, tor the first time since the Treaty of 
Limerick, were publicly and officially ad- 
mitted to be in a species of existence. Here 
was a triumph ! 

In fact, this recognition of Irish Catholics 
as a part, of the King of England's subjects 
was a kind of admission of that body ovc< 
the threshold of the temple of civil and 
constitutional freedom. We may feel in- 
dignant, at the extreme humility of the pro- 
ceedings of the committee, and lament, that 
the low condition of our countrymen at that 
time left lb. 'in no alternative but that ot 
professing a hypocritical "loyalty" to their 
oppressors; for the only other alternative 
was secrel organization to prepare an insur- 
rection for the total extirpation of the Eng- 
lish colony in Ireland, and, carefully disarmed 
as the Catholics were, tiny doubtross felt 
this to be an impossible project. Yet, for 

the honor of human nature, it is necessary 
to state the tact that this profession of h>\al- 

u to a king of England was in reality in- 
sincere. Hypocrisy, in such a case, is less 
disgraceful than would have been a genuine 
canine attachment to the hand that smote 
and 10 the foot that kicked. 

The real object of the conciliatory policy 
which the 1 Hike of Bedford was instructed 

te) pursue towards the Catholics was not only 
to give additional strength to the Whig 
pain" in England, but also to prepare the 
way for a legislative union between the two 
countries ; in other words, a complete ab- 
sorption and extinguishment of the shadowy 
nationality of Ireland in the more real and 
p.t, nt nationality of her "sister country," and 
even so earl} as the time of Bedford's admin- 
istration the English ministry had begun to 
count upon the Catholics as an anti-Irish 
element which might be used to crush the 
rising aspirations of colonial nationality. 
Rumors began to be current in Dublin that 
a project was on foot to destroy the Irish 

Parliament and effect a union with Great 
Britain, similar lo that which had been 
made with Scotland ; and the people of the 

metropolis I ame violently excited. On 

the 3d of December, in this year (1750), 
the mob rose and surrounded the Houses of 



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LCCASIAN MOBS — PUOJECT OF UNION. 



79 




parliament with loud outcries. When any 
member was seen arriving they stopped him, 
and obliged him to swear that lie would <>)>- 
I' «e a union. The lord chancellor ami 
some of the bishops were hustled and mal- 
ii ated, and one member of the privy coun- 
cil w.-is flung into the Liffey. The tumult 
became so dangerous that at length Mr. 
Speaker Ponsonby, and Mr. Rigby, the sec- 
retary, were obliged to make their appear- 
ance in the portico of the House, and sol- 
emnly assure the people that no union was 
in contemplation, and that, if such a meas- 
ure were proposed, they would resist it to 
the last extremity. The riot, however, was 
not suppressed without military aid, and, for 
the first time, zealous patriotic Protestants 
of the English colony were ridden down by 
the king's troops. The anti-union demon- 
stration was essentially and exclusively Prot- 
estant, and the Catholics of Dublin made 
haste to clear themselves of all complicity in 
it. An inquiry was instituted in Parliament 
to ascertain who were the authors and pro- 
moters of the disturbance; and on that oc- 
casion, as some of the very persons guiltv in 
that respect did, by their interest in both 
Houses, endeavor to fix the odium of it. on 
the obnoxious Papists (to which conscious 
untruth and calumny the war then carrying 
on against France gave some kind of color), 
the Catholics thought it high time publicly 
to vindicate their characters from that and 
every other vile suspicion of disloyalty, by 
an address to his grace the lord-lieutenant, 
testifj ing their wannest gratitude for the 
enity they experienced under his majesty's 
Government, and their readiness to concur 
with the faithfulest and most zealous of his 
majesty's other subjects, in opposing, bv 
every means io their power, all, both foreign 
and domestic, enemies.* 

On the same occasion Prime Sergeant 
S'.annard, of the "Patriot'' party, a gentle- 
man of high honor ami probity, in his 
speech in the House of Commons, contrast- 
ing the riotous conduct of the Lueasians (as 
iliey were then called after their chief), with 
the quiet and dutiful behavior of the Roman 
Catholics, in that and other dangerous con- 
junctures, gave the following testimony in 

* Curry's Review. 



favor of these latter: "We have lived 
amicably and in harmony among ourselves, 
and without any material party distinctions, 
for several years past, till within these few 
months; and during the late wicked rebellion 
in Scotland, we had the comfort and satisfac- 
tion to see that all was quiet here. And to 
the honor of the Roman Catholics lie it re- 
membered, that not a man of them moved 
tongue, pen, or sword, upon the then or the 
present occasion ; and I am glad to find 
that they have a grateful and proper sense 
of the mildness and moderation of our Gov- 
ernment. For my part, while they behave 
with duty and allegiance to the present es- 
tablishmont, I shall hold them as men in 
equal esteem with others in every point, but 
one ; and while their private opinion inter- 
feres not with public tranquillity, I think 
their industry and allegiance ought to be en- 
couraged." 

It deserves remark, then, that on this first 
occasion when a project of legislative union 
was really entertained by an English min- 
istry, the " Patriot" patty, which opposed it, 
was wholly and exclusively of the Protest- 
ant colony, and that the Catholics of Ireland 
were totally indifferent; and, indeed, they 
could not rationally be otherwise, as it was 
quite impossible for them to feel an attach- 
ment to a national legislature in which they 
were not represented, and for wbose mem- 
bers they could not even cast a vote. 

The French naval expedition was in prep- 
aration at the ports of Brest and Dunkirk, 
and the enthusiastic Franco-Irish officers 
did not doubt that if it could once land in 
Ireland, and obtain a first success, the whole 
Catholic nation would rise to support it. 
The anticipation would have been realized, 
if the two squadrons could have united, and 
then entered a southern or western port. 
But now, as in other instances, the fortune 
of war and weather on the sea befriended 
England. The Brest squadron was a pow- 
erful one, and was placed under command of 
Admiral Conflans; that titled out at Dun- 
kirk was intrusted to Thurot, who had 
gained distinction as commander of a pri- 
vateer, sweeping l lie Channel and German 
Ocean of British commerce. In the year 
1750, our excellent ami conscientious his- 
Plowdeu, was a boy, and in coup 



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panv «i;ii some otner Catholic boys, was on 
board a \ essel bound for France, to obt tin 
the education which was by law debarred 
tin in at home. Their ship was chased, 
boarded and captured, between Ostend and 
Dunkirk, by a French vessel of war, which 
turned oul to be no other than Thurot's 
ship, i1h' Belle Isle, commanded by that re- 
doubtable sea-rover. The boys, along with 
the rest of the crew, were can ied as prisoners 
to Flushing, where they remained some 
week-, guarded on board the Belle Isle while 
she was undergoing repairs. Plowden de- 
scribes here a desperate mutiny of the wild 
crew of the Belle Isle, which, however, was 
fiercely suppressed by the officers — Thurot 
himself killing two of the. ringleaders and 
cutting off the cheek of another. The 
young prisoners were shortly after exchanged. 
This rude but gallant seaman was placed 
in command of the squadron of five ships 
then being fitted out at Dunkirk, to co- 
operate with Conflans. In the autumn of 
1759 they both sailed ; their rcudezv ous n as 
to be in the [rish Sea. Conflans was en- 
countered by the English Bawke and en- 
tirely defeated, while Thurot, after long 
cruising around the island-, and winteringin 
Norway, al last, in February, L 760, entered 
Lough Foyle with only three of his five 
Our had been lest, and one had 
been sent hack to France. lie did not 
think fit to come up to Derry, which he 
probably imagined to be a stronger place 
than it really was, but coasted round the 
sho i - of Antrim, and suddenly appeared be- 
fore Carrickfergus (.'astir, on Belfast Lough, 
iipuii the 'J 1st of February, lie summoned 
the castle to surrender; it was defended by 
a small garrison, commanded by a Colonel 
Jennings ; and on Jennings' refusal to capitu- 
late, the cannonade began. The pe 

of B could now, 

from their own streets, see the flash and 
hear the roar of the guns. They did nol y< t 
know the force of the invading squadron, 
and for a time believed that here were al 
a>t the Freni ' ging iu the Pn tender," 
overthrowing the " Ascendency," and taking 
hack the forfeited estates. Alter a gallant 
resistance, the castle and town ol Carrick 

wi re taken, but with the 

considerable number of French soldiers, and 



t Hobei i, the bi igadier-general of their 
force, was wounded. The French kept ]i«s. 

session of the town and castle for five days 
and levied some contributions in Carrick 
fergus of such things as they needed after 
their longcruise. The town of Belfast con- 
tained at that time le-s than nine thousand 
inhabitants, hut it was a prosperous trading 
place, ami entirely Protestant. Alarm was 
instantly sent out through the counties of 
Down, Antrim, and Armagh, the most popu- 
lous Protestant districts of the island, ami 
within this interval of five days two thou- 
sand two hundred and twenty volunteers 
were thronging towards Belfast, U/idly armed, 
indeed, and not disciplined at all, hut zealous 
for the " Ascendency " and the House ol 
Hanover. Thurot had little more than five 
hundred soldiers left, besides his sailors ; he 
knew also that English men-of-war would 
mtv soon appear at the mouth of Belfast 
I. ough ; therefore he did not venture upon 
Belfast, especially as there was no sign of a 
Catholic rising anywhere to support him. 
lie re-embarked on the 26th, and was en 
countered in the Irish Sea by three Englisl 
ships of superior force. He gave ha tie. and 

fought with the utmost desperation ; hut at 

last his three vessels were captured, after 
Thurot himself was killed, with three hun- 
dred v( his men. J lis shattered ships were 
towed into a port of the Isle of Man. Tes- 
timonies to the humanity and gallantry or 
this brave oilier are freel] accorded by his 
enemies. 

King George tin' Second died this year, 
after a huig and eventful reign. His per- 
sonal character and dispositions were wholly 
immaterial to the course ^( events in this 
kingdom. Although his English subjects 
disl ked him as a German, to Ireland he was 
a thorough Englishman — bound by his 
policy, as well as compelled by his advisers, 
to maintain the " English Interest,'' in op- 
position to that of Ireland. Anil this point 
w is successfully and triumphantly carried, 
at every period of his reign, sometimes by 
strengthening the Court party, sometimes by 
buying up the "Patriots." There had 
been (over and above the usual suffering 
from poverty) two famines; also a consid- 
erable • an 1 .;-: ition of Presbyterians from tin: 
northern counties, to escape from the pay- 



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THE GEOGHEGANS 






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incut of tithes and from the disabilities 
created b\ tlie Tesl Art. The population 
of the island remained nearly stationary 
during the whole reign. In 1726 it was 
2,309,106, and in L 75 4 it was 2,372,634— 
an increase of little more than sixty thou- 
sand in twenty eight years.* The manufac- 
ture of woollen cloth had almost disappeared, 
bul in the eastern p irt of Ulstei the linen 
trade had taken a considerable extension. 

It is impossible i" exaggerate, and hard 
to conceive in all its horror, the misery and 
degradation of the Catholic people, through- 
out this whole period, although active per- 
secution ceased duringthe year of the battle 
of Fontenoy and the Scottish insurrection. 
On the whole, this was the era of priest- 
hunting, of "discovet ies," and of an universal 
plunder of such property .-is remained in the 
hands of Catholics. In this pitiful struggle 

the wild humor of the race would sometimes 
break out; and often desperate deeds were 
done by beggared men. The story of two 
of tin- Geoghegans, of Meath, is so character- 
istic of the time as to deserve a place here. 
It is related by the author of "The Irish 
Abroad and at Home;" a very desultory and 
chaotic, but generally both authentic and 
entertaining, work. 

" Seventy or eighty years ago, there re- 
sided in Soho Square, London, an Irish Ro- 
man Catholic gentleman, known among his 
friends as 'Geoghegan, of London.' I'., 
tending to be, or being really, alarmed, lest 
a relative ( Mr. Geoghegan, of Jamestown ) 

si Id conform to the Protestant religion, 

and possess himself of a considerable prop 
ei ty, situate in Westmeath, he resolved upon a 
proceeding to which the reader will attach 
any epithet it may seem to warrant. 

" He repaired to Dublin, reported himself 
to the necessary authorities, and professed 
in all its required legal forms, the Protestant 
religion on a Sunday, sold his estates on 
Monday, and relapsed into Popery on Tues- 
,i ty. 

"lb- did not effect, thesn changes unosten- 
tatiously; for ' He saw no reason for mau- 
vaite konte,' as he called it. lie expressed 

# There m no cnwi- taken in e'thcr of those 

'I'm- eKtinontee of t he population given in 

Thom'a Direi Dry are (bunded upon each returns, 

(■arocliiul registers, and tlie like, ust were uccessible. 

11 




admiration of the same principle of t-.onve- 
uieitt apostasy, which governed Henri IV. "s 
acceptance of the French crown. 'Paris 
vaut bien lllir messe,' said that gay, chival- 
rous, bul somewhat unscrupulous monarch. 
Thus, when asked the motive of his abjura- 
tion of Catholicism, Geoghegan replied : ' I 
would rather trust my sou] to God for a day, 
tha y property to the fiend forever.' 

"This somewhat impious speech was in 
keeping with his conduct at Christ-Church 
when he made his religious profession : the 
sacramental wine being presented to him, he 
drank off" the entire contents of the cup. 
The officiating clergyman rebuked his inde- 
corum. 'You need not grudge it me,' said 
the neophyte: 'it's the dearest glass of 
wine I ever drank.' 

"In i lie afternoon of the same day he 
entered the Globe Coffee Room, Essex Street, 
then frequented by the most respectable of 
the citizens of Dublin. The room was 
crowded. Putting his hand to his sword, 
and throwing a glance of defiance around, 
Geoghegan said. 

'•'I have read my recantation to-day, and 
any man win) says I did right is a rased.' 

"A Protestant with whom he was eon- 
versing the moment before lie left home to 
read his recantation, said to him : ' For ail 
your assumed Protestantism, Geoffheffan. 
_\ou will die a Papist.' 

'" Fi done, moii ami !' replied lie. ' That is 
the last thing of which 1 am capable.' 

" One more specimen of the operation of 
the penal laws may be given. 

"Mr. Geoghegan had a relative, Mr. Ke- 

dagh Geoghegan, ofDonower, in the county 
of Westmeath, who, though remaining faith- 
ful to the creed of Ids forefathers, enjoyed 
the esteem and respect of tint Protestant 
resident gentry of his county. Notwith- 
standing that his profession of the Roman 
Catholic religion precluded his performing 
the functions of a grand juror, he attended 
the assizes at, Mullingar regularly, in com- 
mon with other gentlemen of Westmeath, 
and dined with the grand jurors. 

"On one of those occasions, a Mi. Stepney, 
a man of considerable fortune in the county, 
approached him and remarked : 'Gi ogbegan, 

that is a capital team to your carriage. 1 
have rarely seen four finer horses — nor be' 



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ter matched. Here, Geoghegan, are twenty 
pounds,' tendering him u sum of money ic 
gold. ' You understand me. They are 

mine' And he moved towards the door, 
apparently with the intention of taking pos- 
session of his purchase. The horses, not yet 
detached from Mr. Geoghegan's carriage, 

were still in the yard of the inn close by. 

•■ ' Hold, Stepney !' said Geoghegan. ' Wait 
one moment, I shall not be absent more 
than that time.' He then quitted tlie room 
abruptly, and was seen running in great 
haste towards the inn at which lie always 
put up. 

There was something in the scene which 
had just occurred which shocked the feel- 
ings of the witnesses of it, and something 
in the manner of Geoghegan, that produced 
among them a dead silence and a conviction 
that it was not to end there. Not a word 
was yet spoken, when the reports of four 
pistol shots struck their cars, and in a few 
.sen, n, Is afterwards Geoghegan was perceiv- 
ed coming from the direction of the inn, 
laden with lire-aims. lie mounted to the 
room in which the party were assembled, 
holding by their barrels a b;aee of pistols in 
each hand. Walking directly up to Step- 
ney, he said : ' Stepney, von cannot have 
the horses for which you bid just now.' 

'•'1 can, and will have them.' 

" ' You can't. 1 have shot them ; and 

Stepney, unless yon be as great a coward as 
you are a scoundrel. I will do my best to 
shoot you. Here, choose your weapon, and 
take your ground. Gentlemen, open if you 
please and see fair play.' 

"He then advanced upon Stepney, offering 
him the choice of either pair of pistols. 
Stepney, however, declined the combat and 
quitted the room, leaving Geoghegan the 
object of the unanimous condolements of 
the rest of the party, and overwhelmed with 
their expressions of sympathy and of regret 
for the perversion of the law of which Mr. 
Stepney had just sought to render him the 
object. 

•'In tendering twenty pounds for horses 
that ware worth twenty limes that sum, 
Stepney was only availing himself of one ol 
the enactments of the Penal Code, which 
forbade a Papist the possession of a horse of 
greater value than live pounds. 





"Notwithstanding this incident, old Ke- 
dagh Geoghegan continued to visit Mullingar 
during: the assizes for many years afterwards ; 
but to avoid a similar outrage, and to keep 
in recollection the cruel nature of the Po- 
pery laws, his cattle thenceforward consisted 
of tour oxen." 

Another and a graver illustration of the 
general condition of the Catholics is the 
"Petition and Remonstrance" addressed to 
King George II. by some members of that 
body. It is found at length in Dr. Curry's 
excellent collection, and although it presents 
no new facts in addition to those alreai 
mentioned in the narration, it is interesting 
as an example of the tone and altitude 
which Catholic* then thought it, necessary 
to assume in addressing their master. 

TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, 

The humble Petition and Remonstrance of the 
Roman Catholic* of Inland* 

Most Gracious Sovereign : — We your 

majesty's dutiful and faithful subjects, the 
Roman Catholics of the kingdom of Ireland, 
beg leave to lay at your majesty's feel this 
humble remonstrance of some of those 
grievances and restraints under which we 
have long labored without murmuring or 
complaint; and we presume to make this 
submissive application, from a sense of your 
Majesty's great and universal clemency, of 
your gracious and merciful regard to tender 
consciences, and from a consciousness of our 
own loyalty, affection, and gratitude to your 
majesty's person and government, as duties 
incumbent upon us, which it is our unalter- 
able resolution to pay in all events during 
the remainder of our lives. 

And we are the more emboldened to pie- 
sent this our humble remonstrance, because 
it appeareth unto us, that the laws by which 
such giievanees are occasioned, and such 
penalties inflicted upon us, have taken lise 
rather from private views of expe liency and 
sell- ntcre-t, or fioir. mistaken jealousies and 
mistrusts, than from any truly public-spirited 
motives; inasmuch as they seemed to have 
infringed certain privileges, rights, and im- 
munities, which had been freelv and Sol- 
emnly granted, together with a promise of 
further favor and indulgence to the Roman 
Catholics of Ireland, upon the most valuable 






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CATHOLIC TETITIOV. 



Considerations. For »c most humbly offer 
to your majesty's just and generous consid- 
eration, that (Mi the 3d day of October, 1691, 
the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry of 
this kingdom, under the late King James, 
int. Ted into articles of capitulation at Lim- 
erick, whereby, among other things, it was 
stipulated and agreed, that ''the Roman 
Catholics of Ireland should enjoy such priv- 
ilege in the exercise of their religion as they 
did enjoy ill the reign of King Charles II. 
and that their majesties as soon as their af- 
fairs would permit them, would summon a 
parliament in Ireland, and endeavor to pro- 
cure the said Roman Catholics such further 
security in that particular, as might preserve 
them from any disturbance on account of 
their said religion." Whereupon these 
noblemen and gentlemen laid down their 
arms, and immediately submitted to their 
majesties' government; at the same time 
that they had offers of powerful assistance 
from Fiance, which might, if accepted, have 
greatly obstructed the success of their maj- 
esties' arms in the war thcu carrying on 
abroad against that kingdom. 

And although these articles were duly 
ratified and confirmed, first by the com- 
mander-in-chief of their majesties' forces in 
Ireland in conjunction with the then lords 
justices thereof, and afterwards by an act of 
the Irish parliament, in the ninth year of 
his majesty King William's reign, by which 
thev became the public faith of the nation, 
plighted and engaged to these people in as 
full, firm, and solemn manner, as ever pub- 
lic faith was plighted to any people ; yet 
so far were the Roman Catholics of Ireland 
from receiving the just benefit thereof; so 
far from seeing any steps taken, or means 
used in the Irish parliament, to procure them 
such promised security, as might preserve 
them from any disturbance on account of 
their religion, that, on the contrary, several 
laws have been since enacted in that parlia- 
ment, by winch the exercise of their religion 
is made penal, and themselves and their 
heirs forever have f rfeited those rights, im- 
munities, and titles to their estates and prop- 
erties, w uioh in the reign of King Charles II, 

they were by law entitled to, and enjoyed in 
common with the rest of their fellow-sub- 




And such is the evil tendency of these 
I iws to create jealousy and disgust between 

parents and their children, and especially to 
stifle in the breasts of the latter those pious 
sentiments of filial duty and obedience 
which reason dictates, good policy requires, 
and which the Almighty so strictly enjoins, 
that in virtue of them, a son, however un- 
dutiful or profligate in other respects, shall 
merely by the merit of conforming to the 
established religion, not only deprive the 
Roman Catholic father of that five and full 
possession of his estate, that power to- mort- 
gage or otherwise dispose of it, as the exi- 
gencies of his affairs may requite, but also 
shall himself have full liberty to mortgage, 
sell, or otherwise alienate that estate from 
his family forever; a liberty most gracious 
sovereign, the frequent use of which has en- 
tailed poverty and despair on some of the 
most ancient and opulent families in this 
kingdom, and brought many a parent's gray 
hairs with sorrow to the grave. 

And although very few estates at present 
remain in the hands of the Roman Catholics 
of Ireland, and therefore little or no matter 
appears to be left for these laws to operate 
upon, nevertheless, we are so far from being 
secure in the possession of personal property, 
so far from being preserved from any dis- 
turbance on account of our religion, even in 
that respect, that new and forced construc- 
tions have been of late years put upon these 
laws (for we cannot think that such con- 
structions were ever originally intended), 
bv which, on the sole account of our reli- 
gion, we are in many cases, stripped of that 
personal property by discoverers and inform- 
ers; a set of men, most gracious sovereign, 
once generally ami justly despised amongst 
us, but of late grown into some repute, by 
the increase of their numbers, and by the 
frequency, encouragement, and success of 
their practices. 

These and many other cruel restrictions 
(such as no Christian people under heaven 
lUt ourselves are made liable to) are and 
have long been greatly detrimental, not only 
to us in particular, but also to the commerce, 
culture, and every other improvement of 
this kingdom in general; and what is sure- 
ly a melancholy consideration, are chiefly 
beneficial to the discoverers aiu: 



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before mentioned ; who uuder color of these 
laws, plunder indiscriminately, parents, 
brethren, kinsmen, and friends, in despite of 
all the ties of bl I, of affection aud confi- 
dence, in breach of the divine laws, of all 
former human laws, enacted in this or per- 
haps in any other kingdom, for the security 
of property, since the creation of the world. 
The necessity of continuing laws in their 
full force for so great a number of years, 
which are attended with Buch shameful and 
pernicious consequences, ought, we humbly 
conceive, to be extremely manifest, pressing, 
and permanent; but so far is this from being 
the case with respect to these disqualifying 
laws, that even the pretended grounds for 
those jealousies and mistrusts, which are 
said to have given birth to them, have long 
since disappeared; it being a well-known 
and undeniable truth, that your majesty's 
distressed, but faithful subjects, the Roman 
i ' . holies ol Ireland, have neither the inclina- 
tion nor the power to disturb your majesty's 
government; nor can (we humbly presume) 
that only pretext now left for continuing 
them in force, viz. their tendency to make 
proselytes to the established religion, in any 
degree justify the manifold severities and 
injuries occasioned by them. I'm-, alas! 
mo-: gracious sovereign, there is hut too 
much reason to believe, that proselytes so 
made are, tor the most part, such in appear- 
ance only in order to become in reality, what 
all sincere Christians condemn and detest, uu- 
dutiful ehil Iren, unnatural brethren, or per- 
- fr ends ; and we submit it to your maj- 
esty's great wisdom and goodness, whether 
motives so repugnant to the public interest, 
and to all social, moral, and - duties, 

are fit to be confided in or longer encour- 

Aud because we are sensible, most gra- 
cious s ivere gn, that our professions of lov- 
alty have been often cruelly misrepresi nted, 
even by those who were thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the candor and uprightness 
of our dealings in all other respects, we 
must humbly offer it to your princely and 
generous consideration, that we res: not the 
of our sini ei ity in such professions or 
words, but vn things known and attested by 
ail the wo; 1,1, on our dutiful, peaceable, and 
submissive behavior uuder such pressures, 



for more than half a century; a conduct, 
may it please your majesty, that clearly 
evinces the reality of that religious principle, 
which withholds us from sacrificing con- 
science or honor to any worldly interest 
whatever; since rather than violate either 
by hypocritical professions, we have all our 
lives, patiently suffered so many restrictions 
and losses in our temporal concerns; and 
we most submissive!} beseech your majesty 
to look down on such trials of our integrity, 
not only as a proof of our sincerity in this 
declaration, but also as an earnest and surety 
of our future good behavior; and to give US 
leave to indulge the pleasing hope, that the 
continuance of that behavior, enforced by 
our religious principles, and of your majes- 
ty's great and inherent goodness towards us, 
which it will be the business of our lives to 
endeavor to merit, may at length be the 
happy means of our deliverance from some 

part of that burden, which We hav« SO long 
and so patiently endured. 

That this act of truly royal commiseration, 
beneficence and justice, may be added to 
your majesty's many other heroic virtues, 
and that such our deliverance may be one 
of those distinguished blessings of your 
reign, which shall transmit its memory to 
the hue, gratitude, and veneration of our 
latest posterity, is the humble prayer of, Ac. 

This very humble petition was never pre- 
sented to the king. It was communicated, 
says Dr. Curry, " to the Right Reverend Dr. 

Stone, aud was approved of by his lira,', 
and by as mauv of his discerning and con- 
fidential friends as he thought proper to 
show it to, as he himself assured Lord Taaffe." 

But in this case also, the Catholics them- 
selves did not agree as to tin' proper steps 
to be taken; and the death of the Primate, 
shortly after, seems to have put an end to 
all proceedings upon it. This odious l'i i- 
mate,.iu the last years of his life, became 
quite friendly to the Catholics. The "Eng- 
lish interests" in Ireland needi d s >me sup- 
port against the "Patriots," who set up the 
rous pretension to vindicate the na- 
tional independence of the colony ; and the 
Government alreadj began to rely upon the 
Catholics as a means and agent of perpet- 
uating Lritish domination. 



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As for the :or<drtioD of the country people, 
it continued 10 be very miserable. A few 
of the queries contained in Bishop Berke- 
ley's "Querist" will sufficiently describe 
tln-ir case. He asks : — 

"Whether there be upon earth any 
Christian or civilized people so beggarly, 
wretched, and destitute, as the common 
Irish?' — "Whether, nevertheless, there is 
any other people whose wants may be more 
easily supplied from home?" — "Whether, if 
there was a wall of brass a thousand dibits 
high round this kingdom, our natives might 
not nevertheless live cleanly and comfort- 
ably, till the land, and reap the fruits of it?" 
— " Whether a foreigner could imagine that 
one-half of the people were starving, in a 
country which sent out such plenty of pro- 
visions?" — " Whether it is possible the coun- 
trj should be well improved while our beef 
is exported and our laborers live upon pota- 
toes?" — "Whether trade be not then on a 
right foot when foreign commodities are im- 
ported only in exchange for domestic super- 
'fluities?" — ■'Whether the quantities of beef, 
butter, wool, and leather exported from this 
island can be reckoned the superfluities of a 
country, where there are so many natives 
naked and famished?" From these queries 
it is evident enough that the good and just- 
minded bi.-hop traced ibe wretchedness of 
bis countrymen to its true cause, namely, the 
settled determination of England to regulate 
all the industry of Ireland for ber own use 
and profit: which indeed has continued to 
be the one great plague of the country from 
that day to this. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

1760— 1782. 

George III. — Speech from the Throne — " Tolcra- 
ti"n" — France in I England in India — Lolly's 
Cam] there State of Ireland The Rei enue 

— Distress of Trade Distress in the Country— 
wiou of the Farmer — Whitoboys— Riots — 
"A Popish Coii«piraoy " Steel-Boys and Oak- 
|: ■ Ei i gration from l Br— 1 lalilax, \ ii er ij - 
Patriot — Extravagance and Cor- 
ruptiou — Agitation for Septennial Parliaments. 

K i . i ; George the Third mounted the 
throne of England in October, 1760, al 
twenty-two years of age. lie was grandson 




to the late king, being the son of the l'riuco 
of Wales, Frederick Louis, whom the old 
king very cordially hated. The mother of 
George III. was a German princess of the 
House of Saxe Gotha — a family which has 
since cost dear to the three kingdoms; and 
a year aft/"' bis accession, be married an- 
other German nrincess, of the House of 
Mecklenburg-Strelitz. But the new king 
himself was born in England; a circum- 
stance which greatly rejoiced the English of 
that day. He bad been educated for a time 
in the choicest Whig principles by bis 
father; and as an English historian informs 
us, "great and incessant pains were taken 
to infuse into the mind of 'the Second Hope 
of Britain' just and elevated sentiments of 
government and of civil and religious lib- 
erty."* But after the death of Prince 
Frederick Louis, his mother, the Princess 
Dowager of Wales, gave quite a new direc- 
tion to the education of her son ; and under 
the guidance of the afterwards celebrated 
Lord Bute, brought him up in the highest 
and choicest doctrines of Toryism and Pre- 
rogative. He certainly profited by both 
those systems of tuition, and united in his 
conduct upon the throne all the corruption 
and cant of Whiggery with whatever is most 
coarsely tyrannical, dogged, blind, and im- 
perious in Toryism. 

When he came to the throne and met 
Parliament for the first time, Mr. Pitt was 
still prime minister; and we accordingly 
find the Wbiggish element to prevail in the 

* In an occasional Address, or Prologue, spoken 
by Prince George, on»acting a part in the tragedy of 
Cato, performed at Leicester House abont the year 

17«, lie was instructed thus to express himself, — 



" The poet's labors elevate the muni, 
Teach our young hearts with generous fire to burn, 
And feel the virtuous sentiments wo learn. 
T'attain those glorious ends, what play so fit 
As that where all the powers of human wit, 
Combine to dignify great i ato's name, 
To deck his tomb and consecrate his fame? 
Wh.re i.u-.i.iiTV— o name for ever dear! 
Breail es forth iu every line, and bids us fear 

Nor pains nor death to g lord sacred laws, 

But bravely perish in our country's cause. 
Should this superior to my years !"■ thought, 
Know 'tis the first gie.it Ulson I was taught." 

Liberty, in the language of that day, meant the 
,; interest, and Protestant ascendency iu 
Church and Slate. 



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fiiraous royal speech delivered on that oc- 
casion. His first, words took the heart of 
the nation by storm : — "Born and educated 
in this country, I glory in the name of 
Briton." But one can well imagine what 
bitter reflections passed through the mind 
of :ui educated Irish Catholic, like Charles 
O'Conor, or Curry, as he read the remain- 
ing sentences of the discourse. "The civil 
ami religious rights" said the king, "of my 
living subjects are equally dear to mo with 
the most valuable prerogatives of the crown." 
It was iiis inviolable resolution, lie said, "to 
adhere to and strengthen this excellent 
Constitution in Church and State." "It 
was his fixed purpose" he declared, "to 
countenance and encourage the practice of 
true religion and virtue" — which fixed pur- 
pose of course bound him to discourage and 
to punish all false religions. Finally he ex- 
claimed to his Parliament: ''The eyes of all 
Europe are upon you. From you the Prot- 
estant Juiciest hopes for protection, as well 
as all our Friends tor the preservation of their 
independency. * * * In this expectation I 
am the more encouraged l>\ a pleasing cir- 
cumstance which I look upon as one of the 
most auspicious omens of my reign — that 
happy extinction of divisions, ami that union 
and good harmony which continue to pre- 
vail amongst my subjects afford me the 
most agreeable prospect," His Majesty also 
was pleased to say "that he would maintain 
the toleration inviolable.'' 

The '-toleration" here spoken of, in so far 
as it included Irish Papists, meant simple 
connivance at Catholic worship, so long as 
that was practised very quietly, in obscure 
places. It did not mean exemption or re- 
lief from any one of the disabilities or pen- 
alties which had abolished the civil exist- 
ence of Catholics; it did not mean (hat they 
could l>e e lucated, either at home or abroad ; 

nor thai they could possess arms, or horses, 
or farms on a longer lease than thirty-one 
years; nor that they could sit in Parlia- 
ment, or municipal councils, or parish ves- 
tries, or in any way participate in the voting 
away ot' their own money. It did not mean 
that their clergy could receive orders in Ire- 
laud, or go abroad to receive them without 
incurring the penally of transportation, and, 
if they returned, death : — uor that Catho- 



lics could pra< tise law or medicine, or sit on 
juries, or be guardians to their own chil- 
dren, or hud money on mortgage (if they 
earned any money), of go to a foreign coun- 
try, or have any of the lights of human 
beings in their own. By the connivance ot 
the government, they were permitted to 
breathe, and to go to mass, and to do almost 
nothing else, except live by their labor and 
pay laxes and penal tines. Such is the pre- 
cise limitation of that '■toleration," which 
King George said would be inviolably main- 
tained : and it. was inviolably maintained 
during the first thirty-three years of this 
reign with certain trilling alleviations which 
are to be mentioned in their proper place. 

The accession of King George III. took 
place at an auspicious and prosperous time, 
for England, though not for Ireland. The 
war was proceeding favorably to Great .Brit- 
ain in all parts of the earth and sea; and it 
was in this year 1700 and the following 
year that the great Struggle between France 
and England for the colonial empire of India 
came to a crisis and was decided against 
Fiance, and therefore disastrously for Ireland. 
The war ill India would not here much con- 
cern us but for it> connection with the sad 
fate of Count Lally. He was now a lieuten- 
ant-general in the French armies, ami M. de 
Voltaire informs us that it was his well- 
known hatred of the English which caused 
him to be selected for the honor of com- 
manding the force which was to encounter 
them on the coast of Coromandel. His re- 
giment, that had fought at Fontenoy, was 
with him; and one of the officers who held 
high command under him was the Chevalier 
Geoglicgan.'* He, found every thing in dis- 
array at Pondicherry, the capital of the 
French possessions; very insufficient forces, 
but little provisions, and no money at all. 
Voltaire says : "Notwithstanding the gloomy 

views he took of every thing, he had at first, 
some happy success. He took from the 
English the fort St. David, some leagues 
from Pondicherry and razed its walls in April, 
1758." The same year he besieged Madras, 
took the "black town," but failed before the 
fortress. Uis own correspondence, which is 
in part given to us by Voltaire, attributes 





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tins failure to monstrous peculation and 
waste in the department for supplying the 
army. Indeed lie seems t" have very soon 
come i" the conclusion that nothing effect- 
ual could lie don, • ; that he was abandoned 
to his fate, and that tlie French power in 
Hindustan was doomed. Nothing can ex- 
eerd the passionate outbursts of his grief 
and indignation in some of these letters. 
"Mi II," lie says "has vomited me out upon 
tins land of iniquity ; and I am only await- 
ing, like Jonah, for the whale that is to swal- 
low me." Among his oilier troubles, the 
troops mutinied, and the revolt was appeased 
with much trouble. Then continues Vol- 
taire, "tin' general led them into tin- prov- 
ince of Arcot, to recovi r the fortress of Van- 
davachi, of which the English had possessed 
themselves after two ineffectual attempts; 
in one of which they had been completely 
defeated by the Chevalier Gcoghegan. Lally 
ventured to attack them with inferior forces, 
and would have conquered them if he had 
been duly seconded. As it was he only 
gained in that expedition the honor of hav- 
og given a new proof of the determined 
courage which formed his leading character- 
istic." This is the battle known to the Eng- 
lish by the name of " Wandewash." 

At length Lally was obliged to collect all 
his troops in Pondicheny, resolved to defend 
it to the last extremity ; it was blockaded ;it 
once by land and sea. Here, again, every 
thing seemed to irritate his impetuous tem- 
per; he insulted the governor, and all the. 
council, and threatened to harness them to 
his provision wagons, if they did not provide 
horses. " I had rather," he exclaims in one 

letter, "go and cc land Caffies, than stay 

in this Sodom, which it is impossible but the 
fire of the English must destroy sooner or 
later, for want of fire from heaven." The 
siege was Ions, and the defence desperate. 
Just at the moment that King George III. 
ascended the throne, this gallant and impet- 
uous Count Lally was holding his post with 
obstinate valor against an English fleet and 
army. But tin- people in Pondicherry were 
dying in lie 1 streets of hunger, ami the 
council of tic city was crying out to Lally 
to surrender. On the loth of January, 1761, 
he was unhappily obliged to yield ; and so 
the Flench lo.-t India in the east almost on 



the sane- day that they lost Canada in the 
west, by the surrender of Montreal. There 
was a delirium of joy in England, and the 
heart of the Irish nation sank low.* 

Even the English colony in Ireland, though 
it sympathized with British .successes, to 
which, indeed, it contributed more than its 
share both in men and in money (meaning the 
earnings of the subject nation as well as its 
own), yet had no reason, on the accession of 
this king, to congratulate itself on its happy 
and prosperous condition. In truth the 
island had been well drained of its revenues 
to meet, the increased military expenses of 
Great Britain ; and it had become necessary 
within the past year (1759) to raise a loan 
of £l50,000,on debentures at four per cent. 
transferable, in order to pay the increasing 
arrears on the public establishments. Cer- 
tain duties were granted to provide for the 
payment of the interest; and this may be 
considered as the beginning of the fund- 
ed debt of Ireland. But in the beginning 
of 1700, the king having again considerably 
augmented his military forces, Ireland was 
required to raise another loan of £300,000, 
and a vote of credit passed the Commons for 
this object, but at five per cent. Then, as it 
was found that the first loan of £150,000 
was not coming in at four per cent., an ad- 
ditional one per cent, was offered for that. 
Thus, when George III. came to the throne, 
the revenues of Ireland were considerably 
embarrassed and oppressed. Mr. Ilely Hut- 
chinson, a good authority on this point, in 
his work on the " commercial restrictions of 
Ireland," states, indeed, that "all Irishmen" 
felt thev ought to sustain the efforts of Great 
Britain in that crisis, but that the statesmen 

* Unfortunate Lully had made ninny enemies, 
chiefly by his furious temper. They were powerful 
in Franee, white lie was comparatively ii stranger, 
though horn ill the country. They accuxed him of 
misconduct, tyranny, exactions, betraying the inter- 
ests of the king. At length the outcry against him 
became so strong, that lie was arrested, confined in 
the Bastile, kept there for fifteen months without 
any specific charge, then brought to trial and kept 
on trial two years ; finally, condemned and executed. 
Voltaire, who has uniformly praised Luhy, defends 
him in iiis Luuit XV.; and afterwards generously 
vindicated his memory, and aided his son to pro- 
cure the di cree of the parliament rehabilitating the 
name of this bravo and "murdered" man. Louis 
XV. himself, after the .loath of Lully, cxoluiined :— 
"They have assassiuated him." 



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of the latter country always expected too 
much ; and while they looked upon the great 
prosperity and wealth "t' their own country, 
had not sufficient consideration for the pov- 
erty of Ireland. Two or three sentences taken 
from this book (tin-- Commercial Restrictions) 
give a clear idea of ilie financial condition of 
the island. "The revenue had decreased in 
1 75 5. fell lo« er in 1750, and still low or in t 75 7. 
In the last year the vaunted prosperity of Ire- 
land was changed into misery and distress, 
the lower classes of ilie people wanted food." 
Again— " The public expenses were greatly 
increased; the pensions on the civil-list, at 
Lady-day, 1759, amounted to £55,497; 
there was at the same time a great augmen- 
tation of military expense. Six new regi- 
ments and a troop were raised in a verj 
short space of time.'' From all these causes 
the author states that the payment out of 
the treasury in little more than one year 
was £708,957. "The effects," hu continues, 
"of these exactions were immediately and 
severely felt by the kingdom. These loans 
could not be supplied by a poor countn 
without draining the bankers of their cash ; 
three of the principal houses (Clements, 
Dawsons, and Mitchell) among them, stop- 
ped payment; the three remaining banks in 
Dublin discounted no paper, and in fact did 
no business. Public and private credit that 

had been drooping miuv the year 175 1, hail 

now fallen prostrate. At a general meeting 
of the merchants of Dublin in April, 1760, 
with several members of the House of Com- 
mons, the inability of the former to carry on 
business was universally acknowledged," &c. 
The scarcity of money now employed in 
trade or improvements, together with the 
laws which made it impossible for Catholics 
to exercise any lucrative industry in corpo- 
rate towns, caused more and more of the 
people to he dependent upon agi iculture and 
sheep-farming alone. Hut. the lot of these 
po.r agriculturists was hard, for the landed 

proprietors under whom they had to live, 
were an alien and hostile race, having no 

sympathy with the humble people around 
them. This lamentable circumstance k 

ir to Ireland. Neither in England 
nor in Scotland was the case of the peas- 
antry ever rendered bitterer than poveitj 
makes it at any rate, by differences of race 




and of religion. In Ireland they found 
themselves face to face, not two classes, but 
two nations ; of which theone had substantial- 
ly the power of lite and death over the oilier. 
\\ In ii we add to this that one of these two 
nations had despoiled the other of those 
very lands which tin' plundered race were 
now glad to cultivate as rackrented tenants; 
and also that the dominant nation fell bound 
to hate the oilier, both as "rebels" who 
nee, led only the opportunity to ri*e and cut 
heir masters' throats, and as Papists who 
clung' to the "damnable idolatry" of the 
mass, we can easily understand the diffi- 
culty of the "landlord and tenant question " 
in Ireland. We have now, in fact, arrived 
at the era ot the " Whileboy" organization, 
which was itself the legitimate offspring of 
the Rapparees, and which in its turn has 
given birth to "Uibbonism," to tie- "Terry 
Alts," and finally to the "Fenians." The 
principle and meaning of all these Various 

forms of secret [risb organization lies been 
the same at all times, namely, the instinct of 
resistance to legal oppression by illegal com- 
binations among the oppressed. And this 
has been inevitable, and far from blaniable, 
under the circumstances of the country. 

All the laws were made not for, but against 
the great mass of the people; the courts of 
justice were entirely in the possession of the 
oppressors; the proscribed race saw ouly 
mortal enemies on the bench, enemies 
in the jury-box, enemies everywhere all 
around, and were continually made to fee! 
that law and justice were not for them. This 
of course, in times of distress threw them 
back upon the only resource of desperate 
men, conspiracy, intimidation, and vengeance. 

We have seen by the statements of Mr. 
J. Holy Hutchinson, that in the last year of 
King George 11. " the lower classes of the 
people wanted food." The financial distress 
soon made matters still woise, and almost 
immediately after the accession of the new 
king, the whole island begau to be startle. t 
by formidable rumors of disturbances and 
tumults in the south. The immediate cause 
of the first breaking out of these disorders 
was that many landlords in Minister began 

to inclose commons, on which their rack- 
rented tenants had, up to that lime, enjoyed 
the right of commonage as some compensa- 



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tion for ili'' extreme sevdrity of the terms on 
which they held theirfarms. The inclosure 

these commons took away from them the 
only means they had of lightening their 
burden and making their hard tenure Bnp- 
1 ii Waterford, in Cork, and in Tip- 
tore down 
di rented the 
them up. 
The aggrieved peasantry soon combined their 
operations, associated together by secret 
oaths, and these confederates began to be 
known as Whiteboys. A Becond cause for 
the discontents, which soon swelled the 
society of Whiteboys, was the cruel exac- 
tions of the tithe proctors — persons who 
farmed the tithes of a. parish rector, and 
thru screwed ihe utmost farthing out of the 
parishioners, often selling out their crops. 
their stocks, even their beds, to make up 
the subsidy for clergymen whose ministra- 
tions they never attended. Resistance, there- 
fore, to tithes, and the occasional amputa- 
tion of a tithe proctor's ems, formed a 
large part of the proceedings of the White- 
boys 

The riots of these few forlorn men, were 
Boon construed into a general Popish con- 
spiracy against the Government; because, 
indeed, the greatest part of them were Pa- 
pists, at least in name; although it was well 
known that several Protestant gentlemen 

* See Dr. Curry's Review. He was a contempo- 
rary. See also Arthur young's " Tour in Ireland." 
Young whs one of the most observant of travellers, 
and bus examined this whole subject in a very fair 

He thus speaks of the state of the pi 
under their laudlorda : — " The execution of the law 
.cry much in the hands of justices of the peace, 
many of whom are drawn from the most illiberal 
olass in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges a com- 
plaint against a gentleman, or any animal that chooses 
to cail it li u gentleman, and the justice issues out 
a summons for his appearance, it is n. fixed affront, 
and he will infallibly be calltd out. Where manners 
urc in conspiracy against law y to whom are the op- 
pres ed people to have recourse ? They know their 
situation too well to think of it ; they can have no 
defi'i aeana of protection from one gentle- 

man against another, who probably protects his 
vassal as he would the sheep he intends to eat. 
"The colors of this picture aro not charged. To 
rt that all these oases are common, would he an 
geration ; bat to say that an unfeeling landlord 
Vi .11 do all this with impunit) . is to keep strii 
truth ; and what is liberty but a farce and a jest, if 
Its blessings are recoil i 
I humanity, ii 

, Dab. 1-Mt.,\u\. ii., pp. 4u, 41. 
12 



and magistrates of considerable influence in 

that provi , did all along, for their own 

private ends, connive at if not foment ihes<i 
tumults, and although we were assured by 
authority, "that the authors of these riots 
consisted indiscriminately of persons of dif- 
ferent persuasions, and that no marks of 
disaffection to his majesty's person or gov- 
ernment, appeared in any of these people." 
This was officially published in the London 
Gazette. 

This authentic declaration was grounded 
on the report which had been made to Gov- 
ernment by persons of admitted loyalty and 
eminence in the law, sent down and com- 
missioned some time before to inquire upon 
the spot into the real causes and circum- 
stances of these riots; which report was af- 
terwards confirmed by the going judges of 
assize, and by the dying protestations of the 
first five of these unhappy men, who were 
executed in 17G2 at Waterford, for having 
been present at the burning down of a 
cabin, upon the informal ion of one of their 
associates, who was the very person that 
with his own hand set, lire to it. These men 
immediately before their execution, publicly 
declared and took God to witness, "that in 
all these tumults it never did enter into 
their thoughts to do any thing against the 
Government." 

A considerable force of regular troops was 
sent to the south; some savage military 
execution done; which was again followed 
by fresh outrages; and the disorder con- 
tinued unabated for several years. 

About the same time when Whiteboys 
first began to be heard of, various other 
secret societies sprang up in Ulster. These 
associations called themselves variously 
lleaits-of-Steel, Oak-Boys, and Peep-of-Day 
.l'.oys: but their members were all Protest- 
ants; and their grievances and objects were 
in part counected with landlord oppression 
and clerical exaction, partly with the alleged 
injustice of the employers of manufacturing 
labor. These latter disturbances were soon 
over, because first the grievances were not 
so deep-seated, and next because the parties 
on the two sides being mainly of the same 
race and religion, the enmity and exaspera- 
tion were never so fierce, and were far more 
easily appeased. While all these last-named 



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HISTOItY ov n;ici.A\r>. 




conspiracies speedily disappeared, W hite- 
loyisin remained, and under one form or 
ttnolher must remain till English domination 
in Ireland shall bo abolished. The bonesl 
English tourist, Mr. Young, makes some 
reflections on these societies which show a 
nmsi remarkable spirit of fairness, for an 
Englishman writing about Ireland : — 

" Consequenoes have flowed from these 
oppressions which ought long ago to have 
put a slop to them, tn England we have 
heard much of Whiteboys, Steel-Boys, Oak- 
Boys, Peep-of-Day-Boys, etc. Bui these 
various insurgents are not to be oonfounded, 
for they are very different. The proper dis- 
tinction in the discontents of the people is 
into Protestant and Catholic All hut the 
Whiteboys are among the manufacturing 
Protestauts in the north : the Whiteboys, 
( !atholic laborers in the south. From the b> b1 
intelligence I could gain, the riots of the 
manufacturers had no other foundation, but 
su.-li variations in the manufacture as all 
fabrics experience, and which they hail 
themselves known and submitted to before. 
The case, however, was different with the 
Whiteboys, who being laboring Catholics 
met with all those oppressions 1 have de- 
scribed, aud would probably have continued 
in full submission had not verj severe treat- 
ment in respect of tithes, uuited with a great 
speculative rise of rents about the same 

time, blown up the flame of resistance; the 
atrocious acts they were guilty of made 
them the object of general in. lie-nation; acts 
were passed for their punishment, which 
seemed calculated for the meridian of Bar- 
bary; this arose to such a height, that by 
one thej were to be hanged under circum- 
stances without the common formalities of a 
trial, which though repealed by the follow- 
ing session marks the spirit of punishment; 
while Others remain yet the law of the 

land, that would, if executed, tend more to 
raise than quell an insurrection. From all 
which it is manifest that the gentlemen of 
Ireland never thought of a radical cure, from 

Overlooking the red cause of disease, which 

in fact lav in themselves, and not in the 

wretch es they doomed to the gallows. Let 
them change their own conduct entirely, 

and the poor will not long riot. Treat them 
ike men who ought to bo as free as your- 



selves : put an end to that system of religious 
persecution which for seventy years has di- 
vided tin' kingdom against itself ; in these 
two circumstances lies the cure of insurrec- 
tion, perform them completely, and you will 
have an affectionate pool', instead of oppress- 
ed and discontented vassals." 

It will be .soon in the Sequel how little 

chance these indignant and well-meant re- 
monstrances had of meeting with attention. 

The troubles in [Jlster, tl gh they were 

quite unconnected with Whiteboyism — and 

though a Catholic would no nunc have been 

admitted into a Eeart-of-Steel lodge than 
into a. vestry meeting — were yet produced 
by hardship and oppression. The Presbyte- 
rians of the north were now, as well as the 
Catholics, sufferiug not only by tin' Test 

Act and the tithes, but also by the difficulty 

of earning an honest livelihood, owing to 

the scarcity of money and tin' heavy taxa- 
tion to meet tin' demands of Govewjment, 
Emigration to America, therefore, continued 
from the northern seaports; and many ac- 
tive and energetic families were every season 
Beekiug a new home beyond the Atlantic. 

It was now that the fathers of Andrew 
Jackson, of John ('. Calhoun, of James 

Buchanan, and other eminent American 

statesmen, established themselves in various 

parts of the colonies. These exiles were 

the men who formed the •• Pennsylvania 
Line" in tin' revolutionary war, ami had 
the satisfaction of contributing powerfully 
to destroy in America that relentless Brit 

ish domination which had made their 1 1 ir-.li 
homes untenable. While the exiled I'alho 

hes on the European continent were eager to 
encounter the English poweruponanj Geld, 
those other Protestant exiles in America 
were ardently engaged in the task of up- 
rooting it in that hemisphere. Vet it is a 
strange and sad reflection, that although 
their cause and their grievances, while at 

home, where very similar, if not identical, 

they never could bring themselves to com- 
bine together there against their common 

enemy and oppressor. It must be stated, 
however, without hesitation, that ibis was 

exclusively the fault of the Protestant I>s- 
senters. Hiey bated Popery and Papists 
even more intensely than di.l the English 
colonists <'( the Anglican church : they had 



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AGITATION FOR SEPTENNIAL PARLIAMENTS. 



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submitted, .ilim>>t gladly, to disabilities 
themselves, because they Knew that tbe 
Catholics were subjected to still worse, and 
they were unwilling, by a too factious re- 
sistance "ii their own part, to embarrass a 
system of policy which they were assured was 
needful to the great cause of Protestant, as- 
cendency. They might suffer themselves, 
but they could not make common cause 
with the common enemy. For this mean 
compliance and perverse bigotry they had 
their reward : they were now flying in 
crowds from a fair and fertile land which 
they might have held and enjoyed forever, 
if they had united their cause with those 
who were enduring the same oppressions 
from tbe same tyrants. 

This may be taken as completing tbe 
ffifa picture of the social and industrial condi- 
tion of Ireland in the first year of the reign 
of George III. It is time to return to the 
political struggle of the English colony. 

The Duke of Bedford, who bad been on 
the whole nearly as popular a viceroy as 
Lord Chesterfield, was recalled in 1761, and 
succeeded by Lord Halifax. A new Par- 
liament was summoned, as usual for the new 
reign, and on this occasion Dr. Lucas, who 
had returned from his exile, was returned as 
one of the members for Dublin city. Sev- 
eral other new members of great promise 
with "patriotic" aspirations, also came to 
this Parliament ; amongst whom appeared, 
for the first time in public life, the celebrated 
Henry Flood, as member for Kilkenny. 
This eminent man took rank very soon as 
an Irish patriot, but at first his patriotism 
was strictly colonial, that is to say, all his 
care was for the English Protestant inhabi- 
tants of the island. And when the growing 
power and rising spirit of the colonists soon 
after aspired to and achieved a national in- 
dependence, the nationality be asserted was 
still strictly and exclusively Protestant. 
Flood was the son of a former chief justice, 
and all bis relatives and connections were of 
the highest Protestant ascendency. Yet, 
according to his own narrow ideas, it cau- 



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not be denied that Flood was a patriot: 
that is to say, a determined assertor of tbe 
sovereign right of the Irish Parliamei t 
against the domination of Great Britain 
Two other members of the Patriot party ap- 
peared in that Parliament, Mr. Denis Daly 
and Mr. Hussey Burgh. 

In January, 1762, Mr. Hamilton, secretary 
to Lord Halifax, communicated to the Com- 
mons the rupture with Spain. It is not es- 
sential to the history of Ireland to follow 
the course of English diplomatic and mili- 
tary proceedings on the Continent. All those 
transactions were decided on and prosecu- 
ted without the slightest reference to the 
interest either of the Irish nation or of 
the British colony ; Ireland's only concern 
with England's wars being in the contin- 
ual demands for money and men. Accord- 
ingly an immediate augmentation of five 
battalions was now required by Government, 
together with a vote of credit for raising 
atiother half-million sterling. An address 
was also presented by the Commons to the 
lord-lieutenant, to be by him transmitted to 
the crown, praying to have the salary of 
that official raised to £16,000 a year. Pri- 
mate Stone was still influential in the Irish 
government, as well as the former " Patriot," 
but now pensioner and placeman, Boyle, 
earl of Shannon. The extravagance of 
Government in every department, the reck- 
lessness with which the people were loaded 
with taxation, and the immense system of 
bribery resorted to by the administration 
in order to break down opposition and 
purchase assured majorities in Parliament, 
convinced Lucas and his friends that there 
could be no beginning of redress or remedy 
for these evils until the Parliament should be 
made more immediately responsible to the 
people. In England "Septennial Parlia- 
ments" had beeu the law and the practice 
for some time, but in Ireland each Parlia- 
ment was still elected for the life of the 
king. The agitation for this measure of 
septennial elections occupied the Patriotic 
party for several years. 




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CHAPTER XIV. 

1762—1768. 

Tory Ministry— Failures of the Patriots— Northum- 
berland, \ ioeroj -Mr. Fitzgerald's Rpeech on pen- 
sion-list Mr. Perry's address on same subject- 
Effort for mitigation of the Penal Laws— Mr. 
Mason's argument tor allowing Papists to take 

, 'tgnges— Eejeoted — Death of Stone and Earl of 

Shannon— Lord Hartford, Vioeroj -Lucas and i\»- 
Patriots— Their continued failures— Inorease of 
National Debt— Townshend, Viceroy— New system 
— The " Undertakers " -Septennial Bill ohanged 
int.. Octennial — And passe. 1 -Joy of the People 
— Consequences of this measure — Ireland still 
"standing en her smaller end"— Newspapers of 
i >ublin - Grnttan. 

'I'm: government of Lord Halifax ended 
with the session of 1762. This year is eon- 
si. lered an eventful one in British annals. 
Mr. Pitt, and afterwards the Duke of New- 
castle, retired from the administration, which 
came entirely into the hands of Lord Bute, 
a tow, as high ami violent a-- it was possible 
to l>e, without absolute Jacobitism; whose 
administration showed that the thorough- 
going doctrines of prerogative were quite as 
congenial to the House of Hanover as ever 
they had been to the House of Stuart. On 
the retirement of Mr. Pitt, the merchants, 

traders, and citizens of Dublin, who had now 

become not only an opulent and influential 
body, hut, thoroughly imbued with the 
political theories of Lucas, their representa- 
tive (who had lately returned from his exile 
and been returned for the cit) >. presented a 
most grateful address to Mr. Pitt, expressive 
of their admiration of his principles, and 
sincere regret fchiit the country was deprived 
of his services. The immediate effect of the 
change of administration upon the conduct 
of Parliament, demonstrates, however, the 
extent and depth of the corruption which 
had there penetrated so deep into the whole 
body politic of the English colony in Ire- 
land. < »n the very first day of the last ses- 
sion (22d October, lTtil) the Commons had 
ordered "that leave be given to briny; in the 
heads of a bill to limit the duration of Par- 
liaments" (the Septennial Bill), in imitation 
of the Septennial law of England. Dr. Lucas, 
Mr. Perry, and Mr. George Lowther, were 

ordered to report and brine' up the bill. It 

was received, lead, committed ; amendments 



were proposed and accepted ; in the course 
of December' in that year, the heads of the 
bill beino; reported from the committee of 
the whole House, were finally agreed to. 
But before any further step was taken, Lord 
Bute and his tory ministry came in, and 
when a motion was made that the Speaker 
should attend the lord-lieutenant to give 
him the bill for transmission to London, in 
the usual form, the motion was lost by j» 
vote of 108 against forty-three. This ma- 
jority of sixty-five upon a question so reason- 
able, so necessary, and so constitutional, 
shows the rapid decline of the Patriotic in- 
terest in Ireland after the late changes; the 
reduction of wd licit was very artfully effected 
by the two first of the lords justices. Pri- 
mate Stone, the Earl of Shannon, and Mr. 
John Ponsonby, the Speaker. Thus was Mr. 
Lucas's first Patriotic bill lost, to the no small 
disappointment and mortification of the peo- 
ple out of doors. It ishighly materia] to'ob- 
serve, that in proportion as Patriots fell off in 
Parliament, they sprang up out of it. This 
ministerial triumph was followed by no pop- 
ular disturbance, but by deep and general 
disappointment. A meeting of the citizens 
of Dublin e'ave expression, calmly and tem- 
perately, to the feelings of the people, in a 
scries of resolutions, one of which is worth 
transcribing, as illustrating the strictly 
Protestant character of all this patriotism. 
" Resolved, That the clandestine aits which 

arc usually practised (and have been some- 
times detected) in obstructing of bills tend- 
ing to promote the Protestant interest, eught 
to make Protestants the more active in sup- 
porting the Septennial Bill; the rather, as 
no doubt can remain, that a septennial lim- 
itation of Parliaments, would render the 
eeuerality of landlords assiduous in procur- 
ing Protestant tenants, and that the visible 
advantage accruing, would induce others to 
conform." Eis failure did not daunt the in- 
defatigable Dr. Lucas. lie presented the 
leads of bills for securing the freedom of 
Parliament, by ascertaining the qualifica- 
tions of knights, citizens, and burgesses, 
and for vacating the seats of members, who 
would accept any lucrative office oremploy- 
ment from the crown, and of persons upon 
the establishment of Great Britain and Ire- 
and. All these measures failed ; the Court 



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part; under Lord Bute was now supreme. 
But tliis Court party bad adopted adifferenl 
language. It was no longer called the Eng- 
lish interest, for Primate Stone was too good 
a politician to keep up that offensive term, 
after he had so successfully I nought over some 
of tli" leading Patriots to his side, who in sup- 
porting .'II the measures of the British cab- 
inet, affected to do it, still as Irish Patriots. 
Among these Irish Patriots who had thus 
prudently sold themselves, and were zealous 

to give good value for their purchase-money, 
was Boyle, earl of Shannon. 

The Earl of Halifax had been recalled, 
and was succeeded as lord-lieutenant by 
the Earl of Northumberland. The new 
viceroy opened a session of Parliament, in 
October, 17G3, in a speech wherein he ex- 
pressed, in the king's name, his majesty's 
just and gracious regard for a dutiful and 
loyal people, and congratulated them on the 
birth of a Prinee of Wales. They would 
much rather have had their Septennial Bill. 

The next efforts of the Patriots were di- 
'rected against the pension list, which had 
grown to hi! an enormous evil and oppres- 
sion ; but the first motion for an address to 
the king on this subject, was negatived, on a 

division of 112 against seventy three. So 
weak was now the Patriotic cause in the 
Commons. Pensions continued to be lav- 
ished with unchecked profusion. The de- 
bate, however, on this motion was warm 
and spirited. Mr. J. Fitzgerald took the 
lead on the Patriot side. He stated (and was 
not contradicted) that the pensions then 
charged upon the civil establishment of the 
kingdom amounted to no less than £72,000 
per annum, besides the French and military 
pensions, and besides the sums paid for old 
and now unnecessary employments, and 
those paid iii unnecessary additions to the 
salaries of others: that the pensions, there- 
fore, exceeded the civil list above £42,000: 
thai not only since the House in 17o7 had 
voted the increase of pensions alarming, had 
the} been yearlj increased; but that in the 

lime of a most expensive war, and when the 

country had willingly and cheerfully in- 
cn iscdaveiy considerable national debt; and 

when the additional influence of the crown 

from the lev) ing of new regiments might well 

have prevented the necessity of new pen- 



sionary gratifications. Ho then drew a pit- 
eous portrait of the country ; not one-third 
peopled; two-thirds of the people unem- 
ployed, consequently indolent, wretched, and 
discontented; neither foreign trade, nor 
home consumption sufficient to distribute 
the conveniences of, life among them with 
reasonable equality, or to pay any tax pro- 
portionable to their number. What new 
mode of taxation could be devised? Would 
they tax leather where no shoes were worn, 
or tallow where no candles were burned? 
They could not tax the roots of the earth 
and the water on which the wretched peas- 
antry existed; they could tax no commodity 
that would not defeat itself, by working a 
prohibition. He then entered into the legal 
and constitutional rights of the crown over 
the public revenue, and strongly resisted the 
assumed right of charging the public revenue 
with private pensions. The crown, he con- 
tended, had a public and private revenue : 
the public it received as a trustee for the 
public; the private it received in its own 
right ; the former arose out of temporary 
duties, and was appropriated by Parliament 
to specific public purposes, and was not left 
to the discretionary disposal of the crown. 
The latter did not in Ireland exceed JL 7,000 
per annum, and the pensions amounting to 
£72,000 exceeded the fund, which could 
alone be charged with them by £65,000 
per annum. 

The Court party strenuously resisted these 
arguments, as an unconstitutional and inde- 
cent attack upon the prerogative; insisting 
that the regal dignity should be supported 
by a power to reward as well as to punish ; 
that the king was not to hold a sword in 
one hand and a barren sceptre in the other; 
that the two great springs of all actions were 
hope and fear; and where fear only operated, 
love could have no place; with many other 
slavish phrases usual in such a case. 

In this war against the pension list the 

most active member of the C mons was 

Mr. Perry, member for Limerick. He soon 
returned to the charge, and moved an ad- 
dress to the king — but with his usual want 

of success— reuioii ttating against the waste- 
ful extravagance of the Government. The 
addre-s wa8 not adopted, but a few sentences 
of it contain facts worth recording. 



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"That the expense of tlie present military 
establishment amounts in two years to the 
sum of £980,955 19*. The civil establish- 
ment to £242,950 10*. 9</.; to which must 
be added at the most moderate computation 
£300,000 for extraordinary and contingent 
expenses of Government. That these sums 
added together amount to the sum of 
£1,523,912 9*. Orf. That to answer this 
expense, the whole revenue of this kingdom, 
the additional as well as hereditary duties, 
exclusive of the loan duties, which are but 
barely sufficient to pay the interest of 
.£050,000, the present national debt, amount 
to the sum of £11,209,804 at a medium for 
fourteen years; so that the expense of the 
nation for these last two years must exceed 
its whole revenue in a sum of £314,248 
9s. '.•'/., which deficiency being added to the 

national debt, must leave this kingdom at 

the next meeting of Parliament near .£1,000- 
000 in debt. * * * That the imports, ex- 
ports, and home consumption of this king- 
dom are already taxed to the utmost they 
can bear. Thatany addition to these taxes, 
instead of increasing, must lessen the rev- 
enue. That nothing now remains to be 
taxed but our lands, which are already 
loaded with quit rents, crown rents, compo- 
sition rents, and health motley. That if the 
present establishments arc to continue, the 
debt of the nation must constantly increase, 
and in the end prove the utter ruin of the 
kingdom." 

All these reclamations against pensions 
and other wasteful or corrupt expenditures, 
proved utterly unavailing, and the evil went 
from bad to worse until the true remedy 
was discovered, in 1782. 

But this year 1768 is remarkable for the 
first Parliamentary effort ever made in Ire- 
land to mitigate, in a very small degree, the 
Penal Code against Catholics. They had 
been disabled, ever since Queen Anne's time, 
from taking landed security by way of mort- 
gage on money lent. But this was found 
inconvenient, not only to them (which would 
have mattered nothing), but also to Protes- 
ants who wanted to borrow money. The 
Catholics, shut out from political power, had 
been industrious and thrifty: many of them 
were lieh, but having no security at home, 
they had invested their money abroad, and 



thence had sometimes come the supplies for 
Jacobite invasions. On the 25th November, 
1703, Mr. Mason rose in his place and re- 
minded the House that in the last session 
of Parliament heads of a bill had been pass- 
ed for empowering Papists to lend money on 
mortgages of real estate * and that the bill 
had been cushioned by the English Privy 
Council. lie moved accordingly for leave 
to bring in another. Some of the arguments 
for and against this measure are very notable. 
Mr. Mason urged that money was always 
power, and that money which is placed in 
Protestant hands, upon mortgage, is power 
in favor of the State; the same money, in 
the hands of the Papists indent, supposing 
the Papist to be an enemy to the State, was 
power against it. Besides money was not a 
local, but transitory property; a Papist, 
possessed only of money, bad no local inter- 
est in the country, but a Papist mortgagee 
had ; he would be engaged to support the 
Government in point of interest: his secur- 
ity for his money was good, while Govern- 
ment subsisted, and in the convulsion that 
always attends the subversion of Govern- 
ment, it would at least become doubtful ; 
besides, the greater the advantages which 
the Papists receive under the present con- 
stitution, the more they must desire its con- 
tinuance, and he would venture to Say, that 
if the Papists were to be admitted to all 
the privileges of Protestant subjects, there 
would scarce be a practical Jacobite among 
them, whatever there might be in theory. 
" 1 should, therefore, be glad, that the bill 
should have another trial, and shall move 
for leave to bring in the heads of a bill, to 
empower Papists to lend money on the 
mortgage of land, and to sue for the same " 
Mr. Le Ilunte said, that he thought the 
bill proposed would eventually make Papists 
proprietors of great part of the landed in- 
terest of the kingdom, which would cer- 
tainly extend their influence, and that it was 
dangerous trusting to the use they would 
make of it, upon a supposition that their 
interests would get the better of their prin- 

* There is no entry of this former bill, referred 
le by Mr. Mason, on the journals of Parliament. 
Mr. Plowden "laments that those journals are bo 
little to be relied upon when matters relating to the 
Catholics are tho subject of eutrj." 



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DEATH OF l'KI.UATE STONE AND THE EARL OF SIIANNON. 







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ciples. That the act mentioned to have 
passed the last Bession, did not pass wit 
onl a division, there being a majority of no 
more than twelve in its favor, and that it 
would not have passed at all, if it had not 

I ii for so nrll'iil management, il being 

brought in the very last day of session, 
when ii" more than Bixty-two members were 
p ■ -cut. He, therefore, begged that the 
lionorahlo gentleman would postpone his 
motion till Monday, as the House was then 
thin, and gentlemen would thus have time 

to consider the subject, which was of very 
great importance. He added, ihat as there 
was reason to suppose it to be the general 
sense of the House that such a bill should 
not pass, he thought it would be better that 
no heads of such bill should be brought in, 

as it was cTuel to raise ex] tations which 

would probably be disappointed. 

Mi. Mason consented to postpone his mo- 
tion. Accordingly on the 3d of February, 
1764, Mr. Mason presented to the House, 
according to order, heads of a bill to ascer- 
tain what securities might be taken by 
persons professing the Popish religion for 
money lent or to be lent by them, and also 
what remedies they might enforce. 

The House rejected the bill : 188 for the 
rejection, and 53 against it. Another mo- 
tion was tlun made to bring in a bill en- 
abling Papists to take securities upon lands, 
but in such a manner that they could never 
meddle with the possession thereof; which 
was immediately negatived by a majority of 
44. Vet this was a proposal for a very 
slight modification of the Penal Code on 
one single point; and on the express ground 
that such modification would bo useful to 
the Protestants and wi uld serve the Protest- 
ant interest. Its reception marks the stage 
of advance which principles of religious 
freedom had then reached. 

In December, 1764, Primate Stone and 
the Pari of Shannon, both happily died. 
There "as no hope of any mitigation ill the 
system of Corruption and oppression so long 
as that league between the English Primate 
and the purchased "Irish Patriot" sub- 
sisted. 

The Earl of Hartford was appointed lord- 

ieutenant, and opened the session in 1765. 
In December of thai year died at Uouie, at 



an advanced age, the person variously term- 
ed King, lames III., the Pretender, the " King 
over the water." He had borne his misfor- 
tunes with great fortitude and equanimity; 
and sometimes went to pass the carnival at 
Venice. His death at last made no impression 
in Ireland, and was almost unknown there. 

The Patriotic party in Parliament was 
now reduced to its very lowest ebb. It 
would he wearisome to detail all the motions 
uniformly defeated, for inquiries into the 
pension list, and into improper and corrupt 
appointments to the judicial bench. The 
Patriots tried another plan — an address to 
the lord-lieutenant, setting forth the miser- 
able condition of the kingdom, asking for an 
account of the proceedings of the Privy 
Council which had cushioned their Bill for 
better securing the Freedom of Parliament, 
and asking for a return of the patents grant- 
ed in reversion, etc. But the Court party 
moved, and carried, that in lieu of the 
words "the sense of their miserable condi- 
tion," they should insert the words : " their 
happy condition under his majesty's auspi- 
cious government? 

Still, ever since the death of Stone and 
the Earl of Shannon, the party of indepen- 
dence was making some progress in Parlia- 
ment. Lucas worked hard, and was well 
sustained by his constituents in Dublin. He 
made many converts to his Septennial Bill 
amongst the country gentlemen, and to 
purchase back some of these converts put 
the Government to considerable expense — ■ 
which, it is true, they found means to charge 
to the people. A new bill was transmitted, 
through Lord Hartford, for limiting the du- 
ration of Parliaments, and again it was stop- 
ped by the English Privy Council. Another 
bill was introduced this session "to prevent 
the buying and selling of offices which con- 
cern the administration of justice, or the col- 
lection of His Majesty's revenue;" but it was 
\oted down in the Commousand never even 
went to England. 

In the mean time the national debt was 
steadily increasing. 

In the year 1765 the revenue of Ireland, 
although considerably increased upon the 
whole receipt, still fell so far short of the 
the expenses of Government, that £100,000 
was directed to be raised at four per cent, 



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BISTORT 0¥ IRELAND. 



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aud the principal due upon the different 
loans was ordered to be consolidated into 
one sum, making in the whole £595,000 al 
five per cent, which remained due at Lady- 
day. Tlic debt of tbe nation then amouuted 
to £508,874 5s. 9hd. There was this year 
a great scarcity of grain, as likewise a gen- 
eral failure of potatoes, which was very se- 
verely I'll by the lower ranks. The legis- 
lature found it necessary to interpose : they 
passed an act to stop the distilleries for a 
certain time (which consequently produced 
a decrease in the Excise), and also an act to 
prevent the exportation of corn ; in both of 
which acts it is recited, that it was appre- 
hended there was not sufficient corn in ihe 
kingdom for the food of the inhabitants 
until the harvest. 

On this last act a new controversy arose. 
When the bill was sent to England, the Privy 
Council there inserted into it a dispensing 
power in favor of the crown: — the kiiiLi' 
might by his simple order in council permit 
the exportation of grain or flour, any thing 
in the act contained to the contrary not- 
withstanding. The Patriots vainly resisted 
this alteration : they alleged that even un- 
der the restrictions of Poyning's Law, the 

king had onlv power of assent or dissent; 
not a power of alteration, which from its 
nature imports a deliberative power that 
could not exist save in the Lords and Com- 
mons of Ireland. All resistance, however, 
was unavailing, and the bill was passed as 
altered. 

Lord Hartford had not on this occasion 
asserted the prerogative and served the Eng- 
lish interests so zealously as had been ex- 
pected of him. Therefore he was recalled; 
and after a short interregnum under lords 
justices (for the last time), Lord Townshend 
was sent to Ireland, in October, 1TG7. 

This nobleman was selected to introduce 
a very important change in the system of 
governing Ireland. In order to attempt the 

arduous task of supplanting the deep-rooted 

influence of the Irish oligarchy, it was re- 
quisite that the lord-lieutenant, to whom 
that power was to be transferred, should he 
endowed with those qualities that were most 

likely to ingratiate him with the Irish 
nation. The new lord-lieutenant excelled 
all his predecessors in that convivial ease, 



pleasantry, and humor, so highly prized 1>V 
the Irish of every description. The majority 
which had been so dearly bought in the 
Commons, by those who had heretofore had 
the management of the English interest, was 
now found not altogether so tractable as it 
had beretofore been. There were three or 
four grandees wdio had such an influence in 
the House of Commons, that their coalition 
would, at any time, give them a clear ma- 
jority upon any question. To gain theso 
had been the chief anxiety of former gov- 
ernors : they were sure to bring over a pro- 
portionate number of dependants, and it had 
been the unguarded maxim to permit sub- 
ordinate graces and favors to flow from or 
through the bands of these leaders.* For- 
merly these principals used to stipulate with 
each new lord-lieutenant, whose office was 
biennial and residence but for six months, 
upon what terms they would carry the 
king's business through the House : gs that 
they might not improperly be called under- 
takers. They provided, that the disposal of 
all Court favors, whether places, pensions 
or preferments, should pass through then 

hands, in order to keep their suite in an 
absolute state of dependence upon them- 
selves. All applications were made by tbe 
leader, who claimed as a right the privilege 
of gratifying his friends in proportion to 
their numbers. Whenever such demands 
were not complied with, then were the 
measures of Government sine to be crossed 
anil obstructed; and the session of Parlia- 
ment became a constant struggle for power 
between the heads of parties, who used to 
force themselves into the office of lord 
justice according to the prevalence of their 

interest. This evil had been seen and la- 
mented by Lord Chesterfield, and his reso- 
lution and preparatory steps for undermin- 
ing it probably contributed not a little to 
his immediate recall, upon the cessation of 
the danger, which his wisdom was thought. 

alone compi teat to avert. 

This was the system which Lord Claro 
said, '■ Til" (iovenimeiil of England at leiie'tll 
opened their eyes to the defects ami dangers 
of : they shook the power of the aristo? 
racy, but were unable to break it down." 

•Phil. Surv., p. 57. 



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SEPTENNIAL BILL CUANGED INTO AN OCTENNIAL. 



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The primary object of Loci] Townshend's 
administration was to break up the monop- 
olizing system of this oligarchy. 1 1 < ■; in 
part succeeded, but by means rninous to ihe 
country. The subalterns were not to be de- 
tached from their chiefs, but by similar 
though more powerful means than those by 
which they had enlisted under their ban 
ners. The streams of favor became not 
only multiplied, but enlarged. Every in- 
dividual now looked up directly to the 
fountain head, and claimed and received 
more copious draughts. Thus, under color 
of destroying an overgrown aristocratic 
power, all parliamentary independence was 
completely destroyed by Government. The 
innovation naturally provoked the deserted 
few to resentment. They took refuge un- 
der the shelter of patriotism, and I hey in- 
veighed with less effect against the venality 
of the system, merely because it had taken 
a new direction, and was somewhat en- 
larged. The bulk of the nation, and some, 
though very kw of their representatives in 
Parliament, were earnest, firm, and impla- 
cable against it.. 

The arduous task which Lord Townshend 
had assumed was not to be effected by a 
coup de main : forces so engaged, so mar- 
shalled, and so commanding rather than 
commanded, as he found the Irish Parlia- 
ment, were not to be dislodged by a sudden 
charge: regular, gradual, and cautious ap- 
proaches were to be made : it was requisite 
that the chief governor should first be popu- 
lar, and then powerful, before he could be 
efficient and successful. His lordship, there- 
fore, to those convivial fascinations, to which 
Irish society was so sensible, superadded as 
many personal favors, as the fiscal stores 
could even promise to answer, which in a 
people of ipiiek and warm sensibility creates 
a something very like momentary gratitude ; 
and in order the more completely to scat 
himself in that effective power, which was 
requisite for his purpose, he judiciously fixed 
upon a favorite object of the wishes and 
attempts of the Patriots to sanction with his 
countenance and support. 

This was the long-wished-for Septennial 
Bill. 

Dr. Lucas had several times failed in his 
endeavors to procure a bill for limiting the 
13 



duration of Parliament. Now, however, a 
Septennial Bill was transmitted, and was re- 
turned with an alteration in point of time, 
having been changed into an Octennial one. 
There appears to have been some unfair 
manoeuvring in the British cabinet, in order 
by a side, wind to deprive the Irish of that, 
which they dared not openly refuse them. 
At the same time a transmission was made 
of another popular bill for the independence 
of the judges, in which they had also inserted 
some alteration. It was expected that the 
violent tenaciousness of the Irish Commons 
for the privilege of not having their heads 
of bills altered by the English ministers, 
would have induced them to reject any bill, 
into which such an alteration had been in- 
troduced. In this the English cabinet was 
deceived : the Irish Commons waived the 
objection as. to the limitation bill, in order 
to make sure at last of what they had so 
long tried in vain to procure, but objected 
on this very account to the judges' bill, which 
was transmitted at the same time with al- 
terations: for although this latter bill had 
been particularly recommended in the speech 
of the lord-lieutenant, it was, on account of 
an alteration inserted in it in England, unan- 
imously rejected. 

No sooner was the Octennial Bill return- 
ed, than the Commons voted a respectful and 
grateful address to the throne, beseeching 
his majesty to accept their unfeigned and 
grateful acknowledgments for the conde- 
scension, so signally manifested to his sub- 
jects of that kingdom, in returning the bill 
for limiting the duration of Parliaments 
which they considered not only as a gracious 
mark of paternal benevolence, but as a wise 
result of royal deliberation. And when the 
royal assent had been given, the action was 
so grateful to the people, that they took the 
horses from the viceroy's coach, and drew 
him from the parliament house with the 
most enthusiastic raptures of applause and 
exultation. But bis lordship's popularity 
did not last long. By diverting the channel 
of favor, or rather by dividing it into a mul- 
titude of little streams, the gentlemen of the 
House of Commons were taught to look up 
to him, not oidy as the source, but as the 
dispenser of every gratification. Not even 
a commission in the revenue, worth above 



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£40 a year, could be disposed of, without 
his approbation. Thus were the old under- 
takers given to understand, that there was 
another way of doing business than through 
them. It was not, however, without much 
violence ou both sides, that lie at length ef- 
fected his purpose. The immediate suffer- 
ers did not fail to call this alteration in the 
system of governing, an innovation, which 
they artfully taught the people to resent as 
a national grievance. 

It will be seen that although the Patriots 
had now gained their famous measure, not 
indeed as a Septennial, but at least as an 
Octennial Bill, which was to have been a 
panacea for all the evils of the State ; its 
effects were far from answering their ex- 
pectations. Extravagance and corruption 
still grew and spread under Lord Towns- 
hend's administration. Proprietors of bor- 
oughs found their property much enhanced 
in value, because there was a market for it 
every eight years. The reflections of 
Thomas McNevin on this subject are very 
just: — " Some doubts arose as to the beu- 
etits produced by this bill iu the way de- 
signed by its framers ; but no one doubted 
that the spirit discovered by the Patriot 
party in the House produced effects at the 
tune and somewhat later, which cannot be 
overstated or overvalued. It may, indeed, 
be doubted whether any measure, however 
beneficial in itself, could in those days of 
venality and oppression, with a constitution 
so full of blemishes, and a spirit of intoler- 
ance influencing the best and ablest men of 
the day, such as Lucas for example, cotdd 
be productive of any striking or permanent 
advantage. We must not be astonished 
then that the Octennial Bill was found in- 
commensurate with the expectations of the 
Patriots, who might have looked for the 
reasons of this and similar disappointments 
in their own venality, intolerance, fickleness, 
and shortcomings, if they had choseu to re- 
flect on themselves and their motives. The 
real advantages are to be found in the prin- 
ciples propounded and the spirit displayed 
iu the debates.* 

Iu short, no mere reforms in parliamentary 
elections or procedure could avail to create 

* MoNevin's History of the Volunteers. 



in this English colony, either a national 
spirit or national proportions, or to stay the 
corruption and venality so carefully organ- 
ized by English governors for the express 
purpose of keeping it down, so long as the 
colony did not associate with itself the mul- 
titudinous masses of the Catholic people — ■ 
so long as half a million had to hold down 
and coerce over two millions of dis- 
armed and disfranchised people, and at the 
same time to contend with the insolence 
and rapacity of Great Britain. Nationality 
in Ireland was necessarily fated to be delu- 
sive and evanescent. 

11 So long as Ireland" did pretend, 

Like silgur-loflf turned upside down, 
To stand upon its smaller end."* 

In the year 176*7, the whole population of 
the island was estimated, or iu part calcula- 
ted, at 2,544,276, aud of these less than half 
a million were Protestants of the two sects. 

It must, however, be acknowledged that 
in this oppressive minority there began to 
be developed a very strong political vitality, 
chiefly owing to the strong personal interest 
which every one had in public affairs, and to 
the spread of political information, through 
newspapers and pamphlets, and the very 
able speeches which now began to give the 
Irish Parliament a just celebrity. Dr. Lucas 
conducted the Freeman^s Journal, which was 
established very soon after the accession of 
George III. This journal was soon followed 
by another called the Hibernian Journal, 
Flood, Hussey, Burgh, Yelverton, and above 
all, Grattan, contributed to these papers. In 
the administration of Lord Townsheiid ap- 
peared the Dublin Mercury, a' satirical sheet 
avowedly patronized by Government. It 
was intended to turn Patriots and Patriotism 
into ridicule : but the Government had not 
all the laughers on its side. 

A witty warfare was carried on against 
Lord Townshend in a collection of letters on 
the affairs and history of Barataria, by which 
was inteuded Ireland. The letters of Pos- 
thtimus aud Pericles, and the dedication, 
were written by Henry Grattan, at the timo 
of the publication a very young man. The 
principal papers, and all the history of Ba- 
rataria, the latter being an account of Lord 

* Moore. Memoir of Captain Book. 



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Townshend's administration, his protest, and 
Lis prorogation, were the composition of 
Sir Hercules Langrishe. Two of his wit- 
ticisms are still remembered, as being, in 
fact, short essays on the politics of Ireland. 
Riiling in the park with the lord-lieutenant, 
li is excellency complained of his predeces- 
sors having left it so damp and marshy ; Sir 
Hercules observed, " they were too much 
engaged in draining the rest of the king- 
dom." Being asked where was the best 
ami truest history of Ireland to be found ? 
lie answered : " In the continuation of 
Raping 



CHAPTER XV. 

1762—1767. 

Reign of Terror in Minister — Murder of Father 
Sheeny— " Toleration," under the House of Han- 
over — Precarious condition of Catholic Clergy — 
Primates in biding — Working of the Penal Laws 
— Testimony of Arthur Young. 

Contempouaneouslv with the parliament- 
ary struggles for the Octennial Act, and for 
arresting, if possible, the public extravagance 
and corruption, there was goiug on in an ob- 
scure parish of Tipperary, one of those dark 
transactions which were so common in Ire- 
laud during all this century as to excite no 
attention, and leave scarcely a record — the 
judicial murder of Father Nicholas Sheehy. 
His story is a true and striking epitome of 
the history of the Catholic nation in those 
days, and the notoriety of the facts at the 
time, and the character of the principal vic- 
tim, have caused the full details to be handed 
down to us, minutely and with the clearest 
evidence. 

The bitter distresses of the people of 
Minister, occasioned by rack rents, by the 
merciless exactions of the established clergy 
and their tithe-proctors, and by the inclosure 
of commons, had gone on increasing and 
glowing more intense from the year 1760, 
until despair and misery drove the people 
into secret associations, and in 1702, as we 
have seen, the Whiteboys had in some 
places broken out into unconnected riots to 
pull down the fences that inclosed their com- 
mons, or to resist the collection of church- 
rates, These disturbances were greatly ex- 



aggerated in the reports made to Government 
by the neighboring Protestant proprietors, 
squires of the Cromwellian brood, who rep- 
resented that wretched Jacquerie as noth- 
ing less than a Popish rebellion, instigated 
by Fiance, supported by French money, and 
designed to bring in the Pretender. 

The village of Clogheen lies in the valley 
between the Galtees and the range of 
Knockmaoldown, in Tipperary, near the 
borders of Waterford aud of Cork counties. 
Its parish priest was the Reverend Nicholas 
Sheehy : he was of a good Irish family, and 
well educated, having, as usual at that pe- 
riod, gone to France — contrary to " law " — 
for the instruction denied him at home. On 
the Continent he had probably mingled 
much with the high-spirited Irish exiles, 
who made the name of Ireland famous in all 
the courts and camps of Europe, and on his 
perilous return (for that too was against the 
law), to engage in the labors of his still 
more perilous mission, his soul was stirred 
within him at the sight of the degradation 
and abject wretchedness of the once proud 
clans of the south. With a noble impru- 
dence, which the moderate Dr. Curry terms 
"a quixotic cast of mind towards relieving 
all those within his district whom he fan- 
cied to be injured or oppressed ;" he spoke 
out against some of the enormities which he 
daily witnessed. In the neighboring parish 
of Newcastle, where there were no Protest- 
ant parishioners, he had ventured to say 
that there should be no church-rates, and 
the people had refused to pay them. About 
the same time, the tithes of two Protestant 
clergymen in the vicinity of Ballyporeen, 
Messrs Foulkes and Sutton, were farmed to a 
tithe-proctor of the name of Dobbyn. This 
proctor forthwith instituted a new claim 
upon the Catholic people of his district, of 
five shillings for every marriage celebrated 
by a priest.* This new impost was resisted 
by the people, and as it fell heavily on the 
parishioners of Mr. Sheehy, he denounced 
it publicly; in fact he did not even conceal 
that ho questioned altogether the divine 
right of a clergy to the tenth part of the 

* These details and a great muss of others hearing 
on the case of Mr. Sheehy, are given by Dr. Mad- 
den in his First Series (United Irishmen). Ho has 
carefully sifted the whole of the proceedings, and 
thrown much light upon thcui. 



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100 



niSTOKY OF IRELAND. 



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produce of a half-starved people, of whose 
souls they had no cure. How these doctrines 
were relished by the Cromwcllian inagis- 
tiates and Anglican rectors in his neighbor- 
hood, may well be conceived. It was not 
to be tolerated that the Catholic people 
should begin to suppose that they had any 
rights. The legislation of the Ascendency 
had strictly provided that there should be no 
Catholic lawyers ; it had also carefully pro- 
hibited education; nothing had been omitted 
to stifle within the hearts of the peasantry every 
sentiment of human dignity, and when they 
found that here was a man amongst the 
peasantry who could both read and write, 
and who could tell them how human beings 
lived in other lands, and what freedom and 
W~°£*r?Jr right were, it is not to be wondered at that 
his powerful neighbors resolved they would 
have his blood. 

When in 170'2, the troubles in the south 
were first supposed to call for military co- 
ercion, it was precisely in this village of 
Clogheen that the Marquis of Drogheda, 
commanding a considerable military force, 
fixed his headquarters. On that same night 
an assemblage of Whiteboys took place in 
the neighborhood, with the intention as was 
believed, of attacking the town, bat a clergy- 
man named Doyle, parish priest of Ardfinnan, 
on learning of their intention (as one of the 
informers states in his depositions), went 
amongst them and succeeded in preventing 
any offensive movement. His purpose, how- 
ever, in so doing was as usual represented to 
be insidious. 

From this time the Earl of Drogheda made 
several incursions into the adjacent country, 
"and great numbers of the insurgents," as 
we are informed by Sir Richard Musgrave, 
" were killed by his lordship's regiment, and 
French money was found iu the pockets of 
some of them." We are not informed what 
the " insurgents " were doing when they were 
killed, nor in what this insurrection consisted, 
but we may here present the judgment of 
Edmund Burke upon those transactions: — 
'• I was three times in Ireland, from the year 
1760 to the year 1767, where I had suffi- 
cient means of information concerning the 
inhuman proceedings (among which were 
many cruel murders, besides an infinity of 
outrages aud oppressions unknown before in 




a civilized age) which prevailed during that 
period, in consequence of a pretended con- 
spiracy among Roman Catholics against the 
king's government." In short, there was 
no such conspiracy, and if the statement of 
Sir Richard Musgrave be true, which is 
highly improbable, that any coins of French 
money were found in the pockets of the 
slain, " that may be accounted for," says Mr. 
Matthew O'Connor, "as the natural result of 
a smuggling intercourse with France, and in 
particular of the clandestine export of wool 
to that country."* 

While the troops were established at 
Clogheen they were constantly employed in 
this well-known method of pacifying the 
country, aud they were seconded with san- 
guinary zeal by several neighboring gentle- 
men, especially Sir Thomas Maude, William 
Bagnell, and John Bagnell, Esquires; many 
arrests were made as well as murders com- 
mitted, and active preparation was made for 
what in Ireland is called " trial " of those of- 
fenders — that is indictment before juries of 
their mortal enemies. Diligent in the ar- 
rangement of the panels for these trials, we 
find Daniel Toler, high sheriff of the county, 
who was either father or uncle of that other 
Toler, the bloody judge, afterwards known 
under the execrated title of Norbury. 

Amidst all this we are not to suppose that 
Father Sheehy was forgotten. In the course 
of the disturbances he was several times ar- 
rested, indicted, and even tried as a "Popish 
priest," not being duly registered, or not 
having taken the abjuration oath : but so 
privately did the priests celebrate mass in 
those days that it was found impossible to 
procure any evidence against him. We find 
also that he was indicted at Clonmel assizes, 
in 1763, as having been present at a White- 
boy assemblage, and as having forced one 
Ross to swear that he never would testily 
against Whiteboys. At this same assizes, a 
true bill was found against Michael Quiulan, 
a Popish priest, for having at Aughnacarly 
and other places, exercised the office and 
functions of a Popish priest, against the 
peace of our lord the king and the statute, 
&c. To make conviction doubly sure, as in 
Sheehy's case, a second information was sent 



* M. O'Connor, 



'History of tho Irish Catholica." 



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MURDKR OP FATHER SIIEEIIT. 



up on tilt; same occasion, charging Father 
Quinlau with ;i riotous assemblage at Augh- 
nacarty, so that if it was not a riot it was a 
mass, and if it was not a mass it was a riot 
— criminal in either case. 

It is needless to Btate the details of all 
these multifarious Legal proceedings extend- 
ing through several years. To pursue the 
story of Father Slieehy : ho was acquitted 
on the charge of being a Popish priest, " to 
his own great misfortune," says poor Dr. 
Curry, "for had he been convicted, his pun- 
ishment, which would bo only transporta- 
tion, might have prevented his ignominious 
death, which soon after followed." Can 
there be conceived a more touching illustra- 
tion of the ahject situation of the Catholics, 
than that such should be the reflection 
which suggested itself on such an occasion 
to the worthy Dr. Curry. 

It also deserves to be noted in passing, 
that no public man in Ireland was more 
ferocious in denouncing the unhappy 
Whiteboys and calling for their blood, than 
the celebrated Patriot, lien ry Flood. On 
the 13th of October, 1703, in moving for 
au instruction to the committee to inquire 
into the causes of the "insurrections" 
(which he would have to be a Popish rebel- 
lion and nothing less), he expressed his 
amazement that the indictments in the south 
were only laid for a riot and breach of the 
peace, and animadverted severely on the le- 
iH. -lit conduct of the judges. The solicitor- 
general had actually to modify the wrath of 
the bloodthirsty Patriot, and to assure him 
'•that whenever lenity had been shown, it was 
only h here reason and humanity required 
it,"* which wc may be very sure was true. 

Hut whosoever might be allowed to es- 
eape, that lot was not reserved for Father 
Sheehy.f For two whole years, while the 
gibbets were groaning and the jails bursting 
with his poor parishioners, he was enable 
to bailie all pioserulion; sometimes escaping 

out of the very toils of the attorney-general 
by default of evidence, sometimes concealing 
himself in the glens of the mountains, until 
in the \ ear 1 V 1 1 5 the Government was pre- 
vailed upon by his powerful enemies to issue 





a proclamation against mm, as a person 
guilty of high treason, offering a reward of 
three hundred pounds for taking him, which 
Sheehy in his retreat, happening to hear of, 
immediately wrote up to Secretary Waite, 
" that as he was not conscious of any such 
crime, as he was charged with in the procla- 
mation, he was ready to save to the Gov- 
ernment the money offered for taking him, 
by surrendering himself out of hand, to be 
tried for that or any other crime he might 
be accused of; not at Clonine], where he 
feared that the power and malice of his 
enemies were too prevalent for justice (as 
they soon after indeed proved to be), but at 
the court of King's Bench in Dublin." His 
proposal having been accepted, he was ac- 
cordingly brought up to Dublin and tried 
there for rebellion, of which, however, after 
a severe scrutiny of fourteen hours, he was 
again acquitted ; no evidence having ap- 
peared against him but a blackguard boy,' 
a common prostitute, and an impeached 
thief, all brought out of Cloumel jail, and 
bribed for the purpose of witnessing against 
him. 

But his inveterate enemies, who, like so 
many blood-hounds, had pursued him to 
Dublin, finding themselves disappointed there, 
resolved npon his destruction at all events. 
One Bridge, an infamous informer against 
some of those who had been executed for 
these riots, was said to have been murdered 
by their associates, in revenge (although his 
body could never be found),* and a con- 
siderable reward was offered for discovering 
and convicting the murderer. Sheehy, im- 
mediately after his acquittal in Dublin for 
rebellion, was indicted by his pursuers for 
this murder, and notwithstanding the pro- 
mise given him by those in ofiice on sur- 
rendering himself, he was transmitted to 
Clonmel, to be tried there for this now 
crime, and, upon the sole evidence of the 
same infamous witnesses, whose testimony 
had been so justly reprobated in Dublin, 
was there condemned to be hanged and 
quartered for the murder of a man who 
was never murdered at all. 

* It whs positively sworn, by two unexceptionable 
witnesses, that lie privately left the kingdom somo 
slmrt time before lie whs suid to have been mnr- 
dered. See notes of the trial taken by one of the 
jury, iu u Kxshaw's Magazine " for June, 17G0. 



Oi 






^ 



TS&fs 





HISTORY OF IRELAND 



AVli.it barefaced injustice and inhumanity 
wore shown to lliis nnfortunate man on that 
occasion,* is known and testified by many 
thousands of credible persons, who were 
present and eye-witnesses on the day of his 
trial. A party of horse surrounded the 
OOUrt, admitting and excluding whomsoever 
they thought proper, while others of them, 
with Sir Thomas Mamie at their head, 
scampered the streets in a formidable man- 
ner, breaking into inns and private lodgings 
in the town, challenging and questioning 
all new-comers, menacing the prisoner's 
friends, and encouraging his enemies : even 
after sentence of death was pronounced 
against him (which one would think 
might have satisfied the malice of his 
enemies), his attorney found it neces- 
sary for his safety, to steal out of the town 
by night, and with all possible speed 
make his escape to Dublin. The bead 
of the brave murdered priest was spiked 
over the gates of Olonmel jail, and there 
remained twenty years. At last his sister 
was allowed to bury it where his body lies, 
in the old churchyard of Shandraghan. 

The night before his execution, which 
was but the second after bis sentence, he 

* To mention only ono instance out of ninny. 
During liis trial, Mr. Keating, a person of known 
property and credit in that country, having given 
tin- dearest and fullest evidence, that, during the 
whole night of the supposed murder of Bridge, the 
prisoner, Nicholas Sheehy, had lain in his house, 
that ho could not have left it in tlio night-time 
without his knowledge, and consequently that he 
cuuld not have been even present at the murder; 
the Reverend Mr. rlewetson, an active manager in 
these trials, stood up, ami after looking on a paper 
that he bold in his hand, informed the court that ho 
had Mr. Kcatiug's name on his list as one of those 
that were concerned in the killing of a corporal and 
sergeant, in a former rescue of some of these lovel- 
l. is. t'pun which he was immediately hurried away 

to Kilkenny jail, where lie lay lor some time, loaded 
with irons, in a dark and loathsome dungeon : by 
tins proceeding, not only his evidence was rendered 
useless to Sheehy, hut also that of many others was 
prevented, who came on purpose to teetify tho same 
thing, hut instantly withdrew themselves, for fear 
of meeting with the Bame treatment. Mr. Keating 
was afterwards tried for this pretended murder at 
the assizes of Kilkenny, tint was honorably acquit- 
ted ; too late, however, to be of any service to poor 
Sheehy, who was hanged and quartered some time 
before Mr. Keating's acquittal. The very samo evi- 
dence which was looked upon al Clonmel as good 
ami sulticient to condemn Mi. Sheehy, having been 
afterwards rejected at Kilkenny, as prevaricating 
und contradictory with respect to Mr. Keating. 




wrote a letter to Major Sirr, wherein he de- 
clared his innocence of the crime for which 
ho was next day to sudor death ; and on the 
morning of that day, just before ho was 
brought forth to execution, he, in the pres- 
ence of the sub-sheriff and a clergyman who 
attended him, again declared bis innocence 
of the murder; solemnly protesting at tho 
same time, as he was a dying man, just 
going to appear before tho most awful of 
tribunals, that he never had engaged any 
of the rioters in the service of the French 
king, by tendering them oaths, or other- 
wise ; that he never had distributed money 
among them on that account, nor had ever 
received money from France, or auy other 
foreign court, either directly or indirectly, 
for any such purpose; that he never knew 
of any French or other foreign officers being 
among these rioters; or of any Roman Cath- 
olics of property or note, being concerned 
with them. At the place of cxecutioTi he 
solemnly averred the same things, adding, 
"that he never heard an oath of allegiance 
to any foreign prince proposed or admin- 
istered in his lifetime; nor ever knew any 
thing of tho murder of Bridge, until he heard 
it publicly talked of; nor did he know that 
there ever was any such design on foot." 

Everybody knew, that this clergyman 
might, if he pleased, have easily made his 
escape to France, when he first heard of the 
proclamation for apprehending him ; and as 
he was all along accused of having been agent 
for the French king, in raising and fomenting 
theso tumults, he could not doubt of finding 
a safe retreat, and suitable recompense for 
such services, in any part of that kingdom. 
It seems, therefore, absurd in the highest 
degree, to imagine that he, or any man, 
being at the same time conscious of the com- 
plicated guilt of rebellion and murder, would 
have wilfully neglected the double oppor- 
tunity of escaping punishment and of living 
at his ease and safety in another kingdom; 
or that any person, so criminally circum- 
stanced as he was thought to be, would have 
at all surrendered himself to a public trial, 
without friends, money, or family connec- 
tions ; and, above all, without that conscious- 
ness of bis innocence, on which, ami tho 
protection of the Almighty, he might pos- 
sibly have relied for his deliverance. 



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SUBORNATION OP WITNESSES AND APPROVERS. 



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Emboldened by this success, Sir Thomas 
Maude published so advertisement, some- 
what in the nature of a manifesto, wherein, 

after having presumed to censure the admin- 
istration for not punishing, with greater and 
unjustifiable Beverity, these wretched rioters, 
In- named a certain day, on which the fol- 
lowing persons of credit and substance in 
that country, viz. : Edmund Sheehy, Janus 
Buxton, James Farrel, and others, were to 
lie tried by commission at Clonmel, as prin- 
cipals or accomplices in the aforesaid mur- 
der of Bridge. And, as if he meant by dint 
of numbers, to intimidate even the judges 
into lawless rigor and severity, he sent forth 
a sort of authoritative summons "to every 
gentleman in the county to attend that 
commission." His summons was punctually 
obeyed by his numerous and powerful ad- 
herents; and these men, innocent (as will 
appear hereafter), were sentenced to be 
hanged and quartered by that commission. 

It will naturally be asked, upon what new 
evidence* this sentence was passed, as it 

* James rrendcrgast, Esq., a witness for Mr. 
Edmund SheQhy, perfectly unexceptionable in point 
of Fortune, character, and religion, which ra that of 
the established church, deposed, that on the day 
and hour on which the murder of Bridge was sworn 
to have been committed, viz. : about or between the 

I rs often and eleven o'clock, on the night of the 

28th of October, 1764, Edmund Sheehy, the prison- 
er, was witli him and others, in a distant part of tho 
country; that they and their wives had, on the 
■foresaid 28th of October, dined at the bouse of Mr. 
Tcnison, near Ardtinan, in tho county of Tipperary, 
where they continued until after supper ; that it was 
about eleven o'clock when he and the prisoner left 
the bouse of Mr. Tenison, and rode a considerable 
way together "ii their return to their respective 
homes ; thai the prisoner bad his wife behind him ; 
that when he (Mr. I'rcndcrgast.; got home, he looki .1 
at the clock, ami found it was the hour of twelve 
exactly." This testimony was confirmed by several 
corroborating circumstances, sworn to by two other 
witnesses, against whom no exception appears to 
have been taken. And yet, because Mr. Tcnison, 
although he confessed in his deposition, that tho 
prisoner had dined with him in October, 1761, and 
does not expressly deny that it was on the 28th of 
that mouth ; but says, conjecturally, that he was 
inclinul to think that it was earlier than the 28th, 
the prisoner was brought in guilty. Thus positive 
ami particular proof, produced by Mr. Prendergast, 
with the circumstances of the day and the hour, at- 
tested upon oath by two other witnesses, whoso 
veracity seems not to have been questioned, was 
overruled and set aside by the vague and indeter- 
minate surmise if Mr. Tcnison. Sec " Bxshuw's 
Gentleman's and London Magazine," for April, and 
June, 1766." 



may well be supposed, that no use was made 
of the former reprobated witnesses on this 
occasion. But use was made of them, and 
a principal use too, in the trial and con- 
viction of these devoted men. The managers, 
however, for the crown, as they impudently 
called themselves, being afraid, or ashamed, 
to trust the success of their sanguinary pur- 
poses to the now enfeebled, because gener- 
ally exploded, testimony of these miscreants, 
looked out for certain props, under the name 
of approvers, to strengthen and support their 
tottering evidence. These they soon found 
in the persons of Herbert and Bier, two 
prisoners, accused, like the rest, of the mur- 
der of Bridge; and who, though absolutely 
strangers to it (as they themselves had often 
sworn in the jail), were nevertheless in 
equal danger of being hanged for it, if they 
did not purchase their pardon by becoming 
approvers of the former false witnesses. 
Herbert was so conscious of his innocence 
in respect to Bridge's murder, that he had 
come to the assizes of Clonmel, in order to 
give evidence in favor of the priest Sheehy ; 
but his arrival and business being soon made 
known, effectual measures were taken to 
prevent his giving such evidence. Accord- 
ingly bills of high treason were found against 
him, upon the information of one of these 
reprobate witnesses, and a party of light 
horse sent to take him prisoner. Bier, upon 
his removal afterwards to Newgate, in 
Dublin, declared, in a dangerous fit of sick- 
ness, to the ordinary of that prison, with 
evident marks of sincere repentance, " that 
for any thing he knew to the contrary, the 
before-mentioned Edmund Sheehv, James 
Buxton, and James Farrel, were entirely in- 
nocent of the fact for which they had suf- 
fered death; and that nothing in this world, 
but the preservation of bis own life, which 
he saw was in the most imminent danger, 
should have tempted him to be guilty of 
the complicated crimes of perjury and mur- 
der, as he then confessed he was, when he 
swore away the lives of those innocent 
men." 

On Saturday morning, May 3d, 1706, the 
convicts were hanged and quartered at 
Clogheen. Their behavior at the place of 
execution was cheerful, but devout; not 
content to forgive, they prayed for aud 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



blessed their prosecutors, judges, and juries. 
After they were tied up, each of them, in his 
turn, read a paper aloud, without tremor, 
hesitation, or olher visible eiuotion, wherein 
they solemnly protested, as dying Christians, 
who were quickly to appear before the 
judgment-seat of God, "that they had no 
share either by act, counsel, or knowledge 
in the murder of Bridge ; that they never 
heard an oath of allegiance to any foreign 
prince proposed or administered amongst 
them ; that tbey never heard that any 
scheme of rebellion, high treason, or a mas- 
sacre, was intended, ottered, or even thought 
of, by any of them ; that they never knew 
of any commissions, or French or Spanish 
officers being sent, or of any money being 
paid to these rioters. After this, they sev- 
erally declared, in the same solemn manner, 
that certain gentlemen, whose names they 
then mentioned, had tampered with them 
at different times, pressing them to make, 
what they called useful discoveries,- by giving 
in examinations against numbers of Roman 
Catholics of fortune in that province (some 
of whom they particularly named) as actual- 
ly concerned in a conspiracy, and intended 
massacre, which were never ouce thought 
of. But above all, that they urged them to 
swear, that the priest, Nicholas Sheehy, died 
with a lie in his mouth ; without doing which, 
they said, no other discovery would avail 
them. Upon these conditions, they promised, 
and undertook to procure their pardons, ac- 
quainting them at the same time, that they 
should certainly be hanged, if they did not 
comply with them." 

All that has since come to light with re- 
gard to these black transactions — the testi- 
mony of Burke (already cited) that there 
was ii" conspiracy for insurrection at all — 
the failure to produce the body of Bridge, 
though it was carefully searched for in the 
field where a witness swore it had beeu 
buried — the hatred notoriously cherished 
against Father Sheehy and all his friends, 
on account of his bold conduct in standing 
up lor his poor parishioners — and we must 
add the whole course of Irish "justice" from 
that day to this — all compel us to credit 
the dying declaration of these men, who were 
also of unblemished character; and force us 
to the conclusion that the whole of these 



military executions and judicial trials in 
Minister, extending over four years, were 
themselves the result of a most foul conspi- 
racy on the part of the Ascendency faction, 
with its government, its judges, its magis- 
trates and its juries — based upon carefully 
organized perjury and carried through by 
brute force, to "strike terror'' in Tipperary 
(a measure often found needful since), to 
destroy all the leading Catholics of that 
troublesome neighborhood ; and above and 
before all things, to hang and quarter the 
body, and to spike the head, of the generous 
and kindly priest who told his people that 
they were human beings aud had rights and 
wrongs. 

Dr. Curry wiuds up his account of the 
transaction with these reflections : — 

" Such, during the space of three or four 
years, was the fearful aud pitiable state of 
the Roman Catholics of Minister, and so 
general did the panic at length become, so 
many of the lower sort were already hanged, 
in jail, or on the informers' lists, that the 
greatest part of the rest fled through fear ; 
so that the land lay unfilled, for want ot 
hands to cultivate it, and a famine was with 
reason apprehended. As for the better sort, 
who had something to lose (and who, for 
that reason, were the persons chiefly aimed 
at by the managers of the prosecution), they 
were at the utmost loss how to dispose of 
themselves. If they left the country, their 
absence was construed into a proof of their 
guilt: if they remained in it, they were in im- 
minent danger of having their lives sworn 
away by informers and approvers ; for the 
suborning and corrupting of witnesses on 
that occasion, was frequent and barefaced, to 
a degree almost beyond belief. The very 
stews were raked, and the jails rummaged 
in search of evidence ; and the most noto- 
riously profligate in both were selected and 
tampered with, to give information of the 
private transactions and designs of reputable 
men, with whom they never had any deal- 
ing, intercourse, or acquaintance; nay, to 
whose very persons they were often found 
to be strangers, when confronted at their 
trial. 

" In short, so exactly did these prose- 
cutions, in Ireland resemble, in every partic- 
ular, those which were formerly set on foot 



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TOLERATION UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 



in England, for tliat villanoua fiction of 
Oates's plot, that the former seem to have 
been planned and carried on entirely on the 
model of the latter; and tlio same just ob- 
servation that hath been made on the Eng- 
lish sanguinary proceedings, is perfectly ap- 
plicable to those which I have now, in part, 
related, viz.: 'that for the credit of the nation, 
ii were indeed better to bury them in eter- 
nal oblivion, but that it is necessary to per- 
petuate the remembrance of them, as well 
to maintain the truth of history, as to warn, 
if possible, our posetrity, and all mankind, 
never again to fall into so shameful and so 
barbarous a delusion.'" 

All now seemed quiet in Munster : but it 
was the quietude of despair and exhaustion. 
The \\ hiteboy spirit was not reallv sup- 
pressed, because the oppressions which had 
occasioned it were not relaxed, but rather 
aggravated. Many hearths were now cold 
that had been the centre of a humble 
family circle four years before; and the sur- 
viving parishioners of Clogheen, when they 
saw the blackening skull of their revered 
priest upon its spike withering away in the 
wind, could read the fate that, on the first 
murmur of revolt, was in store for them- 
selves or any who should take their part. 
The next year (1767), some further arrests 
were made, and the Ascendency partv tried 
hard to get up an alarm about another 
" Popish rebellion." No executions followed 
on this occasion, as several benevolent per- 
sons contributed money to procure ihe pris- 
oners the benefit of the best legal defence. 
It is with pleasure one reads among the 
names of the friends of an oppressed race 
who contributed to this fund, the name of 
Edmund Burke. One of the persons ar- 
rested on this last occasion, but afterwards 
discharged without trial, was l>r. McKenna, 
Catholic bishop of Cloyne. lie, as well as 
all oilier ecclesiastics of his order, was, of 
course, at all times subject to the penalties 
of law, to transportation under the acts "for 
preventing the growth of Popery" in Queen 
Anne's time ; and also to the penalty of 
premupire under earlier laws: yet these 
bishops continued to exercise their office, 
to confirm and confer orders under a species 
of connivance, which passed for toleration. 
But their situation, as well as that of all 



their clergy, in these first years of King 
George III. was still as precarious and ano- 
malous as it had been during all the reign 
of George II. Sometimes they were toler 
ated, sometimes persecuted. It depended 
upon the administration which happened to 
be in power; upon the temporary alarms to 
which the " Ascendency " was always sub- 
ject; and upon the disposition of local pro- 
prietors and magistrates, who were occasion- 
ally men of liberal education, and relished the 
society of the neighboring priests who had 
graduated at Lisbon, or Salamanca, or Lou- 
vain, and who were then frequently far 
superior in cultivation and social refinement 
to the Protestant rectors, of whom I )ean 
Swift sometimes betrays his low estimate. 
Even the regular clergy, although the rage 
and suspicion of the Ascendency were yet 
more bitter against them than the secular 
priests, were always to be found in Ireland. 

■ They ran more cruel risks, however, than 
the parish priest. If any blind or self-in- 

[ terested bigot desired to show his zeal in 

' trampling on the right of conscience, or to 
raise the ferocious old cry of " No Popery !" 
the regular clergy formed an inexhaustible 
subject for his vociferations : if the legis- 
lature of the day wished to indulge the 
popular frenzy by the exhibition of new-fash- 
ioned enactments, or of a new series of tra- 
gedies — monks, Jesuits, and friars were sure 
to pay the cost of the entertainment. It 
has often been affirmed, even by the timid 
Catholic writers of the last century, that 
the accession of the House of Hanover inau- 
gurated an era of more liberal toleration. 
It is to be feared that this kind of admission 
on their part was but a courtly device to 

! conciliate, if not to flatter, that odious House 
and its partisans; for the priest-hunters 

1 were never more active than in the reign 
of George I., when Garcia brought in his 
batches of captured clergymen, and received 
a good price out of the treasury upon each 
head of game. In the whole reign Oi 
George II., until the administration of Ches- 
terfield, Catholic worship had to be cele. 
brated with the utmost caution and secrecy. 
In this reign, Bernard MacMahon, Catholic 
Primate, " resided in a retired place named 
Ballymascanlon in the County of Louth; 
his habitation was little superior to 





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house, and for many years lie was known 
through the country by the name of Mr. 

Ennis. In this disguise, which personal 
safety so Btrongly prompted, lie was accus- 
tomed to travel over his diocese, make his 
visitations, exhort his people, and administer 
the saerainents."* In the same way, Mi- 
chael O'Reilly, another primate, "lived in a 

humble dwelling at Turfegih, near Drogheda, 
and died here about the year l768,"f just 
two years before the. accession of George 
III. In the reign of George III. himself, 
We have seen Fathers Sheehy and Quinlan 
regularly indicted at assizes, for thai they 
had, at such times and places, not having 
the fear of (rod before their eyes, hut moved 
and seduced by the instigation of the devil, 
said mass and did other functions of a Popish 
priest, against the peace of our lord the 
king, and contrary to the statutes in that 
ease made and provided. We must, there- 
fore, take these grateful acknowledgments 
of the liberal dispositions of the House of 
Hanover, with considerable qualification, 
remembering that the writers in question 
were laboring in the cause of Catholic 
Emancipation, under that royal House, and 
felt obliged to pay it some compliments 
upon its noble generosity. 

As for the Catholic laity, their disabilities 
continued all this time in full force, and 
while a contemptuous connivance was shown 
to their religious worship, good care was 
taken to debar them from nil profitable occu- 
pation, and to seize the poor remnants of 
their property. Indeed, the toleration of 
their worship was for the better securing of 
these latter objects; it was known that men 
who went, regularly to mass would never 
take an oath that, the King of England is 
head of the church, or that the mass is a 
damnable idolatry ; and these oaths-formed 
the very barrier which fenced in all the rich 
and fat things of the land for the Protest- 
ants, and shut, the Papists out. That observ- 
ant and honest English traveller, Arthur 
Young, was so powei fully struck with this 

true character of the Penal Laws, that in 
his account of his tour he more than once 



* Brcnnan's Eool. Hist., p. 573, 



dwells upon it with righteous indignation. 
He says : — " But it seems to be the meaning, 
wish, and intent of the discovery laws, that 
none of them (the Irish Catholics) should 
ever be rich. It is the principle of that 
svstcm, that wealthy subjects would be nui- 
sances ; and therefore every means is taken 
to reduce, and keep them to a state of pov- 
erty. If this is not the intention of these 
laws, they are the most abominable heap of 
self-contradictions that ever were issued in 
the world. They are framed in such a 
manner that no Catholic shall have the in- 
ducement to become rich. . . .Take the laws 
and their execution into one view, and this 
state of the case is so true, that they actual- 
ly do not seem to be so much levelled at 
the religion, as at the property that is found 
in it. . . .The domineering aristocracy of five 
hundred thousand Protestants, feel the sweets 
of having two millions of slaves; they have 
not the least objection to the tenets wof that 
religion which keeps them by the law of the 
land in subjection; but property and slavery 
are too incompatible to live together : hence 
the special care taken that no such thing 
should arise among them." — Youmjs Tour 
in Irel^ vol. ii., p. 48. 

In another place Mr. Young repeats: — 
"I have conversed on the subject with some 
of the most distinguished characters in the 
kingdom, ami I cannot after all but. declare 
that the scope, purport, and aim of the laws 
of discovery, as executed, are not against the 
Catholic, religion, which increases under them, 
but against the industry and property of 
whoever professes that religion. In vain 
has it. been said, that consequence and pow- 
er follow property, and that the attack is 
made in order to wound the doctrine 
through its property. If such was the in- 
tention, I reply, that seventy years' experi- 
ence prove the folly anil futility of it. Those 
laws have crushed all the industry, and 
wrested most of the property from the Cath- 
olics; but the, religion triumphs; it is 
thought to increase." Headers may now 
understand the nature and extent of that 
vaunted "toleration," and the true intent 
and purpose of it, such as it was — namely, 
plunder. 



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CIIArTElt XVL 

1707 — 1773. 
Fownahend, Viceroy— Augmentation of the army — 
Embezzlement — Parliament prorogued — Again 
prorogued Townahend bnya hi.-* majority — Tri- 
ampli of the "Engliah Interest " — New attempt 
to l>ribo the Priests — Townahend a "Golden 
Drops" -Bill to allow Papists to reclaim boga — 
Tow nahend recalled — Harootirt, Viceroy — Pro- 
posal i" tux absentees — Defeated — Degraded oon- 
dlti >f the Irisli Parliament — American Revolu- 
tion, iiinl new era. 

The history of Lord Townsliend's admin- 
istration, and of the two which followed, is 
unhappily little more than a history of the 
most shameless corruption and servility on 
the part of the Irish Parliament, relieved, 
however, l>y some examples of a rising na- 
tional spirit in the assertion of constitutional 
right. Very early in the same session of 
Parliament, which had finally passed the Oc- 
tennial Bill, the attention of the House of 
Commons was especially called to the con- 
sideration of the army upon the Irish estab- 
lishment. A message from the lord lieuten- 
ant was sent to the House by the hands of 
the Right Hon. Sir George Macartney, in 
which he informed the Commons "that it is 
his majesty's judgment, that not less than 
12,000 men should be constantly kept in 
the island for service, and that his majesty 
finding, that, consistently with the general 
public service, the number before mentioned 
cannot always be continued in Ireland, 
iinl.-s-, his army upon the Irish establishment 
be augmented to 15,235 men in the whole, 
commissioned and non-commissioned officers 
included, his majesty is of opinion, that such 
augmentation should be immediately mid.-, 
and earnestly recommends it to his faithful 
Commons to concur in providing for a mea- 
sure which his majesty has extremely at 
heart, as necessary not only for the honor 
of his crown, but for the peace and security 
of bis kingdom." The message was ordered 
to 1"' entered on the journals, and at the 
same time a committee was appointed to 
inquire into the state of the military estab- 
lishment, and also into the application of 

the ncy granted for its support from the 

25th March, 1751. The result of this inqui- 
ry showed manifest misconduct, as appears 
from the report at large, and the returns 



thereunto annexed: part of the report is to 
the following elfect: 

"Your committee beg leave to take notice 
that the entire reduction of the army, afiei 
the conclusion of the peace, did not take 
place till the latter end of the year 1 70 J ; 
and that it appears from the return of the 
quarter-master-general, that there were great 
deficiencies in the several regiments then 
upon the establishment, at the several quar- 
terly musters comprised in the said paper, 
which precede the month of January, I 705; 
the full pay of such vacancies must amount 
to a very large sum, and ought, as your 
committee apprehends, to have been return- 
ed as a saving to the public, especially as it 
appeared to yonr committee, that orders 
were issued by government, not to recruit 
the regiments intended to be reduced." 
Upon the whole, it was resolved that an ad- 
dress should be presented to his majesty, to 
lay before him the report of the said com- 
mittee, to acknowledge his constant atten- 
tion to the welfare of the people, to express 
the utmost confidence in his majesty's wis- 
dom, that if upon such representation any 
reformation in the said establishment should 
appear necessary to bis majesty, such altera 
tion would be made therein as would better 
provide for the security of the kingdom, 
and at the same time reduce the expense of 
the establishment, in such a manner as 
might be more suitable to the circumstances 
of the nation. The Government, however, 
was able to secure a majority for their mea- 
sure. As Mr. Plowden expresses it, " Vainly 
did the efforts of patriotism encounter the 
exertions of the new system to keep individ- 
uals steady to their post on the Treasury 
bench. 

The Parliament was now dissolved; and 
the first Octennial Parliament W'as to be 
elected. There was an unusually long in- 
terval of sixteen months from the dissolu- 
tion of the old to the meeting of this taw 
Parliament. This interval was used by the 
Court in establishing the "new system;" 
which system was neither more nor less 
than buying the people's representatives in 
detail, by direct negotiation with individu- 
als, instead of contracting for them by 
wholesale with the four or five noble "Un- 
dertakers," who owned many boroughs, and 



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influenced the owners of many others. Lord 
Townshend hoped to render the confession 
of the Octennial Act worse than nugatory, 
and to create a new junta in support of the 
English interest, independent of their former 
leaders. But he had not yet so manned 
his plan as to have insured the whole game. 
He had not altered the nature, but only 
raised the price, of accommodation; and, 
lavish as the Irish have generally been of 
their voices in Parliament to the highest 
bidder, there ever appear to have been 
some cases reserved out of the bargaiu. Such 
had been the reservation of right to vote for 
limited Parliaments, in some of the most 
obsequious devotees to the measures of the 
Castle; and such now was a similar excep- 
tion in some of these pensioned supporters 
to resist the right of the English Council to 
make money bills originate with them, and 
not with the Commons of Ireland. On this 
point the British Cabinet and the Irish 
House of Commons came fairly to issue. 
The former determined to test the question 
in the most direct way, by the origination 
of a money bill in the Privy Council; and 
the latter resolved fairly to meet the issue. 
Accordingly, it was moved in the House of 
Commons, that a bill, entitled "An Act for 
granting to His Majesty the several Duties, 
Kates, Impositions, and Taxes, therein par- 
ticularly expressed, to be applied to the 
Payment of the Interest of the Sums there- 
in provided for and towards the Discharge 
of the said principal Sums," should be read 
a second time on the day following. This 
motion was negatived; and it was resolved 
that such bill was rejected, because it did 
not take its rise in that House. 

The lord-lieutenant, though he thought 
proper to allow the Irish Parliament to 
giant their own money in their own way, 
protested against the right claimed by the 
House of Commons, and endeavored, but in 
vain, to enter his protest upon their jour- 
nals. The House would not submit to this 
encroachment upon their privileges: the 
Lords were less inflexible, and after much 
opposiliou and debate, his excellency's pro- 
test was solemnly recorded on the jour- 
nals of the House of Peers. But before 
that was done, it having been generally sus- 
pected that such was his intention, the foll- 



owing motion was made in the House of 
Peers: "That the Speaker of this House be 
desired that no protest of any person whom- 
soever, who is not a lord of Parliament, and 
a member of this House, and which doth not 
respect a matter which had been previously 
in question before this House, and wherein 
the lord protesting had taken part with the 
minority, either in person or by proxy, be 
entered on the Journals of the House." 
After a warm debate upon this motion, the 
question was negatived upon a division of 
30 against 5. 

The 21st of November, 1709, was a day 
fixed for the trial of strength upon the 
English Privy Council's money bill. The 
motion being made that this bill be read a 
first time, it was carried in the affirmative; 
and the bill being accordingly read, a mo- 
tion was made, and the question put, that 
the bill be read a second time to-morrow 
morning: the House divided: ayes^ sixty- 
eight; noes, eighty-seven. Then the motion, 
that the bill be rejected, was put and car- 
ried by ninety-four against seventy-one; and 
it was resolved that the said bill was rejected, 
because it did not take its rise in that House. 
The lord-lieutenant took this defeat in the 
Commons so much to heart, that he re- 
solved to bring no more Government ques- 
tions before them during that session : or 
until he could, as the Castle phrase then 
was, make more sure of the king's busi- 
ness. The representations which were made 
of this transaction in England soon found 
their way into the newspapers, and the 
light in which Mr. Woodfall placed the 
majority of the Irish House of Commons on 
that important division in the Public Ad- 
vertiser, fully proved the general sentiment 
entertained at the time in England upon the 
whole system of the Irish Government.* 
On the 18th day of December, 1769, a 
motion was made and carried, without op- 
position, that a paper entitled the Public 
Advertiser, by II. S. Woodfall, Loudon, 
December the 9th, 1709, might be read. 
It contained the following words: "Hiber- 
nian patriotism is a transcript of that filthy 
idol worshipped at the London Tavern; in- 
solence, assumed from an opinion of itnpu- 

* Journ. Com., vol. 8, p. 844. 





W** .'.U.V'- 1 *'. 




./"ill, !, -vV^a/ ."Hi ! v.' ■■•Iffixl 




PARLIAMENT PROROGUED. 



109 



as? i 



ll 



nitv, usurps the place which boldness against 
real injuries oaght to hold. The refusal of 

the hue bill, I ause it was not brought in 

contrary to the practice of ages, in violation 

of the constitution, and to the certain ruin 
of the dependence of Ireland upon Great 
Britain, is a behavior more suiting an army 
of Whiteboys than the grave representa- 
tives of a nation. This is the most daring 
insult that has been nit", red to Government. 
It must be counteracted with firmness, or 
else the state is ruined. Let the refractory 
House be dissolved; should the next copy 
their example, let it also be dissolved ; and 
if the same spirit of seditious obstinacy 
should continue, I know no remedy but one, 
and it is extremely obvious. The Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain is supreme over its 
conquests, as well as colonies, and the ser- 
vice of the nation must not bo left undone, 
on account of the factious obstinacy of a 
provincial assembly. Let our legislature, 
for they have an undoubted right, vote the 
Irish supplies; and so save a nation, that 
'their own obstinate representatives endeavor 
to ruin." The perfect identity in tone and 
temper of this article with those of the 
Times at the present day (when any mani- 
festation of spirit in Ireland irritates the 
British public) makes it well worth pre- 
serving, to show how very little the English 
feeling towards Ireland has varied or 
changed in a hundred years. These para- 
graphs having been read, it was resolved, 
that they were a false and infamous libel 
upon the proceedings of that House, a dar- 
ing invasion of the Parliament, and calcu- 
lated to create groundless jealousies be- 
tween His Majesty's faithful subjects of 
Great Britain and Ireland : it was therefore 
ordered, that the said paper should be burnt 
by the bauds of the common hangman. 
And on the Wednesday following, viz., the 
20th of December, the said paper was burn- 
ed before the gate of the House of Com- 
mons by the hands of the common hang- 
man, in the presence of the sheriffs of 
Dublin, amidst the indignant shouts of an 
immense crowd of spectators, who loudly, 
though without outrage, resented the insult 
offered to their representatives. 

It was evident that Lord Townshend's 
new system of government had not yet been 



sufficiently perfected. There was a new 
assault in preparation during the month o 
December in this year, 1709, against the 
enormous pension-list, and although he 
knew he could command a majority upon 
that (ninety-eight being against the agita- 
tion of the pension-list at that time, and 
eighty-nine for it), still the majority was too 
trilling to trust to, and a victory on such 
terms would have been a moral defeat. lie 
determined to prorogue the House. This 
became known to the Commons and the 
country, and the House, in an address, re- 
quested that his excellency would inform 
the House whether he had any instructions 
or had any intention to prorogue the Par- 
liament sooner than usual. Here again the 
lord-lieutenant found his deficiency in doing 
the king's business : for upon a division on 
the main question the minister was left once 
more in a greater minority than ever, there 
being 10G or his excellency's making the 
declaration, and seventy-three only against it. 
On the very next day, however, Sir George 
Macartney, the secretary, reported to the 
House, that his excellency had returned the 
following answer : 

" Gentlemen — I shall always be desir- 
ous of complying with your request when I 
can do it with propriety. I do not think 
myself authorized to disclose his majesty's 
instructions to me upon any subject, without 
having received his majesty's commands for 
so doing. With regard to my intentions, 
they will be regulated by his majesty's in- 
structions and future events." In fact, on 
the day after Christmas, Lord Townshend 
prorogued the Parliament, at first only till 
the 20th of March following. The lord-lieu- 
tenant having experienced so much inflexi- 
bility and difficulty in the management of the 
Commons in the first session, fully resolved 
to meet them no more in Parliament, till 
they were properly marshalled, and thor- 
oughly broken in to every manoeuvre of the 
new tactics. His excellency accordingly by 
proclamation on the 12th of March, 1770, 
prorogued them to Tuesday, the 1st of May 
following; on the 20th of April, 1770, ho 
further prorogued them to the 28th of Au- 
gust, and by three other successive proclama- 
tions he further prorogued them to different 







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1771, then to sit for dispatch of business. 
In the mean time affairs were falling into 
some confusion; several temporary acts 
which required renewal had expired ; the 
contest in Ireland excited the sympathies of 
the whig party in England, and in May, 1 770, 
the Hon, Boyle Walsingham brought up in 
Parliament at Westminster the whole sub- 
ject of the late extraordinary prorogations 
in Dublin, and moved for papers connected 
therewith. Lord North, the minister, of course 
defended the prorogations, which he said he 
had himself advised; and declared the con- 
duct of the Irish Parliament to be contrary 
to Poynings' Law, " the grand bond of the 
dependence of Ireland upon England." The 
House divided upon the motion for papers, 
when GO voted for it, but 178 voted against 
all inquiry. 

Lord Townshend and his creatures were 
not idle during the long Parliamentary in- 
ttrregnum. It is painful to be obliged to 
record that his system of personal individ- 
ual corruption made good progress. "Pa- 
triots" were won over to the administration, 
among whom appeared conspicuously, Mr 
Saxton Perry, member for Limerick, who 
first received the support of the Govern 
ment in being elected as Speaker of the 
House, with a promise of a peerage. Many 
others had been secured, some with money, 
some with honors, and in February, 1771, 
his excellency faced the Parliament with 
full confidence, which it soon appeared was 
not misplaced. The first division was on an 
address of the Commons to his majesty in 
answer to the lord-lieutenant's speech ; in 
this address they returned their most humble 
thanks to his majesty, for graciously contin- 
uing his excellency, Lord Townshend, in 
the government of the kingdom. The sla- 
vish address was opposed, but was carried by 
132 against 107. Lord Townshend never 
had any further trouble in managing Parlia- 
ment and doing the king's business. Mr. 
Ponsonby, the Speaker of the House, how- 
ever, refused to be the official medium of 
presenting the servile address; he resigned 
at once, requesting the House " to elect an- 
other Speaker who may not think such con- 
duct inconsistent with his honor." Mr. 
Perry was thereupon elected. "And the 
conduct and speech of Mr. Perry on this 



occasion bespoke the forward zeal of a new 
proselyte."* 

Having now secured his majority in Par- 
liament, the grand policy of Lord Towns- 
hend was to do away with the effects of the 
Patriotic votes in the last session, and justify 
his own conduct in the prorogations. lie 
was to make this Irish Parliament stultify 
itself and eat its own words, and in all this 
he was eminently successful. Nothing was 
permitted to pass without a division, so as 
to parade continually before the eyes of 
the people of Ireland, and of his employ- 
ers in England the thorough training in 
which the viceroy had his Parliament at 
last. The Commons, however— that is the 
remaining Patriots in the House — made one 
last effort, by moving an address to the king, 
containing some pitiful remonstrances: — as 
that "his faithful Commons did confidently 
hope that a law for securing the indepen- 
dence of the judges of this kingdom Voidd 
have passed; such a law having been rec- 
ommended and promised by his excellency 
the lord-lieutenant, in a speech from the 
throne in the first session of his excellency's 
government," and several other remonstran- 
ces of alike kind. The address was ordered 
to be opposed, and it was lost by a vote of 
123 against 08. 

Yet once more the viceroy's well-drilled 
ranks were to be paraded. In the address 
of the Commons to the lord-lieutenant, 
which was moved for and carried on the 
10th of Ma}', two days only before the pro- 
rogation, the Patriots objected to the thanks 
contained in it for his excellency's just <ni<l 
prudent administration; but on a division 
they were outvoted by 100 against 51 ; 
this address together with the kind's answer 
to the address of the Commons to the 
throne, was considered, by the Castle, to 
have completely counteracted the whole 
effect of the successful efforts of the Patriots 
in the last session, and to have given the 
express royal sanction to every part of the 
viceroy's conduct. 

The address of the lords to the kins: cou- 



* Plowdcn. It should bo remarked that this his- 
torian wrote his lirst series in a spirit fuvoruhlo to 
the Union, an. I, therefore, lias some propensity to 

disparage the " Patriots " of tho colony, and to poiu 
out their helplessness or veuulity. 



S^ 







/^i 




■^ _ LAI6 .^uftltji,}. 




y 



brined the following paragraph: "We have 
the truest sense of many instances, which 
your majesty has been pleased to afford us 
of your paternal care, and particularly your 
continuing the Lord Viscount Towashend 
in the government of this kingdom, of 
which, as his experience enables him to form 
the truest judgment, so his catulor and in- 
tegrity will, we doubt not, move him to 
make the justest representation." A warm 
debate took place upon the question being 
put, that the said paragraph do stand part 
of the address, which was carried by thirty 
against fifteen. A manly protest was en- 
tered by sixteen peers, whose titles deserve 
to be recorded. They were 

Leinster (by proxy), Baltinglass, 
"WestmeatU, Mount-CasheU, 



Lanesborough, 

Shannon, 
Mornington, 

Lisle, 

Powerscourt, 
Charlemont, 



Mi lira (by proxy), 

Longford, 

Louth, 

Bective, 

Molesworth, 

Bellamont. 




In this session Lord Townshend proved, by 
hi^ two-thirds majority on no fewer than 

seventeen divisions, that he could now make 
thai Parliament vote anything he ordered, 
whether in matter of opinion or matter of 
fact lie chose that there should be no 
parliamentary inquiry, this time, into finan- 
ces and pensions, and accordingly there was 
not. It appears evident, from the arguments 
of the still uncomrpted Patriots of the 
House of Commons, from the protest of the 
sixteen peers, from the state of the national 
accounts still upon record, and from other 
historical documents, that the national debt 
of Ireland verv heavily accumulated during 
the administration of Lord Townshend; yet 
we find, that after the experience, which two 
years and a quarter had given him of the 
inadequacy of the fiscal resources of that 
kingdom to answer his new plan of keeping 
up the English interest, he refrained from 
calling on the Commons for any supplies, 
alleging in his speech t<> Parliament, on the 
26th *•( February, 1771, that with very 
strict economy, the duties granted last ses- 
sion would be sufficient to answer the cx- 
peie-es v( his majesty's government; and 
therefore be would a^k no further supply. 

The confidence with which Lord Towns- 



hend met the Parliament in October, 1771, 
was strongly displayed in his speech. " My 
experience," said his excellency, " of your 
attachment to his majesty's person, and of 
your zeal for the public service, affords mo 
the best-grounded hopes, that nothing will be 
wanting on your part to co-operate with his 
majesty's gracious intentions to promote 
the welfare and happiness of this kingdom, 
and when to this consideration I add my 
remembrance of your kind regard for the 
ease and honor of my administration, I feel 
the most sensible pleasure in the present 
opportunity, which his majesty has given 
me, of meeting you a fourth time in Parlia- 
ment." Notwithstanding his boasted econ- 
omy, which prevented his application to the 
Commons for any further supply last session, 
be now told them " that it was with concern 
that he must ask a sum of money to dis- 
charge the arrears already incurred on his 
majesty's establishments, but that they 
would find they had been unavoidable; for 
that the strictest economy had been used." 
etc. Another part of the lord-lieutenant's 
speech on the opening of this Parliament, 
referred to the illegal associations and out- 
rages of the " Hearts of Steel " in the north 
of Ireland. The violence of these people 
had greatly increased and extended to other 
countries than those in which the society 
had first appeared. They exacted oaths by 
force, maltreated obnoxious individuals, and 
destroyed houses. Some of them were 
taken and tried at Carrickfergus ; but wheth- 
er from want of evidence, from fear of in- 
curring the resentment of the populace, or 
from partiality in the witnesses and the jury, 
they were acquitted. On this account the 
legislature passed an act, by which all per- 
sons indicted of such offences were ordered 
to be tried in counties different from those 
in which the excesses were committed. In 
consequence, several of the Steel Boys 
against whom examinations had been taken, 
were carried to Dublin and put upon their 
trial. l!ut so strong was the prejudice con- 
ceived against this new law, that no jury 
there would find any of them guilty. It 
will be remembered that these rioters were 
all Protestants, as were also all the jurors 
who tried them. If they had been Catho- 
lics, there would have been no difficulty in 






f* 





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f5Z« 



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m. 




vindicating the law. The obnoxious act, 
however, was repealed, ami after that many 
convictions and executions took place. The 
effects, not of the riots, but of the oppres- 
sions which produced them, were for a long 
time prejudicial to the country, and the 
emigration to America was renewed to a 
greater extent than ever before. 

The session passed in an unbroken series 
of servile divisions in favor of every thing 
the Castle wished ; against every thing the 
Castle disliked. In the address to the king 
occurred these words, " We are fully persua- 
ded that the support of your majesty's gov- 
ernment is the great and firm basis of the 
freedom and happiness of this country." A 
Patriot ventured on an amendment, that 
before the word support, the word constitu- 
tional should be inserted ; it was negatived 
by a vote of eighty-eight against thirty-six. 

During this administration we find by the 
journals mentioning the tellers upon the 
different divisions, that three of the most 
forward and couslant supporters of every 
government question were Mr. Monk Mason, 
Mr. Foster, and Mr. Fitzgibbon ; and the 
truth or falsity of the propositions little 
availed, provided it were made a Govern- 
ment question. Thus besides the instances 
already adduced, we find upon the journals 
(8 vol. iii.) the following resolution nega- 
tived on the 8th of March, 17CG : "That it 
be resolved, that the office of a commissioner 
of his majesty's revenue would be better 
executed by a person resident in this king- 
dom, than by an absentee." During this 
session of 1771, died Dr. Lucas, whom, from 
h:s first entrance into political life, no prom- 
ises or offers could seduce from untainted 
patriotism. The citizens of Dublin erected 
his statue in the exchange. The remainder 
of Lord Towushend's administration passed 
over without any notable incident. No 
legislative measure was adopted either for 
or against the Catholics, but his lordship 
could not retire from a situation which he 
had held in Ireland for five years without 
giving some proof of his attachment to the 
Protestant religion. 

A provision had been made by the 8th 
of Anne, that every Popish priest, who 
should become Protestant, and be approved 
of as a convert, should have £30 yearly 



for his maintenance, until provided for l>y 
some ecclesiastical preferment beyond that 
amount. But by an act of this session it wa* 
recited, that it had been found by experience, 
that the former act had not answered the 
purposes intended, especially as the provi- 
sion made as aforesaid for such Popish priestt 
is in no respect a sufficient encouragement for 
Popish priests to become converts ; it was 
therefore enacted, that .£40 should in future 
be allowed annually, in lieu of £30 to every 
Popish priest converted. The multiplica- 
tion of these allowances up to the height of 
the most proselytizing zeal could not inter- 
fere with the civil list of pensioners, as 
these spiritual douceurs were to be levied on 
the inhabitants of the district, wherein the 
convert last resided. These additional pit- 
tances of £10 were called by the Irish, 
Townshcnd's golden drops. They were not 
found more efficacious than the former pre- 
scription. 

This act for the encouragement of converts 
to the Protestant religion was also in some 
measure deemed necessary to counterbalance 
the effects of another act made in the same 
session, supposed to be very favorable to the 
Catholics, and which in times of less liberal- 
ity had been repeatedly thrown out of Par- 
liament, as tending to encourage Popery to 
the detriment and prejudice of the Protest- 
ant religion. This was An Act to encourage 
the reclaiming of unprofitable Bogs, and re- 
cites that there were large tracts of deep 
bogs in several counties of the kingdom, 
which in their then state were not only un- 
profitable, but by their damps rendered the 
air unwholesome; and it had been found 
by experience, that such bogs were capable 
of improvement, and of being converted 
into arable or pasture land, if encourage- 
ment were given to the lower class of peo- 
ple to apply their industry to the reclaiming 
of them. It therefore enacted, that not- 
withstanding the laws then in force, any 
Catholic might be at liberty to take a lease 
of fifty plantation acres of such bog, and 
one half an acre of arable land adjoining 
thereto, as a site for a house, or for the pur- 
pose of delving for gravel or limestone, for 
manure, at such rent as should be agreed 
upon between him and the owner of the 
soil, as also from ecclesiastical or bodies cor- 



^ 





%\ 



(J 1 -' -^''U.ftttt'.sd!, 





rp — "v^vv 









BILL TO ALLOW PAPISTS TO RECLAIM BOGS. 



113 



porate; and for further encouragement, the 

tenant was to be free fur the first seven 
years from all tithes and cesses; but it was 
provided, that if half of the bog demised 
were not reclaimed at the end of twenty- 
one years, the lease should be void ; and no 
bog was to be considered unprofitable, unless 
the deptli of it from the surface, when re- 
claimed, were four feet at least ; and no 
person was to be entitled to the benefit of 
the act, unless he reclaimed ten plantation 
acres; and the act was not to extend to any 
bog within one mile of a city or market 
town. 

The provisions of this act give us a clear- 
er idea than any labored disquisition could 
do, of the depressed condition of the Cath- 
olics of that day, and of the manner in which 
they were regarded by the colonists — " Pa- 
triots" and all. 

Lord Townshend's administration was 
drawing to a close; and he had done his 
British errand well. No viceroy had yet 
succeeded in establishing in Ireland such 
profound demoralization and debasement. 

The baneful example of the chief gover- 
nor's marshalling the ranks of Parliament 
encouraged the already too deeply rooted 
principle of despotism throughout the nation. 
Not only the great lords and real owners of 
land exercised in general a most ferocious 
rule over their inferiors ; but that obnoxious 
race of self-created gentlemen, whose conse- 
quence and virtue consisted in not being 
Papists, and whose loyalty was mere lust 
for persecuting and oppressing them, were 
uncontrollable in their petty tyranny. Even 
the lord-lieutenant was so sensible of it, that 
being resolved to pardon a Catholic gentle- 
man unjustly found guilty, he withdrew the 
hand of merry, with this reflection : " I see 
them resolved upon his blood, so he may as 
well go now." 

In his farewell speech to Parliament, this 
able British agent sarcastically complimented 
the miserable crew, over whom he had so 
often shaken his whip — "I have upon every 
occasion endeavored, to the utmost of my 
power, to promote the public service, and I 
feel the most perfect satisfaction in now re- 
pealing to you my acknowledgments for the 
verv honorable manner in which (after a 
residence of near five years amongst you) 
1ft 



you have declared your entire approbation 
of my conduct. Be assured that I shall 
always entertain the most ardent wishes for 
your welfare, and shall make a faithful rep 
resentation to his majesty of your loyalty 
and attachment to his royal person and gov- 
ernment." 

On the whole, we cannot but acquiesce in 
the cruel judgment passed upon the Irish 
Parliament by the worthy Dr. Campbell,* 
at the moment when Lord Townshend re- 
tired, and gave place to his successor, Lord 
Harcourt — "Lord Harcourt then found the 
Parliament of Ireland as obsequious as that 
of Great Britain." It would be impossible 
to use a stronger expression. 

When Lord Harcourt assumed the gov- 
ernment, in October, 1772, he had little to 
do but to continue the system which his 
predecessor had with so much perseverance, 
difficulty, and charge to the finance, regu- - 
larly established, according to his instruc- 
tions from the British cabinet. In order, 
therefore, to give continuance and stability 
to the new English interest, which had been 
raised upon the partial destruction of the Irish 
oligarchy, as Lord Clare observed, a man 
was chosen of amiable character, easy dis- 
position, and of no other ambition than to 
move by the direction, and thus acquire the 
approbation of his immediate employers. 
With the active labor of office, he considered 
that he also threw the burden of responsi- 
bility upon his secretary. He had been 
nearly twelve months in the government of 
Ireland before he met the Parliament, on 
the 12th of October, 1773. 

The first stand made by the Patriots was 
upon an alarm at the intention of Govern- 
ment, in layiug the public accounts before 
the House, to hold back some of the docu- 
ments which would too palpably bring to 
light the means used by the last viceroy for 
insuring a majority to do the king's business. 
After the House had ordered the different 
accounts and estimates to be laid before it, 
an amendment was proposed to add these 
words: "As far as there are materials for 
that purpose." A division took place, and 

* " Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland.'" 
This is the work of an honest and liberal man, 
though not so valuable as the Tour of 
Young. 







^3 



MK 



x 





ESN 



tlie duty on tea, in the year 177U. The 
question between tlie mother-country and 
the colonies being thus reduced to a matter 
of threepence per pound on tea, the colo- 
nists being once aroused, having laid down 
the principle, " No taxation without repre- 
sentation," would not pay that threepence. 
A year after Lord Hareourt came to Ire- 
land as viceroy, the people of Boston emptied 
a cargo of taxed tea into the harbor of that 
port; and in the course of the following 
year, 1774, Edmund Burke made one of his 
first celebrated speeches, in favor of a repeal 
of the tea duty, in the British Parliament. 
The motion had been made by Mr. Fuller, 
member for Rye, but failed, though it was 
supported by the eloquence of Burke ; and 
the House, we are told, was very much 
amused and delighted by the ingenious 
declamation of that extraordinary orator, 
while he eulogized his friend, Lord Rock- 
ingham and his government, and ridiculed 
in his peculiar style the present cabinet — ■ 
"An administration so checkered and speck- 
led, a piece of joinery so crossly indented 
and whimsically dovetailed ; a cabinet so 
variously itdaid, such a piece of diversified 
mosaic, such a tessellated pavement without 
cement, here a bit of black stone, there a 
bit of white," etc. But though there was 
much laughter and cheering, the motion to 
repeal the tea duty was lost ou a division of 
184 against 51. If it be any comfort to us, 
the fact is certain, that the British Parlia- 
ment of that day was fully as servile as the 
Irish, and very much more stupid. 

It was evident that the last resort of war 
hail nearly arrived ; and the very strong 
analogies which existed between the Ameri- 
can colonies and the Irish colony were quite 
sufficient to occasion in the latter country 
not only an intense interest, but a deep 
sympathy also in the American struggle. 
The situation of the two countries was not 
indeed precisely alike. The North Ameri- 
can colonies had never pretended to be a 
kingdom, as the English colony in Ireland 
did. Ireland was not taxed absolutely 
without representation, although the de- 
pendent position of her Parliament, under 
Povnings' Law, made her representation quite 
Americans had caused the British ministry illusory for any efficient security. The 
to relinquish these port duties also, except j American colonists were then about three 



amendment was carried by 88 against 
ins it was left in the discretion of 

clerks, or rather of the Government, to 
bring forward or hold back what materials 
they chose. 

Lord Harcourt's administration is remark- 
for the first proposal to impose an 
absentee-tax on non-resident Irish landlords. 
This proposal came from the crown ; and it 
was to the effect that a tax of two shillings 
in the pound should b'e laid on the net rental 
of landed property in Ireland, to be paid by 
all persons who should not reside in that 
kingdom for six months in each year, from 
Christmas, 1773, to Christmas, 1775. The 
proposal, being against the interest of Eng- 
land, was evidently not sincere on the part 
pf Government : all officials were left at per- 
fect liberty to support it or not : the interest 
of the gtvat landlords was against it; and 
the only wonder was that it was defeated 
by so small a majority, 122 against 102. 

But we have now arrived at an epoch in 
tlw> history of the world, from which many 
things in modern history take their departure. 
It has been thought needful to go into some 
detail to show the miserable and abject con- 
dition of Ireland at this precise period, in 
order to make more apparent the wonderful 
change soon produced by the reflection and 
reverberation of the great American revolu- 
tion. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

1774—1777. 
American affairs — 'Comparison between Ireland nnd 
the Colonies — Contagion of American opinions in 
Ireland — Paltry measure of relief to Catholics — 
Congress at Philadelphia — Address of Congress 
to Ireland — Encouragement to Fisheries — 4,n00 
"armed negotiators " — Financial distress — First 
Octennial Parliament dissolved — Oral tan — Lord 
Buckingham, Viceroy — Successes of the Ameri- 
cans. 

The American "Stamp Act" had been 
passed in 1765. just while the Irish Parlia- 
ment was in the midst of its struggle for 
limited Parliaments and against the pension 
list. The next year the Stamp Act had 
been repealed, but had been soon followed 
by the attempt to impose "port duties." 
The steady organized resistance of the 



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millions in number; the Irish, only bait" <i 
million — for the two millions of Catholics 
were not counted as members of the bod}' 
politic Ireland was within easy reach and 
striking distance of the common enemy, 
and America was divided from her by three 
thousand miles of ocean — no trifling advan- 
tage in the days when steam navigation was 
not. Above all, America had this one great 
and signal advantage over Ireland, that the 
colonists, though of different religions, were 
all equal before the law, and felt themselves 
equally concerned in the common interest. 
They were also all armed, and accustomed 
to the use of weapons, while in Ireland the 
penal laws had effectually disarmed and 
reduced to a state of utter helplessness, four- 
fifths of the entire population. 

There was, however, quite sufficient re- 
semblance between the cases of the two 
countries to disquiet Lord North's administra- 
tion very considerably. The minister, there- 
fore, wisely, though silently, instructed the 
lord-lieutenant to endeavor by all means to 
soothe and engage the affections of the Cath- 
olics by gradual relaxations of the rigorous 
code of penalties, pains, and disabilities, 
under « hich they had so long and so patient- 
ly Buffered. As early, therefore, in the 
session as the 10th of November, 1 773,* 
leave was given to bring in the heads of a 
bill to secure the repayment of money that 
should be really lent and advanced by Pa- 
pists to Protestants on mortgages of lands, 
tenements, and hereditaments; and that it 
might be understood to be a Government 
measure of grace, Mr. Mason, Sir Lucius 
O'Brien, and Mr. Langrishe, great and de- 
termined supporters of Government, were 
ordered to bring it in.f On the preceding 
dav leave had been given to bring in heads 
of a bill to enable Papist*, upon certain 
terms and provisoes, to take leases of lives, 
of lands, tenements, and hereditaments; but 
neither one or the other of these bills at that 
lime proceeded. The Irish antipathies to 
Popery, and the reluctance of most men in 
place or power in Ireland to do justice to 
the Catholics, deterred the easy mind of 
Lord Harcourt from pushing forward what 

they persuaded him would create difficulties 
and disturbances in Parliament, and inter- 



El Com. Journ., p. 28. 



t I Lii J., p. 27 



rupt that easy and quiet majority which 
Government then enjoyed, and which he 
had it strongly in command to keep up by 
all possible and prudent means. Although 
the managers of the English interest in 
Ireland (this lord-lieutenant was but their 
passive tool) had blasted these two scions of 
indulgence in their first shoot, yet the British 
ministry sent over positive and uncontrollable 
orders that some act of the legislature should 
positively be passed in that session, of a 
soothing and conciliatory tendency to the 
Catholics, well imagining that the breadth 
of the Atlantic would not prevent the infec- 
tion of political discontent in persons equally 
suffering a deprivation of that nutriment and 
support which their constitution required 
fur the preservation of their existence. On 
the 5th of March, 1774, therefore, leave 
was given to bring in a bill to enable his 
majesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, - 
to testify their allegiance to him ; and as 
the bill remitted no part of the then existing 
code of severity, but accorded merely a 
permission to the Catholics of expressing 
their allegiance to their sovereign, which 
before they had not, it passed both Houses 
without obstruction or opposition. Of this 
measure, paltry as it was, and even insulting, 
when coupled with the rejection of the bills 
to allow Catholics to take mortgages or 
leases, Mr. Plowden observes — " It gratified 
the Catholics, inasmuch as it was a formal 
recognition that they were subjects, and to 
this recognition they looked up as to the 
corner-stone of their future emancipation." 

It cannot fail to strike every reader that 
whatever miserable indulgences, tolerations, 
or connivances were exteuded to the Catho- 
lics during all the era of the penal laws, 
were carefully calculated to prevent them 
from getting any hold upon the land. Thus 
they were now permitted to testify allegiance 
if they chose, but could in no case take a 
mortgage on real estate, because mortgages 
are often foreclosed, and the mortgagee be- 
comes entitled to the land. They might at- 
tend mass, but could by no means, be allowed 
to have a lease for lives. Mr. Burke, in a 
letter written in 1775,* ascribes this policy 
not so much to the greedy determination of 
Protestants to own all the wealth of the king* 

* Letter to an Irish Peer. 



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dom as to mere arrogance and insolence. He 
says, " From what I liave observed, it is pride, 
arrogance, a spirit of domination, and not a 
bigoted spirit of religion, that has caused 
and kept up those oppressive statutes. I am 
sure I have known those, who have oppressed 
Papists in their civil rights, exceedingly in- 
dulgent to them in their religious cereino- 
nies; and who wished them to continue, in 
order to furnish pretences for oppression ; 
and who never saw a man by conforming 
escape out of their power, but with grudging 
and regret. I have known men, to whom I 
am not uncharitable in saying, though they 
are dead, that they would become Papists 
in order to oppress Protestants; if being 
Protestants it was not in their power to 
oppress Papists." But whosoever has read 
the narrative of events down to the time at 
which we are now arrived, will scarcely re- 
sist the conclusion that the controlling idea 
in all the policy of the Ascendency was 
simple greediness. 

Meanwhile the dispute with America was 
very fast approaching the arbitrement of 
war. The first general Congress had been 
opened in Philadelphia on the 4th of Sep- 
tember, 1774. All eyes in Ireland were 
turned to this impending struggle, and the 
obvious community of interest which Ireland 
had with those Transatlantic colonies, made 
their ca-e the theme of conversation in 
private circles, as well as of debates in Par- 
liament. The attention of the country was 
still mure strongly aroused when the Con- 
tinental Congress, amongst other forcible 
addresses issued at this time, directed one to 
the "People of Ireland." 

" We are desirous of the good opinion of 
the virtuous and humane. We are peculi- 
arly desirous of furnishing you with the 
true state of our motives and objects; the 
better to enable you to judge of our conduct 
with accuracy and determine the merits of 
the controversy with impartiality and preci- 
sion. Your Parliament had done us no 
wrong. You had ever been friendly to the 
rights of mankind; and we acknowledge 
with pleasure and gratitude that your nation 
has produced patriots who have nobly dis- 
tinguished themselves in the cause of human- 
ity and America." In fact, most of the 
leading members of the opposition in both 



countries (who afterwards composed that 
administration, which put an end to the 
American war) opposed the war upon prin- 
ciple; they inveighed against the unconsti- 
tutional exactions of the ministry, and in 
their debates went very little short of for- 
mally justifying the American rebellion. 
The analogy between America and Ireland 
was too close to pass unnoticed ; and the 
defection of the American Colonies pro- 
duced strong effects upon Ireland. The ex- 
portation of Irish linen for America had 
been very considerable; but now this great 
source of national wealth was totally shut 
up, by an extraordinary stretch of preroga- 
tive. Under the pretext of preventing the 
Americans from being supplied with provi- 
sions from this country, an embargo was laid 
on the exportation of provisions from Ire- 
land, which in prejudicing that kingdom, 
served only to favor the adventures of Brit- 
ish contractors. This embargo, conjoined 
with other causes, which were invariable 
and permanent, produced the most melan- 
choly effects. Wool and black cattle fell 
considerably in value, as did also land ; and 
rents in many places could scarcely be col- 
lected, so much was public credit essentially 
injured. In short, it was again judged ne- 
cessary, in presence of these exciting ques- 
tions with America, " to do something for 
poor Ireland," as the phrase then ran. 

The nature of the benefit, however, was to 
be considered, and nothing could seem bet- 
ter adopted, than a donation, which would 
be an advantage instead of a loss to the 
giver. It was not itself very considerable, 
but it might be considered as a beginning; 
and small benefits carry weight with those 
who have not been habituated to great 
favors. It had been shown to the British 
Parliament, that the exports from England 
to Ireland amounted then to £2,400,000 
annually ; besides the latter supported a 
large slan. ling army, at all times ready for 
the defence of the former ; and immense 
sums of her ready cash were spent in England 
by her numerous absontees, pensioners, and 
placemen ; yet by oppressive restrictions in 
trade, Ireland was out off from the benefit of 
her great natural staple commodity, as well as 
excluded from the advantage that she might 
derive from the peculiarity of her situation. 



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The British minister on the 11th of Octo- 
ber, 1775, moved for a committee of the 
who].- House, to consider of the encourage- 
ment proper to be given to the fisheries of 
Great Britain and Ireland.* This attention 
to Ireland was generally approved of, and 
after some conversation on the hardships 
that country suffered, it was proposed by 
Mr. Bnrke to extend the motion, by adding 
the words "trade and commerce;" and 
thereby afford an opportunity to grant such 
relief and indulgence in those exports, as 
might be done without prejudice to Great 
Britain. The minister objected to this ; 
however, the committee in its progress 
granted several bounties to the ships of Great 
Britain and Ireland, for their encouragement 
in prosecuting the Newfoundland fishery ; 
and it was further resolved in favor of Ire- 
land, that it should be lawful to export from 
thence, clothes and accoutrements for such 
regiments on the Lisli establishment, as were 
employed abroad: and also, that a bounty 
of five shillings per barrel should be. allowed 
on all (lax seeds imported into Ireland. This 
last resolution was passed to prevent the 
evils that were apprehended there, from the 
cutting off their great American source of 
supply in that article. Another resolution 
was also passed, by which Ireland was 
allowed to export provisions, hooks, lines, 
nets, and tools for the implements of the' 
fishery. The committee also agreed to the 
granting of bounties for encouraging the 
whale fishery, in those seas that were to the 
southward of Greenland and Davis's Straits 
fisheries: and, upon the same principle, took 
oil' the duties that were payable upon the 
importation of oil, blubber, and bone, from 
Newfoundland, etc. They also took off the 
duty that was payable upon the importation 
of seal skins. 

* An English minister was always obliged to be 
extremely cautious in approaching any measure for 
tin: encouragement of the Irish fisheries. It was 
in the reign of William the Third, that curtain fish- 
crmen in Folkestone and Aldborough, in the south 
: laud, presented mournful petitions to Parlia- 
ment, stating tl al they suffered tk fn"n Ireland, by 
the Irish catching herrings at Waterford and Wex- 
ford I and Bending them to the Straits, and thereby 
forestalling and mining the petitioners 1 markets." 
These impudent fishermen had, us Hutchinson s&) s, 
tn.' hard lot id' having motions which were made in 
their favor, rejected. See the Commerciul Re- 
straints, p. 126. 



A part of the policy of this petty measure 
was to give to Ireland some portion of the ben- 
efits of which the war wotdd deprive America. 
Mr. Burke, on this occasion, while he thanked 
Lord North for the trifling boon to his coun- 
try, took occasion to say "that however 
desirous he might' be to promote any 
scheme for the advantage of Ireland, he 
would be much belter pleased that the bene- 
fits thus held out should never be realized, 
than that Ireland should profit at the expense 
of a country which was, if possible, more 
oppressed than herself." 

But, strong as was the sympathy between 
Ireland and America, and earnestly as the 
mass of the people — both Catholic and Pro- 
testant — wished success to the patriotic 
colonists, the Government was determined to 
place the two oppressed countries as far as 
possible in a position of, at least, apparent 
antagonism. With this view, Lord Har- 
court, in the year 1775 — just as hostilities 
had commenced at Lexington — demanded 
the services of four thousand men, out of the 
twelve thousand which then constituted the 
effective force of regular troops in Ireland, 
to be dispatched to America, for duty there. 
At the same time, the lord-lieutenant said 
it was his gracious Majesty's intention to 
supply the place of the four thousand men 
with foreigu Protestant soldiers — in short, 
with Hessians. The Court party, which was 
now, on most questions, irresistible (though 
there were reserved questions, as the origina- 
tion of money-bills), carried the measure for 
granting the four thousand men, on the 
terms that they should not be a charge to 
the Irish revenue while serving abroad. 
There was much objection made by the 
Patriots, to sending these troops " to cut the 
throats of the Americans ; " and there were 
many expressions of sympathy aud respect 
towards the colonists, in the course of the 
debate ; but the measure was carried. Mr. 
Flood, indeed, whose conduct is not clear of 
the imputation of corruption, voted to send 
the four thousand men " as armed negotia- 
tors " — such was his cold and cruel expres- 
sion.* 

* In the tremendous philippic pronounced by 
Grattan against Flood, in 1783, ho tints deals wit.U 
Mr. Flood's vote of 1775 : " With regard to the lib- 
erties of America, which were inseparable from ours, 



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But although the Irish Parliament gave 
these troops, it would not accept the Hes- 
sians. Much to the surprise and embarrass- 
ment of Government, the second proposition 
for introducing foreign troops into that king- 
dom was negatived by near!}' as large a 
majority as the first was carried; namely, 
by 106 against 68. The House accordingly 
voted an address to his excellency, expressive 
of their sense and resolution upon this sub- 
ject, and stating "that, with the assistance 
of the Government, his majesty's loyal peo- 
ple of Ireland may be able so to exert them- 
selves as to make such aid at this juncture 
unnecessary." This conduct of the Irish 
Commons is of singular importance in the 
history of Ireland, inasmuch as it was the 
first patriotic step taken by the representa- 
tives of the people towards attaining that 
state of civil liberty which was obtained by 
the nation in what Mr. Burke called "their 
revolution of 17S - 2." In truth, the address 
to Lord Harcourt, in which the legislature 
promised for the people that they would 
exert themselves, and make foreign soldiers 
unnecessary, already distinctly foreshadowed 
the volunteering. 

When the four thousand troops were des- 
ignated for this American service, an honor- 
able action deserves to be recorded : the 
E.nl of Effingham, finding that the regi- 
ment in which he served was destined to act 
against the colonies, thought it inconsistent 
with his character and unbecoming his dig- 
nity to enforce measures with his sword, 
which he had condemned in his legislative 
capacity. He therefore wrote a letter to 
the Secretary at War, resigning his com- 
mand in the army, and stating his reasons 
for it. This conduct rendered that noble- 
man extremely popular, and the city of 



I will suppose this gentleman to have been an ene- 
my decided and unreserved ; and that ho voted 
against her liberty, and voted, moreover, for an 
address to send four thousand Irish troops to cut the 
threats of the Americans ; that he called these 
butchers ' armed negotiators ; ' and stood, with a 
metaphor in his month and a bribe in his pocket, 
a champion against the, rights of America, the only 
hope of Ireland, and the only refuge of the liberties 
of mankind." (Select Speeches of Grattan, Unity's 
edition, p. 101.) 

The allusion to the "bribe" meant that Flood 
hu.l lately Eusoepted an office under Lord Harcourt's 
administration. 



Dublin, at the Midsummer quarter assem- 
bly, voted public thanks to Lord Effingham, 
"for having, consistently with the principles 
of a true Englishman, refused to draw his 
sword against the lives and liberties of his 
fellow-subjects in America." Soon after an 
address of thanks, in fuller terms, was pre- 
sented to him from the guild of merchants 
of Dublin : the latter also presented au ad- 
dress of thanks to the several peers, who 
(as they said) "in support of the constitu- 
tion, and in opposition to a weak and wick- 
ed administration, protested against the 
American Restraining Bills." This address, 
with the several answers of the lords to 
whom it was presented, appeared at that 
time in the public papers, and produced a 
very strong sensation throughout the na- 
tion. But on the other hand, we find tli.it 
great Irish W T hig, Lord Rawdon, afterwards 
Lord Moira, serving zealously in America 
against the rebels: and it is not without a 
feeling of shame that Irishmen can ever 
read on that same list the name of Lord 
Edward Fitzgerald. 

The remainder of Lord Harcourt's admin- 
istration was occupied mainly with parlia- 
mentary troubles about money bills. Heads 
of a bill were sent to England granting cer- 
tain duties for the public service. The bill 
was altered by the Privy Council, and when 
it came back it was rejected on that express 
ground. The Patriotic party, then, finding 
themselves supported on these financial 
questions by several members on the oppo- 
site side of the House, determined to try 
their strength upon a motion for an address 
to the king, setting forth in candid and 
striking terms the unhappy state of the na- 
tion. This motion was made two days be- 
fore the end of the session. The address, 
after the usual preamble declaring loyal 
duty and devotion, stated that at the close 
of the last war the debt of the nation did 
not exceed £521,161 16s. Qd.: that after a 
peace of ten years the debt was found to be 
£994,890 10s. 10c/.— "a circumstance so 
alarming and insupportable to his people, 
that they determined with one voice to put 
an end to the pernicious practice of accu- 
mulating debts, and they thought it their 
duty to- accomplish that necessary end by 
first endeavoring to raise the revenue of the 



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kingdom to an equality with the establish- 
ment." They saii.1 that econoiiiv was prom- 
ised; that there had been no economy, but 
a continual increase in the expenses. They 
added, that could they neglect the most es- 
sential interests of themselves, their constit- 
uents, and their posterity, still their duty to 
his majesty would prevent them from suf- 
fering the resources of his majesty's power 
and dignity to dwindle and decay; and that 
they were the more necessitated to make 
that earnest application, because the evils 
they Buffered were not temporary or occa- 
sional; because they could not attribute 
them to any physical evil, or proud national 
exertion, but to a silent, wasting, and invisi- 
ble cause, which had injured the people, 
without adding strength to the crown. That 
they therefore performed that indispensable 
duty of laying their distresses at the foot 
of the throne, that history might not report 
them a nation which in the midst of peace, 
and under a gracious king, equally ready to 
warn and relieve, proceeded deliberately to 
their own ruin, without one appeal to the 
wisdom which would have redressed them. 
And so they appealed from the tempo- 
rary expedients of his majesty's ministers, 
to his own wisdom and virtues, and to that 
permanent interest which his majesty had, 
and ever would have, in the welfare of his 
people. 

This address was extremely respectful, 
even to servility. Hut though it did not 
mention the exorbitant pension-list, nor the 
universal corruption and bribery which then 
were carried on by means of the public 
money; it told too much truth, and was too 
Undeniable to be endured. Therefore the 
Government made a point of defeating it, 
and succeeded. An address was carried in 
its place, thanking the lord-lieutenant '"for 
his prudent, just, and wise administration." 

Tiie 6rs( Octennial Parliament had scarce- 
ly lived lour years, when the British cabinet 
found it expedient that it should lie dissolved. 

Tins Parliament had, during the last session, 
in two instances opposed their mandates, 
and when summoned 10 attend the House 
of Peel's, the Commons, through their 
Speaker, made a just but ungracious and in- 
effectual representation of the state of that 
nation- These symptoms of independence 



' 



alarmed the Government, and created a 
diffidence in the steadiness of those who had 
enlisted under their banners. They looked 
to more steady submission in a future Par- 
liament, and dissolved the present. Mr. ' &? 
Perry was re-clocted Speaker by a majority 
of 141 to DS. The lord-lieutenant did not 
meet the new Parliament, which was con- 
vened in June, 1776, pro forma, and by 
several prorogations went over to the 14th 
of October, 1777. This Parliament now 
dissolved is memorable forever in the his- 
tory of Ireland, for the first appearance of 
one of the greatest patriots who ever arose 
for the salvation of any people, and the 
word patriot is not here used in its merely 
colonial sense. This was Henry Grattan. 
He was the descendant of a powerful and 
influential family, of whom Dean Swift had 
said, "the Grattans can raise ten thousand 
men." nis father was recorder of Dublin. 
Henry Grattan entered Parliament as mem- 
ber for Lord Charlemont's borough of Char- 
lemont, on the borders of Armagh and Ty- 
rone; he was then under thirty years of age, 
and in his first Parliament bad been modest 
and retiring, acquainting himself with the 
details of public business, and with the forms 
of the House. It was not until the meeting 
of the new Parliament, under the adminis- 
tration of Lord Buckinghamshire, that 
Grattan's lofty character and splendid 
genius became known to his countrymen 
and to the world. 

The British cabinet was little satisfied 
with the administration of Lord Harcourt ; 
the easy and delicate turn of bis mind ill 
qualified him to support, much less to im- 
prove upon the system of his predecessor, 
but by which alone, to the infamy and mis 
fortune of Ireland, the legislators of that 
kingdom were to be kept steady in their ranks 
under command of the Castle. Although 
Government upon the whole still retained a 
considerable majority, yet several of their 
adherents had occasionally, during the last 
session, proved recreant from their instruc- 
tions ; some had deserted their ranks, many 
amongst them wavered, menaced, and com- 
plained of the terms of their engagements. 
It was therefore resolved to invigorate tho 
new system by the election of a new Parlia- 
ment. For this purpose an unusual, and till 



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that time unprecedented, number of promo- 
tions in the peerage took place in one day. 
It far exceeded the famous promotion of 
twelve in the days of Queen Anne. Five 
viscounts were advanced to earldoms, seven 
barons to be viscounts, and eighteen new 
barons were created in the same day. The 
usual terms of such modern peerages are 
well understood to be an engagement to sup- 
port the cause of their promoters by their 
individual votes in the House of Peers, and 
by those of their substitutes in the House 
of Commons, whose seats are usually settled 
and arranged before they vacate them upon 
their promotions. In short every possible 
precaution was adopted to secure a subser- 
vient Irish Parliament in the crisis which 
had been created by the American war. 
But in the very month of October, in which 
the new viceroy, Lord Buckinghamshire, 
met the new Parliament, General Burgoyne 
was surrendering his army of 7,000 men to 
the Americans at Saratoga. The next year 
France declared for America. The admin- 
istration, therefore, of this new lord-lieuten- 
ant dates a new era in the history of Ireland 
and of the earth. The English colony in 
Ireland suddenly, and for a short time, takes 
the proportions of a nation. 




CHAPTER XVIII. 

1777—1779. 

Buckingham, Viceroy — Misery, and Decline of Trade 
—Discipline of Government Supporters — Lord 
North's first Measure in favor of Catholics — Pass- 
ed in England— Opposed in Ireland— What it 
amounted to— Militia Bill — The Volunteers— De- 
fencelesa State of the Country— Loyalty of the 
Volunteers— Their Uniforms— Volunteers l'rotest- 
ant at. first — Cotholios desirous to join — Volunteers 
get the Militia Arms — Their Aims— Military Sys- 
tem — Numbers in 17S0. 

The earlier years of Lord Buckingham's 
vieeroyaltv were not marked by any very 
striking events, much different from the 
routine of parliamentary business during 
the preceding administrations. When this 
nobleman assumed the reins of government 
the country was still suffering the most 
poignant distress; while the national debt 
and all public charges were accumulating. 
Petitions now poured into both Houses, 



representing the sad facts with regard to 
declining trade. As these petitions cer- 
tainly stated the truth, they are really valu- 
able historical documents, illustrative of the 
period. 

Thus, a petition was presented to the 
House of Commons, from the merchants 
and traders of Cork, setting forth that 
about the month of November, 1770, an 
embargo was laid on all ships laden with 
provisions, and bound from Ireland to for- 
eign countries, which was still continued 
by Government, and had been very strictly 
enforced: that in consequence of that long 
embargo, an extensive beneficial trade, car- 
rid 1 on for several years by that kingdom to 
Fiance, Spain, Portugal, and Holland, for 
the supply of provisions, had been not only 
interrupted, but was in danger of being 
entirely lost ; the petitioners being in- 
formed that the merchants of these coun- 
tries were respectively stocked and provided 
from Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Ham- 
burg, whereby the usual returns to that 
kingdom were discontinued, new enemies to 
our commerce were raised, and our com- 
modities rendered useless and unprofitable. 
That great quantities of salt beef, not fit for 
the use of Government or the sugar colo- 
nies, being made up in that city, and also 
great quantities of beef and butter being an- 
nually brought to that market, these com- 
modities of a perishable nature were there 
decaying for want of a free export, to the 
great injury of the proprietors in particular, 
and of the kingdom in general. That in 
support of these assertions, there then re- 
mained on hand, since the preceding year, 
a very considerable quantity of provisions, 
the property of several merchants in that 
city, not wanted by Government, and there- 
fore without opportunity of sale; and al- 
though a considerable part of the season in 
which those articles were made up and ex- 
ported had already elapsed, no demand 
whatsoever then existed for them, except for 
such quantities as were required by Govern- 
ment alone. That his majesty's revenue, 
which before had received large and con- 
stant supplies from the customs of the city 
of Cork, had decreased in proportion to the 
decay of their trade. That the embargo, 
therefore, at that time not being warranted 




c/*G.CI/LiJMtiL,i.£ 



;S\ 





bv any great, substMtili.il necessity, but, on 
the contrary, restraining and preventing the 
diffusion of trade, was pregnant with the 

most ruinous consequences, not only to the 
Commercial, but also to the landed interests 
of the nation; and therefore the petitioners 
]>i.i\ ed redress. 

The Dublin manufacturers, in their peti- 
tion, had a still sadder narrative to give. 
For example, they declared that there were 
at that moment no fewer than twenty thou- 
sand persons in that one city, artisans, out 
of work, together with their families, whom 
they, the petitioners, were supporting for 
charity by means of a relief association es- 
tablished among themselves; nor was Gov- 
ernment able to make grants, either to pro- 
mote industry or to relieve the national ca- 
lamities. Every branch of the revenue 
failed, and such was the poverty of the na- 
tion, that the militia law could not be car- 
ried into effect. Ireland could not pay her 
forces abroad, and was obliged to borrow 
money from England to pay those at home. 
The Parliament was necessitated to raise 
money at an exorbitant interest; the ex- 
penses iu 1777 having amounted to above 
£80,000 more than the revenue: £166,000 
were therefore borrowed, and attempted to 
be raised iu the old manner upon deben- 
tures at £4 per cent. 

So truly desperate was the financial state 
of Ireland, that, like desponding bankrupts, 
the Commons undertook to grant what 
they knew they had not the means of pay- 
ing. Even the ministerial party coidd not 
be blind to their situation. They would 
not, however, permit any question to be 
brought forward upon the state of the coun- 
try in the Commons, lest too strong resolu- 
tions upon it should be carried, or their 
opposition to them should appear even too 
rank for their own system. They accord- 
ingly had again recourse to the half-measure 
of conveying their imperfect sense of the 
distressful state of the country through their 
Speaker, who, in presenting the first four 
money bills passed in that session, ad- 
dressed himself to the lord-lieutenant in 
very general terms, expressing the unbound- 
ed confidence of the House in his majesty's 
wisdom, justice, and paternal care, and rely- 
ing on the viceroy's "candor and humanity 
16 



to make a faithful representation to his 
majesty of their unshaken loyalty, duty, and 
affection." 

Thus the pitiful and hopeless contest went 
on, upon these questions of the money bills, 
the pension list, and general extravagance of 
Government. The Patriots saw well that 
they could not now hope to carry any really 
important measure, resolution, or address, 
that should be distasteful to the Castle. Yet 
they resolved to put on record, at least once 
in each session, their own theory of the 
evils of the country. Therefore, after the 
speech of the lord-lieutenant, a motion was 
made for a humble address to ,his majesty, 
setting forth that the civil list had doubled 
in twenty years ; that one great cause was 
" the rapid and astonishing growth of the 
pension list;" that ministers had repeatedly 
promised retrenchment, but had, on the 
contrary, continually iucreased their demands, 
and other the like topics. This address was 
negatived by a majority of 77 — so well 
drilled were the ministerial members. 

The alarming news of the French alliance 
with the Americans was communicated to 
Parliament by the lord-lieutenant, in a 
special message ; and this was instantly 
followed by a demand of a new loan of 
£30,000, at six per cent. A few days after, 
came a new message, to apprise them that 
the loan (which they had at once voted to 
raise) could not be effected at six per cent., 
and to demand further action upon their 
part. Thus, as the American war was 
drawing to a close, Ireland had neither 
money nor credit — was absolutely ruled by 
placeholders and pensioners, and was made 
to contribute her last shilling and contract 
further debt, to defeat and ruin a cause 
which nine-tenths of her people felt to be 
Ireland's own cause as well as America's. 

Lord North, who was not wanting in 
sagacity, understood the state of Irish affairs 
very well : he saw the rising impatience of 
the Patriot party in the colony, and knew 
that the contagion of American ideas was 
fast growing and spreading. It was at this 
time, therefore, that the British Ministry 
resolved to take a more important step 
towards conciliation of the Catholics than 
had yet been ventured upon, with the hope 
of actually making the Catholic people a 




K 






X 








niSTOUY OP IRELAND. 



. j-.,f 



fcC? 



^ 



kind of English interest, against the Protest- 
ant Patriots. It was not, indeed, contein- 
[ilated to repeal the whole Penal Code — very 
tar from this — hut to admit certain slight 
relaxations only in certain parts of that 
elaborate system. In the English Parlia- 
ment, first, with the full consent of the min- 
ister, a motion was made for leave to bring 
in a " Bill for repeal of certain of the penal- 
ties and disabilities provided in an Act of 
William the Third," etc On this English 
debate, it. seemed that the Parliament was 
tolerably unanimous iu approbation of a very 
modest, and limited measure in this direc- 
tion ; but it must he remembered that the 
Catholics in England were but one in ten of 
the population ; ami there could not be the 
slightest danger, either to the settlement of 
property or to what Englishmen call the 
freedom of the country, in relieving them 
from at least a few of the most dreadful 
penalties to which they were every 'day 
exposed. Indeed in England there had 
been long a practical toleration of Catholic 
worship ; yet, as Lord Ashburton observed, 
on seconding the motion of Sir George Sav- 
ile, "the mildness of Government had hith- 
erto softened the rigor of the law in the 
practice, but it was to be considered that the 
Roman Catholic priests were still left at the 
mercy of the lowest and basest of mankind ; 
for on the complaint of any informing con- 
stable, the magisterial and judicial powers 
were bound to enforce all the shameful pen- 
alties of the act." In fact, some time before 
this period the penal laws had been enforced 
against two priests, a Mr. Malony and Mr. 
Talbot, the brother of the Earl of Shrews- 
bury. These proceedings had been resorted 
to by a solitary individual, one Pain, a car- 
penter, who having two daughters, little 
business, much bigotry, and more covetous- 
ness, had formed the singular speculation 
of acquiring £20,000 apiece for his daugh- 
ters' fortunes by informations under the 
penal statutes against the Catholics. 

The English bill passed without opposi- 
tion;* but when the new policy of minis- 
ters came to be applied to Ireland, it was a 

* A circumstance which excited the enlightened 
Protestants of London to luake their famous No 
Popery Riot, break jails and burn houses, under the 
Miutly Lord George Gordon. 



different matter. In this island the propri- 
etors of confiscated estates did not yet feel 
quite secure. They had always been accus- 
tomed to believe that the "Protestant Inter- 
est" — that is, their own exclusive possession 
of all the lands and of all the profitable pro- 
fessions and trades — depended upon keeping 
the Catholics completely under foot. There 
was now, indeed, no apprehension of "bring- 
ing in the Pretender;" for the Pretender 
was dead, and had left no heir of the Stu- 
arts: but the settlement of property, the 
exclusive access to the professions, these 
were the truly momentous and sacred inter- 
ests of Protestantism. In Ireland, there- 
fore, though the measure came recommend- 
ed by the example of England, and the ex- 
press wishes of the administration, it was 
warmly contested at every point. On the 
eleventh day after the universal assent to 
Sir George Savile's motion in favor of the 
Roman Catholics of England, Mr. Gardiner, 
on the 25th of May, 1778, made a motion 
iu the Irish House of Commons, that leave 
be given to bring in heads of a bill for the 
relief of his majesty's Roman Catholic sub- 
jects of Ireland, and that Mr. Gardiner, the 
lion. Barry Barry, and Mr. Yelverton, do 
prepare and bring in the same; and it was 
carried in the affirmative. At the same 
time the Presbyterians of Ireland, bearing 
in mind that the sacramental test bad been 
imposed upon their auccstors by their lying 
by, when new severities were imposed upon 
their lloman Catholic brethren, came forward 
on this occasion to avail themselves of the 
first symptoms of tolerauce in an Irish Par- 
liament. Sir Edward Newnham on the same 
day moved that leave might be given to 
bring in heads of a bill for the relief of his 
majesty's subjects the Protestant Dissenters 
of that kingdom : and Sir Edward Newn- 
ham and Sir Boyle Roche were ordered to 
prepare and bring in the same. But wheth- 
er from a conviction that the relief to the 
Dissenters was not of equal urgency with 
that proposed to be granted to the Roman 

Catholics, or that the British Cabinet had 

. ... I 

hitherto expressed no opiuion or inclination 

in their favor, the measure was remitted to! 

another session. 

The Catholic Bill did not propose to 

let the Catholics have arms, horses, educa- 



% 



MSI 





• STztliS .CM.UMBI.'S.g, 



&\ 



3 



m FAVOR OF CATHOLICS. 






tion, a seat in Parliament, a vote at elec- 
tions, a light to sit upon juries, or entrance 
into municipal corporations; but, slender as 
was the concession, it was bitterly opposed, 
and that even by "Patriots," who had no 
wider idea of Patriotism than the measure 
of the Protestant interest. On the 5th June, 
1778, five divisions were had upon the bill 
in the Irish House: each was carried in the 
affirmative, by a small majority ; and on the 
ISth of the same month there were three 
divisions. The Protestants throughout the 
kingdom were taking the alarm, and peti- 
tions were pouring in from the corporations. 
On this 15th of June, for example, a petition 
from the mayor, sheriffs, common council, 
freemen, freeholders, and other Protestant 
inhabitants of the city of Cork, was presented 



against the bi 

On the 16th, on motion to resolve into 
committee of the whole to take the heads of 
the bill into further consideration, the House 
divided, and the motion was defeated. On 
the 18th, the House sat in committee over 
these heads of a bill till three o'clock in the 
morning, and on the 19th till four o'clock. 
At last, on the 20th, Mr. Gardiner was 
ordered to attend his excellency the lord- 
lieutenant with the said heads of a bill, and 
desire the same might be transmitted into 
Great Britain in due form. Thus, after the 
severest contest, with the full and unequivo- 
cal approbation of Government, the general 
support of the Patriots, and the unanimous 
accord of the British legislature in a similar 
indulgence to the Roman Catholics of Eng- 
land, were these heads of a bill carried 
through the Irish House of Commons by 
tii.' small majority of nine. Upon the third 
''•"ling of this bill in the House of Lords, 
tli.' contents with their proxies were 3G, and 
the not contents were 12. On the 14th of 
August the lord-lieutenant put an end to the 
session. 

The British ministry soon saw cause to 
extend their policy of conciliation, and to 
assent to some very trilling relaxations of 
Hi.' restrictions upon Irish trade and com- 
merce. Some intelligent and patriotic Eng- 
lishmen, Lord Ncwhaven and the Marquts 
"I' Rockingham amongst the number, pressed 
on the Parliament of England the propriety 
of grautiiig to the Irish nation the libertj 




of exporting their produce, with the extra- 
ordinary exemption of their woollens, which tf 
formed a principal ingredient. Lord Wey- h JKa\| 
mouth, however, resisted so dangerous a M S r /^ 
concession to the claims of Ireland ; and the I <& f M 
only compromise which was effected was an 
Export Pill, with the special exception ot 
woollens and cottons. The Bristol mer- 
chants, who appear through the whole his- 
tory of English avarice and tyranny to have 
been influenced by a policy pre-eminently 
mean, selfish, and grasping— the genuine 
spirit of paltry trade— went so far as to heap 
insults on their representative, Edmund 
Burke, for supporting the measure. 

In the mean time the Irish Parliament, in 
its session of 1788, had passed a "militia 
bill," to authorize the formation of volunteer 
forces for defence of the country. French 
and American privateers were sweeping the 
seas and the British channel : the wide ex- 
tent of the Irish coast was left exposed with- 
out defence, and there began to be very 
general alarm in the seaport towns. Mr. 
Flood had formerly proposed a national 
militia, but the idea was not then favored 
by the Government, and it failed. The 
militia bill of this year was not opposed by 
the administration; probably they liitle 
thought to what proportions the" militia 
would develop itself, and how tar it would 
extend its aims ; but it immediately occurred 
to the Patriots, that while the English Par- 
liament was peddling and higgling over the 
miserable and grudging relaxations of Ire- 
land's commercial restraints, here was a 
gracious opportunity presenting itself for 
exercising such a resistless pressure upon ^ § fO^ 
England, in her hour of difficulty and danger I '«5§V] 

(England's difficulty being then, as always, 
Ireland's opportunity), as would compel her 
to yield, not only a free-trade, but a free Par- 
liament: and the former, they knew, would 
never be fully assured without the latter. \\M 
It was now that public spirit in Ireland, 
instead of colonial, began to be truly national, 
and this chiefly by the strong impulse and 
inspiration of Henry Grattan, who saw, in 
the extension of the volunteering spirit, a 
means of combining the two discordant ele- 
ments of the Irish people into one nation, 
and elevating the Catholics to the rank of 
citizens, not by the insidious " boons " of 



■''- ■is^^rM.\uL\i\.$.i*. 





& 



':■'- 






HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



jt i 




the English, but through the cordial com- 
bination and amalgamation of the Irish for 
their common defence. 

It was for some months anxiously con- 
sidered and debated at the Castle whether 
the forces which were to ba raised, under 
the new law, were to be a true militia, and 
therefore subject to martial law, or to be 
composed of independent volunteer com- 
panies, choosing their own officers. But 
this question was soon settled by the people 
themselves, who were rapidly forming them- 
selves into the latter kind of organization, 
and who evidently felt that they were arm- 
ing, not so much against the foreign enemy 
as against the British Government. 

The volunteering began at Belfast. In 
August, 1778, the people of that town were 
alarmed by stories of privateers hovering 
near: they remembered their imminent 
peril at the time of Thurot's expedition, and 
at once began to organize and arm volunteer 
companies, as they had done before on that 
memorable occasion. At the same time 
the "sovereign" of the town, Mr. Stewart 
Burke, wrote to the Irish Secretary, urging 
that some troops should be sent down, lie 
received this answer — 

" Dublin Castle, August \ilh, 1778. 

"Sir: — My Lord-Lieutenant having re- 
ceived information that there is reason to 
apprehend that three or four privateers in 
company may in a few days make attempts 
on the northern coasts of this kingdom; by 
his excellency's command, I give you the 
earliest account thereof, in order that there 
may be a careful watch, and immediate in- 
telligence given to the inhabitants of Bel- 
fast, in case any party from such ships 
should attempt to land. 

"The greatest part of the troops being 
encamped near Clonmel and Kinsale, his ex- 
cellency can at present send no further mili- 
tary aid to Belfast than a troop or two of 
horse, or part of a company of invalids ; and 
his excellency desires you will acquaint me 
by express whether a troop or two of horse 
can be properly accommodated iu Belfast, 
so long as it may be proper to continue 
them in that town, iu addition to the two 
troops now there. I have, etc., 

"Richard Heron." 




This is but one of many communications 
which passed at the time between the Gov- 
ernment and the authorities of Belfast. In 
most of them, the former express their sat- 
isfaction at the spirit of the volunteer com- 
panies then formed or about to be formed ; 
with no sincerity, as we shall see pres- 
ently. 

It was evident, then, that the Govern- 
ment was in no condition to defend Ireland, 
if Ireland had really been menaced with in- 
vasion; and therefore quite as little in a 
condition to resist a great national military 
organization, no matter what form that 
might assume. Iu fact, after the example 
of Belfast, the whole country now rushed to 
arms. It was a scene of wild and noble 
excitement. Crowds thronged the public 
places of resort, anxious and resolved : iu 
every assembly of the people the topic was 
"defence of the country;" and ^ if there 
were many who from the first felt that the 
country had but one enemy in the world 
from whom it needed defence (that is, Eng- 
land), the reflection only heightened their 
zeal in promoting the national armament. 
On the 1st December, 1778, the people of 
Armagh entered into voluntary armed asso- 
ciations, and offered the command to Lord 
Charlemont. lie at first refused; because, 
as lord-lieutenant of the county, he might 
at any time be called on to command the 
militia: but his lordship soon saw that vol- 
unteering was the irresistible order of the 
day; and that not to be a Volunteer would 
soon amount to beiug nobody at all in Ire- 
land. Probably, also, he was influenced by 
the more powerful will and deeper sagacity 
of his friend Grattan ; and in January, 1779, 
he assumed command of the Armagh Volun- 
teers.* 

The Government of the day soon saw 
itself powerless to resist this potent move- 
ment. It, however, concealed its apprehen- 
sions for the present, under the mask of 
gratitude for the loyal zeal of the people. 
Loyal as undoubtedly the institution was — 
loyal even to the prejudices which Goveru- 

* Stuart's History of Armagh. MacNevin's Vol- 
unteers. Plovden. Hardy's Oharlemont. Sir Jo- 
nah Barrington, Rise and Fall, etc. The authorities 
for the history of the Volunteers are innumerable, 
and will ouly bo cited for some special fact. 



A 







9ft 



W'fii 





1 IrV 






rfe^? 



mcnt must have wished to foster, for one of 
their earliest celebrations was the Battle of 
the Bbyne* — the English interest trembled 
at what to their appalled imagination seemed 
to be the infancy of revolution. Thus, 
whilst the wretched Government, unable to 
discharge its functions, and resigning the 
defence of the country to the virtue and 
valor of her children, looked on in angry 
amazement at the daily increasing numbers 
of the Volunteers, their training into dis- 
cipline, their martial array and military cel- 
ebrations, the great officers of the execu- 
tive were planning how best they might 
stifle in its birth the warlike spirit of the 
people. 

In May, 1779, we find a letter of Lord 
Buckinghamshire to Lord Weymouth, which 
clearly proves the fears and hypocrisy of 
Government, and the alarming progress of 
the armament: 

"Upon receiving official intimation that 
the enemy meditated an attack upon the 
northern parts of Ireland, the inhabitants 
of Belfast and Carrickfergus, as Government 
could not immediately afford a greater force 
for their protection than about sixty troopers, 
armed themselves, and by degrees formed 
themselves into two or three companies; 
the spirit diffused itself into different parts 
of the kingdom, and the numbers became 
considerable, but in no degree to the amount 
represented. Discouragement has, however, 
been given on my part, as far as might be 
without offence, at a crisis when the arm and 
good-will of every individual might have 
been wanting for the defence of the state." 

Lord Buckinghamshire, in another part 
of the same letter, attributes the rapid in- 
crease in the. ranks of the Volunteers to an 
idea that was entertained amongst the peo- 
ple that their numbers would conduce to 
the attainment of political advantages for 
their country. 

All motives conduced to the same end, 
and that end — the armed organization of 
Ireland — was rapidly approaching. The 



* July 1, 1779. — "Our three volunteer companies 
Mini ted m their uniform with orao<;o cockaJes, and 
fire.l three volleys with iheir usual Bteadiueas and 
regularity, in cotftmemoration of the Battle of the 
Boytle." — Hist. Collections relative to the Town of 
Belfast, 



fire of the people and their anxiety to enter 
the ranks of the national army may be 
judged from the fact, that in September, 
1779, the return of the Volunteers in the 
counties of Antrim and Down, and iu and 
near Coleraine, amounted to: 

Total in the county of Down 2,241 

Total in the county of Antrim 1,474 

In and near Coleraine 210 

3,925 

Of these, the great majority were fully 
equipped and armed — and glittered in the 
gay uniform of the Volunteers. Some few 
companies were, however, unarmed even up 
to a later period, until the pressure on Gov- 
ernment compelled them to distribute the 
arms intended for the militia to worthier 
hands. 

The uniforms of the Volunteers were very 
various, and of all the colors of the rain- 
bow. The uniform of the Lawyers' corps 
was scarlet and blue, their motto, "Pro 
aris et focis ;" the Attorneys' regiment of 
Volunteers was scarlet and Pomoua green; 
a corps called the Irish Brigade, and com- 
posed principally of Catholics (after the in- 
creasing liberality of the day had permitted 
them to become Volunteers), wore scarlet 
and wdiite; other regiments of Irish brigades 
wore scarlet faced with green, and their 
motto was " Vox populi suprema lex est;" 
the Goldsmiths' corps, commanded by the 
Duke of Leinster, wore blue, faced with 
scarlet and a professional profusion of gold 
lace. 

The " Irish Volunteers" were at first a 
Protestant organization exclusively. It was 
only by degrees and with extreme jealousy 
that its ranks were afterwards opened to 
those of the proscribed race. It might 
seem, indeed, that the Catholics would have 
been justified in taking no interest in the 
movement, and that they had little to hope 
from any change. They were not yet 
citizens, and if permitted to breathe in Ire- 
land, it was by couuivauce, and against the 
law. Even the most zealous of the new 
Volunteers, who were now springing to arms 
for defence of Ireland, were, with some 
illustrious exceptions, their most determined 
and resolute foes. But, plunged in poverty 
and ignorance as they were, despoiled of 




- . .- 








Z^£^ 



*? 



ik, and arms, and votes, they yet seem to 
ve felt instinctively that a movement for 
>h independence, it' successful, must end in 
:ir emancipation. They had grown nurne- 
and many of them rich, in the midst of 
persecution ; and, notwithstanding the penal 
ngainsl education, many of the Catholics 
in truth the best-educated and accom- 
plished persons in the island. These instructed 
and thoughtful Catholics could see very well 
— whatGrattan also saw, but what mostCrom- 
wellian squires and Williamite peers could 
not see — that if Ireland should still pretend 
" to stand upon her smaller end," she would 
not long stand against England. Then they 
were naturally a warlike race ; and, it must 
be added to their credit, that the late small 
and peddling relaxations in the Penal Code, 
urged on by the British minister in order 
to conciliate them to the English interest, 
had signally failed. The English interest, 
as they felt, was the great and necessary 
enemy of all Ireland, and of every one of 
its inhabitants, and so it was very soon 
apparent that the armed Protestant Volun- 
teers would have at their back the two 
millions of Catholic Irish. 

There is in the dark records of the de- 
pravity of the Government of that day a 
singular document, which, while it attests 
the patriotism and zeal of the Catholics, 
illustrates the base and vile spirit which 
repelled their loyalty and refused their aid. 
The Earl of Tyrone wrote to one of the 
Beresfords, a member of that grasping pa- 
trician family, which had long ruled the 
country,* that the Catholics in their zeal 
were forming themselves into independent 
companies, and had actually begun their 
organization ; but that, seeing the variety 
of consequences which would attend such 
an event, he had found it his duty to stop 
their movement ! Miserable government — 
unable to discharge its first duty of defence, 
and trembling to depute them to the noble 
and forgiving spirit of a gallant people! 
The Catholics of Limerick, forbidden the 
use of arms, subscribed and made a present 
of £800 to the treasury of the Volunteers. 
Durincr all this time "the Castle" looked 



* May 28, 1779. Grattau's Life: olted by Mac- 
Kevin. 



on in silent alarm. Even so late as May, 
1779, when the Volunteer companies num- 
bered probably tweuty thousand men, the 
lord-lieutenant gravely considered whether 
it were still possible to disperse and disarm 
them-by force. In one of his letters to Lord 
Weymouth* he says — "The seizing of their 
arms would have been a violent expedient, 
and the preventing them from assembling 
without a military force impracticable; for 
when the civil magistrate will rarely attempt 
to seize an offender suspected of the most 
enormous crimes, and wheu convicted, con- 
vey him to the place of execution without 
soldiers; nay, when in many instances per- 
sons cannot be put into possession of their 
property, nor being possessed, maintain it 
without such assistance, there is little pre- 
sumption in asserting, that, unless bodies of 
troops had been universally dispersed, noth- 
ing could have been done to effect this. My 
accounts state the number of corps as not 
exceediug eight thousand men, some without 
arms, and in the whole, very few who are 
liable to a suspicion of disaffection." 

But in the next month, the same viceroy 
communicates to the same minister, that, bv 
advice of the Privy Council of Ireland, he 
had supplied the Volunteers with part of the 
arms intended for the militia. This was 
really giving up the island into the hands 
of the Volunteers. The leaders of that force 
at once felt that they might do what they 
would with Ireland — for a time. After the 
delivery of the arms, the numbers of Volun- 
teers rapidly and greatly increased. f 

But a spirit of great moderation reigned 
over the councils of this armed nation. It 
was, in the hands of those leaders, any thing 
rather than a republican, or agrarian, or 
revolutionary movement. Thus they adopt- 
ed a system of officering their army which 
gave a pledge that no anarchical idea had 
place in their thoughts. The soldiers elected 
their own commanders; and whom, says 
MacNevin, whom did they choose ? " Whom 
did this democratic army select to rule their 
councils and direct their power? Not the 
low ambitious — not the village vulgar braw- 
ler — but the men who, by large possessions, 

* May 24,. 1779. 

t 16,000 stand of arms were delivered to the 
Volunteer:) at this time. 



,s* 






v 



// 







! ' ' .: 




V. 



£p 



r^t 



NUMBERS AND AIMS OF THE VOLUNTEERS 



lofty character, and better still, by virtue 
and by genius, had given to their names a 
larger patent than nobility. Flood and 
Grattan, Charlemont and Leinster — the cho- 
sen men in all the liberal professions — the 
orators who led tbe Patriot party in the 
Commons — the good, the high, the noble; 
these were the officers who held unpurchased 
honors in the Volunteers. We may well 
look back, with mournful pride, through the 
honid chaos where rebellion and national 
ruin rule the murky night, to this one hour 
of glory — of power uncorrupted, and oppor- 
tunities unabuscd." 

It is difficult to arrive at any accurate 
statement of the numbers of the Volunteers 
within the first year of their organization. 
There have been both exaggerative and de- 
preciative estimates. We have seen that 
the lord-lieutenant, in June, 1779, had sup- 
posed their force to be only 8,000; yet in 
the very next month had yielded to them a 
demand which it would have been vitally 
important to the Government to refuse 
them. And as will be always the case, 
where the money of Government can com- 
mand the venal crew of writers, the most 
elaborate falsehood and the most insulting 
ridicule were poured upon the heads of 
those by whose exertions the national cause 
was so nobly maintained. In Lloyd's 
Evening Post, an article appeared on the 
7th of July, stating that the numbers of 
the Volunteers had been monstrously exag- 
gerated; that no call could bring into the 
field twenty thousand men ; that persons of 
all ages were enrolled aud put on paper ; 
that every gentleman belonged to two, aud 
most of them to five or six different corps, 
aud that by this ubiquity and divisibility 
of person, the muster-rolls of the companies 
were swelled. Doubtlessly there was some 
exaggeration in the representation of the 
numbers occasionally made; but a compe- 
tent authority, commenting on this ar- 
ticle, states, that at this time there were 
95,000. 

In the ranks of the Volunteers there 
were, in point of fact, very many Catholics, 



from a very early period of the movement ; 
but they were there by connivance, as they 
were everywhere else. But in the next 
year, after meetings of Volunteers had 
passed resolutions in favor of Catholic 
rights, the young men of that religion began 
to swell the numbers of many corps. Some 
corps were composed altogether of Catho- 
lics: and when the Dungannon Convention 
came, the Volunteer army was at least 
75,000 strong. 

During the summer of 1779 au eveut 
occurred, which immensely stimulated the 
volunteering spirit: — the combined fleets of 
France and Spain entered the Channel in 
overwhelming force, which the British could 
not venture to encounter : the vessels pass- 
ing between England and Ireland were 
placed under the protection of convoys ; 
Paul Jones, with his little squadron, fought 
and captured, within sight of the English - 
coast, the Serapis man-of-war and Scarbor- 
ough frigate, with many vessels under their 
convoy : in short, there was another alarm 
of invasion both in England and in Ireland. 
MacNeviu, in his History of the Volunteers, 
says with a cool naivete which is charming, that 
this " was fortunate for the reputation of the 
Volunteers, for the purpose of establishing 
their fidelity to the original principle of 
their body"— -which principle was defence 
of the country against a foreign enemy. 
Most of the Volunteers knew well that their 
only foreign enemy was England, and that 
Fiance, Spain, and America would have 
been most happy to deliver them from that 
enemy. They knew, also, that the onlv use 
of the Volunteer force, in practice, was 
likely to be the wresting of their national 
independence from England. However, the 
new alarm aided, and seemed to justify, the 
volunteering. Therefore, the delegates of 
125 corps of Volunteers, all of them men 
of rank and character, waited on the lord- 
lieutenant with offers of service "in such 
manner as shall be thought necessary for 
the safety and protection of the kingdom." 
The oft'er was accepted, but very coldly, and 
without naming "Volunteers." 






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CHAPTER XIX. 

1779—1780. 
Free Trade and Free Parliament — Meaning of 
"Free Trade" — Non-importation agreements — 
Rage of the English — Grattan'a motion for free 
trade — Hnssey Burgli — Thanks to the Volunteers 
— Parade in Dublin— Lord North yields — Free 
Trade Act— Next step— Mutiny Bill— The 19th of 
April — Declaration of Bight — Defeated in Parlia- 
ment, but successful in the country — General de- 
termination, — Organizing — Arming — Reviews — 
Oharlemont — Briberies of Buckingham — Carlisle, 
Viceroy. 

To force from reluctant England a Free 
Trade, and the repeal, or rather declaratory 
nullification, of Poynings' Law, which re- 
quired the Irish Parliament to submit the 
heads of their bills to the English Privy 
Council before they could presume to pass 
them — these were, in few words, the two 
great objects which the leaders of the Vol- 
unteers kept now steadily before them. It 
must be here observed that the idea and the 
term "free trade," as then understood in 
Ireland, did not represent what the political 
economists now call free trade. What was 
sought was a release from those restrictions 
on Irish trade imposed by an English Par- 
liament, and for the profit of the English 
people. This did not mean that imports 
and exports should be free of all duty to the 
state, but only that the fact of import or 
export itself should not be restrained by 
foreign laws, and that the duties to be de- 
rived from it should be imposed by Ireland's 
own Parliament, and in the sole interest of 
Ireland herself. This distinction is the more 
important to be observed, because modern 
"free traders" in Ireland and in England 
have sometimes appealed to the authority of 
t lie enlightened men who then governed the 
Volunteer movement as an authority in favor 
of abolishing import and export duties. The 
citation is by no means applicable. 

The first measure to convince England 
that Ireland was entitled to an unrestricted 
trade, was the " non-importation agreement," 
which many of the Voluuteer corps, as well 
as town corporations, solemnly adopted by 
resolutions, during the year 1779. Although 
there were frequent debates in the British 
Parliament this year on the subject of modi- 
lying the laws prohibiting the 



tons, woollens, and provisions, from Ireland, 
yet it was but too plain that the rapacious 
spirit of British commerce, aud the mena- 
cing, almost frantic, opposition given to all 
consideration of such measure, by petitions, 
which sounded more like threats, coming 
from the great centres of trade in England, 
Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Bristol, 
would render all redress hopeless from that 
quarter. The non-importation agreements 
became popular, and the people of many 
towns and counties were steadily refusing to 
wear or use in their houses any kind of 
wares coming from England. The town of 
Galway had the honor of leading the way 
in this movement: the example was im- 
mediately followed by corps of Volunteers 
in many counties ; and as the Volunteers 
were already the fashion, women sustained 
their patriotic resolution, and ladies of wealth 
began to clothe themselves exclusively in 
Irish fabrics. The resolutions are n«t uni- 
form in their tenor. At a general meeting 
of the Freemen and Freeholders of the city 
of Dublin, convened by public notice, these 
resolutions were passed : 

" Resolved, That the unjust, illiberal, and 
impolitic opposition given by many self- 
interested people of Great Britain to the 
proposed encouragement of the trade and 
commerce of this kingdom, originated iu 
avarice and ingratitude. 

" Resolved, That we will not, directly or 
indirectly, import or use any goods or wares, 
tli'' produce or manufactures of Great Britain, 
which can be produced or manufactured in 
this kingdom, till an enlightened policy, 
founded on principles of justice, shall appear 
to actuate the inhabitants of certain manu- 
facturing towns of Great Britain, who have 
taken so active a part in opposing the regu- 
lations proposed in favor of the trade of 
Ireland ; and till they appear to entertain 
seutiments of respect and affection for their 
fellow-subjects of this kingdom." 

Shortly after the assizes at Watcrford, 
the high sheriff", grand jury, and a number 
of the most respectable inhabitants, assembled 
for the purpose of taking into consideration 
the ruinous state of the trade and manufac- 
tures, and the alarming decline in the value 
of the staple commodities of the kingdom ; 



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tli.it they owed their couutry and them- 
selves, to restrain, by every means in tlieir 
power, these g owing evils, they passed and 
signed the following resolutions: 

" Res >lved, Thai we, our families, and all 
whom \v.' can influence, shall, from this day, 
wear and make use of the manufactures of 
t country, and this country only, until 
such tune as all partial restrictions on our 
trade, imposed by the illiberal and contract- 
ed policy "f our sister kingdom, be removed ; 
but if, in consequence ot' this our resolu- 
tion, the manufacturers (whose interest we 
have more immediately under consideration) 
should act fraudulently, or combine to im- 
pose upon the public, we shall hold our- 
selves no longer bound to countenance and 
support them. 

" Resolved, That we will not deal with 
any merchant or shopkeeper who shall, at 
any time hereafter, be detected in imposing 
any foreign manufacture as the manufacture 
of this country." 

Resolutions of this kind became general, 
in consequence of which efforts the manu- 
factures of Ireland began to revive, and the 
demand for British goods in a great measure 
decreased, a circumstance which tended to 

I luce a disposition in Great Britain to 

attend to the complaints of that country, 
different indeed bum that which Ireland 
bad hitherto experienced. 

ie feeling of Government on the subject 
of non-iinportalion was one of great irrita- 
tion, and their partisans in Parliament did 
not hesitate to give bitter utterance to their 
hatred of the Volunteers and of the com- 
meruial movement. Lord Shelburne, in May, 
1779, called the Irish army an "enraged 
nob;" but the phrase was infelicitous, and 
told only half the truth. They were euraged, 
but they were not a mob. They had no 
i ne quality of a mob. They had discipline, 
arm-, and a military system. Their ranks 
were tided with gentlemen, and officered by 
nobles. But such expressions as Lord Shel- 
burne's were of great advantage. They kept 
clearly, in bold relict* the ancient aud irre- 
movable feeling of Englishmen, and the con- 
temptuous falsehood of their estimate of tin- 
Irish people. In the same spirit, the organ 
of Government wrote to the central autho- 
rity iu England on tic- subject <>t the non- 



importation agreement: — "Fur some days 
past, the names of the traders who appea 
by the printed returns of the custom-hous 
to have imported any English goods, hav 
been printed iu the Dublin newspaper. This 
is probably calculated for the abominable 
purpose of drawing the indignation of the 
mob upon individuals, and is supposed to 
be the act of the meanest of the faction.''* 
When the lorddieutenant penned this para- 
graph, he did not, assuredly, remember the 
meanness of the manufacturers and traders 
of his own country, or the measures adopted 
by the English Parliament, at their dicta- 
tion, to crush the trade and paralyze the 
industry of this country. The retaliation 
was just, and no means that could have been 
adopted could equal the atrocity of the con- 
duct of the English towns to the productive 
industry of Ireland. Englishmen had a Par- 
liament obedient to the dictates of the en- 
croaching spirit of English trade — the Irish 
people had not as yet established their free- 
dom, nor armed themselves with the resist- 
less weapon office institutions. They were 
obliged to legislate for themselves, and were 
justified by the exigency in adopting any 
means to enforce the national will. It seems 
strange that it should be necessary to defend 
the measure of holding up to scorn the 
traitors who could expose in their shops 
articles of foreign consumption, every article 
of which was a representative of their coun- 
try's impoverishment' and decay. Cut, the 
English press denounced it as the policy of 
savages, and pointed out the Irish people to 
the contumely of Europe. At the same time, 
the English manufacturers, ever careless of 
present sacrifices to secure permanent ad- 
vantages, flooded the country towns with 
the accumulated products of the woollen 
manufacture, which, owing to the war and 
other causes, had remained on their hands. 
They offered these goods to the small shop- 
keepers at the lowest possible prices, and 
desired them to name their own time for 
pavinent; and they partially succeeded iu 
inducing many of the low and embarrassed 
servitors of trade, through their necessities, 
and by the seductive promise of long credit, to 

* Letter of the lord lieutenant to Lord Wey- 
mouth, May, 177U. 







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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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become traitors to the cause of Irish indus- 
try. The Volunteers and the leaders of the 
movement were equally active on their side. 
The press, the pulpit, and the ball-room 
wire enlisted iu the cause of native indus- 
try. The scientific institutions circulated, 
gratuitously, tracts on the improvement of 
manufacture — on the modes adopted in the 
continental manufacturing districts, and on 
the economy of production. Trade revived; 
the manufacturers who had thronged the 
city of Dublin, the ghastly apparitions of 
decayed industry, found employment pro- 
vided for them by the patriotism and spirit 
of the country ; the proscribed goods of 
England remained unsold, or only sold under 
false colors, by knavish and profligate retail- 
ers; the country enjoyed some of the fruits 
of freedom before she obtained freedom 
itself. 

The session of the Irish Parliament of 
1779-80 had been looked forward to with 
profound interest; and it opened with 
stormy omens. The speech from the lord- 
lieutenant contained more than the usual 
quantity of inexplicit falsehood and diplo- 
matic subterfuge. The address iu reply 
was its echo, or would have been, but that 
Henry Grattan, he who was above all others, 
the man of his day, moved his celebrated 
amendment. The speech of the viceroy 
had alluded with skilful obscurity to cer- 
tain liberal intentions of the king on the 
subject of trade : but there was no promise 
for hope to rest upon : it was vague, and 
without meaning. This was not what the 
spirit of the hour or the genius of the men 
would endure. They felt the time had 
come to strike with mortal blow the whole 
system of English tyranny, and to give free- 
dom and security to the trade and industry 
of Ireland. 

When the speech was read in the Com- 
mons, the English interest anxiously scanned 

the opposition benches. They saw that 

something would be done embarrassing to 
their system and to them; but they could 
lot anticipate the blow that was ready for 
I.'teir heads, or that their fiercest I'oe would 
1..- a placeman in their rank*. An address 
was proposed by Sir Robert Deane, a 
drudge of Government, re-echoing, in Ber- 
ulity, the vague generalities of the speech. 



Grattan then rose to propose his amend- 
ment : — 

" That we beseech his majesty to believe 
that it is with the utmost reluctance we pre- 
sume to approach his royal person with 
even the smallest appearance of dissatisfac- 
tion ; but that the distress of this kingdom 
is such as renders it an indispensable duty 
in us to lay the melancholy state of it be- 
fore his majesty, and to point out wdiat we 
apprehend to be the only effectual means 
of relief; that the constant drain of its 
cash to supply absentees, and the fetters on 
its commerce, have always been sufficient 
to prevent this country from becoming opu- 
lent in its circumstances, but that those 
branches of trade which have hitherto ena- 
bled it to struggle with the difficulties it 
labors under, have now almost totally failed ; 
that its commercial credit is sunk, all its 
resources are decaying rapidlv, and num- 
bers of its most industrious inhabitants in 
danger of perishing for want ; that as long 
as they were able to flatter themselves that 
the progress of those evils might be stopped 
by their own efforts, they were unwilling to 
trouble his majesty upon the subject of their 
distress; but, finding that they increase 
upon them, notwithstanding all their endea- 
vors, they are at last obliged to have re- 
course to his majesty's benignity and justice, 
and most humbly to acquaint him that, in 
their opinion, the only effectual remedy that. 
can be applied to the sufferings of this king- 
dom, that, can either invigorate its credit or 
support its people, is to open its ports for 
the exportation of all its manufactures; that 
it is evident to every unprejudiced mind that. 
Great Britain would derive as much hen. lit 
from this measure as Ireland itself, hut that 
Ireland cannot subsist without it; and that 
ii is with tin- utmost grief they find them- 
selves under the necessity of again acquaint- 
ing his majesty that, unless some happy 
change in the state of it* affairs takes place 
without delay, it must inevitably be reduced 
to remain a burden upon England, instead 
of increasing its resources, or affording it 
the assistance which its natural ti flection for 
that country, and the intimate connection 
be weep their interest-, have always inclined 
it to offer." 

Grattau's speech iu support of the amend- 



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THANES TO THE VOUNIi i RS. 



tnenl must have been badly preserved, for 
wliwt remains bears no proportion to the 
magnitude of the interests, or the absorbing 
nature of the subject. 

To the rage and dismay of Government — 
passions of which unequivocal demonstra- 
tions were given on the ministerial bunches 
— Hussey Burgh, the prime sergeant, one of 
the most eloquent and fascinating men of 
the day, an official of Government, a Btanch 
supporter, one to whom, from the spirit of 
his office, patriotism should have been im- 
possible, moved that "we beg to represenl 
to his majesty that it is not by temporary 
expedients, hut by a free trade alone, that 
this nation is now to be saved from impend- 
ing ruin." This resolution was carried unani- 
mously ; the supporters of Government saw 
thai it was useless to oppose the spirit of the 
Bouse; the nation was standing petitioner 
at their bar for the privileges of nature, 
production and consumption; the Volun- 
teers were drawn up through the streets of 
Dublin, with an intelligible alternative hung 
round the necks of their cannon, " Free 

Trade or ;" and the amendment of 

Henry Grattan, with the improvements of 
Burgh, received on the part of the Patriots 
an exulting support, and on the part of the 
ministers a fearful and angry assent. The 
il iy after this distinguished success, the 
addresses of the Lords and Commons were 
brought up to the Castle ; the streets, from 
the House to the se.it of government, were 
lined with the corps of the Dublin Volun- 
teers, under arm-, who paid military honors 
to the favorite leaders; the city was in a 
tumuli of joy and triumph, contrasting not 
unfavorably with the gloom and irritation 
of the Castle. And that no doubt might be 

entertained of the authors of this important 
movement —that the merit of success should 
be laid at the tight door, thanks to the Vol 
unteers were moved and carried in the Lords 

and Cot lis. The motion in the House 

of Commons was made by Mr. Conolly, 

the head of the Country gentlemen. The 

Duke of I. ei i^ter carried the motion through 
the Lords, with only one dissentient voice, 
I d-Chancellor Lifford, on • of those Eng- 
lish lawyers who ,-ire sent over to Ireland, 
from time to time, t,, occupy the highest 
scats of justice and enjoy the largest emolu- 



ments in th,. country. The lord-lieutenant, 
in writing to Lord Weymouth, complains 
bitterly of these votes; unanimous expres- 
sions as they were of the feelings of 

classes in the state, they appeared in a most 
reprehensible light to the viceroy, who petn- 
lantly wrote home bis complaint that the 
proceeding was occasioned wholly by the 
Duke of Leinster. 

The Government, quite alive to the faet 
that the present posture of affairs resulted 
from the power and determination of the 
Volunteers, set on one of its habitual 
agents to assail them. This was Scott, the 
attorney-general, who afterwards, as Lord 
Clonmel, was, with a few monstrous excep- 
tions, the most inhuman judge that ever 
presided in the shambles of Irish justice. 
lie attacked the Volunteers with an habitual 
vulgar fury— described them by every name 
which the quick invention of a ferocious 
mind could devise; and he was supported 
in his philippic by Sir Henry Cavendish, 
who reminded the. House that the Indepen- 
dents of the past century commenced by 
seeming moderation, but ended by cutting 
off the head of the king : men might creep 
into the Volunteers, who might urge them 
to similar dangerous courses. But Grattan 
repelled the charges against the armv in 
which he was a distinguished soldier — and 
told the legislature that the great, objects 
which they sought could not be obtained by 
the skill, the prudence, or the dexterity of 
300 men, without the spirit mid cooperation 
of 3,000,000. The military associations, he 
said, "caused a fortunate change in the 
sentiments of this House: they inspired us 
to ask directly tor the greatest object that 
ever was set within the view of Ireland — a 
free trade." The spirit in the country well 
replied to the spirit within the walls of the 
House. The Volunteers instructed the rep- 
resentatives lo vote the supplies for no longer 
than six months. They now amounted to 
nearly 50,000 men. Possessed of every 
wonted military attribute, disciplined, and 
well armed, they had other qualities that 
are too often absent, in military organization. 
They were the army of the people; their 
commission included only tie- duties of free- 
born men to fight for liberty and to defend 
a country. Most of their officers were the 







highest blood of an ancient and aristocratic I treat our applications for free trade with 
country — men not alone ennobled by long contempt. When the interests of the Gov- 



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de cent, but by the high qualities of genius, 
wisdom, and integrity. The soldiers were 
the yeomen of the land, having as definite 
au interest, in ber prosperity as the highest 
peer in the service. And all were bound 
together by tin- deepest attachment to the 
liberties of Ireland. They had seen what 
they were able to effect; and as concession 
after concession was wrung from power, the 
bold and sagacious of them determined not 
to rest from their efforts until a free and 
reformed Parliament sat within the walls of 
the Senate Bouse, the permanent security 
and guarantee of freedom. 

Tiicr question of the supplies came before 
the lb.use on the 25th November, 1779. 

The Patriots had determined to withhold 

the grant, or to limit the duration of the 
money bill, until free trade was yielded by 
England. But Scott, the attorney-general, 
endeavored to prove that supplies to pay the 
interest of the national debt, the tontine, and 
the loans, were not supplies to the crown, 
but for the discharge of national responsi- 
bilities. "How tender," said Grattan, " the 
administration is regarding the moneyed in- 
terests of individuals; how little they care to 
risk the ruin of the nation!" The attorney- 
general moved that the supplies should be 
granted for two years; Mr. French moved 
an amendment that they should be granted 

for six months A brilliant debate was the 

consequence; the war of personality, which 
was always carried on with so much vigor 
and genius in the House, never raged with 
fiercer or more splendid power — but the 
great oration of the day was delivered by 
Hussey Burgh, lie said : 

"You have but two nights ago declared 
against, new taxes by a majority of 123, and 
have left, the ministers supported only by 
47 votes; if you now go back, and accede 
to the proposed grant for two years, your 
compliance will add insult to the injuries 
already done to your ill-fated country; you 
strike a dagger in your own bosom, and 
destroy tin- fair prospect of commercial hope, 
because if the minister can, in the course of 
two davs, render void the animated spirit 
and patriotic stability of this House, and 
procure a majority, the British minister will 



eminent and the people are contrary, they 
secretly operate against each other — such a 
state is hut smothered war. I shall be a 
fiend alike to the minister and the people, 

a irding as I find their desires guided by 

justice ; but at such a crisis as this the 

1 pie must be kept in good temper, even 

to the indulgence of their caprices. 

"The usurped authority of a foreign Par- 
liament has kept up the most wicked laws 
that a zealous, monopolizing, ungrateful 
spirit could devise, to restrain the bounty of 
providence and enslave a nation whose in- 
habitants are recorded to be a brave, loyal, 
and generous people; by the English code 
of laws, to answer the most sordid views, 
they have been treated with a savage cruelty; 
the words penalty, punishment, and Ireland, 
are synonymous, they are marked in blood 
on the margin of their statutes; anoTf»thougli 

time may have softened the calamities of 
the nation, the baneful and destructive influ- 
ence of those laws has borne her down to 
a state of Egyptian bondage. The English 
have sowed their laws like serpents' teeth, 
and they have sprung up m armed men."* 

The amendment was carried by 1.18 to 
100: the triumph of the principles of free 
trade was insured ; and the minister acknow- 
ledged the necessity of precipitately retracing 
his sieps. Who can doubt the vast, influ- 
ence the Volunteers excited in all these 
proceedings? On the preceding 4th of 
November — the anniversary of the birth of 
William the Third— the Volunteers had 
taken the opportunity of reading to the 
minister and the Parliament a lesson of con- 
stitutional doctrine around the statue of him 
who was, they conceived, the founder of 
constitutional liberty. They assembled in 
College Green — the Dublin Volunteer artil- 
lery, commanded by James Napper Tandy, 

with labels bearing the inscription, "Free 

* HuKSey Burgh lost liis place, but rose in popu- 
lar estimation. Meetings were held in different 
parts of the country in present him with oddrosscB 
el' thanks. The freedom of the Corporation of 
Carrickfergus, ami other corporate towns, was given 
to him iii gold boxes. The address from the Car- 
rickfergus corporation was presented by Barry 
Yelverton, Recorder of tlie town. — Sec Fit/man's 
Journal, January -l.tli, 17su. 



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PARADE IX DUBLIN 



Trade or speedy revolution," suspended on 
tli" necks of their cannon; the Volunteers 
of Dublin and the vicinity, under the orders 

of the Duke of Leinster. The sides of the 
pedestal on which stood the statue of the 
De iverer, were ornamented with colleetions 
of most significant political reasoning; anil 
under the angry eyes of the executive, such 
teai hings as the following were given at onee 
to the governors and the governed. On one 
side of the pillar was inscribed, "Relief to 
Ireland;" on another, "A short money bill, 

a free trade, or else ;" on a third, 

"The Volunteers, quinquuginta millia juneti, 
parati pro pairid mori;'" and in front of the 
statue were two cannons bearing an inscrip- 
tion on each, "Free trade or this." The 
people were assembled in thousands around 
the Volunteer troops, and their enthusiasm 
re-echoed in deafening applause the thunder 
of the artillery. It was a scene productive 
of commercial and political freedom : that 
th" latter was evanescent was not the fault 
of the institution or lack of spirit; but divi- 
sions, and doubts, and suspicions, were in- 
troduced amongst the body by the exertions 
of England; new ambitions filled the minds 
of some; the force of old ministerial associ- 
ations pressed upon others; the courtly 
tendencies and the timid alarms of a few of 
th.- leading men led them to sacrifice what 
ih \ had gained, rather than to peril Eng- 
lish connection by nobly seeking unlimited 
freedom. But at the period of which we 
are writing, the Volunteer system was com- 
pacl and perfect. The wants of Ireland 
were commercial and political. She had 
been made a bankrupt by monopoly, and a 
slave by usurpation. The Volunteers were 
lo give her prosperity and freedom, by un- 
restricted trade and legislation. And right 
well did they set themselves to their ap- 
po nl d task, with what success appears 

lr Lord North's free trade bill, and Grat- 

tan's declaration of right. 

Ii was appointed for Lord North to undo 
he work of William the Third, and to take 
he first step towards restoring the trade to 
which the Deliverer had given the finishing 
blow. Lord North had great experience in 
obstinate oppression, and not less in the 
n cognition of the liberties he had trampled 
upon, lb- had braved the genius of Chat- 




ham in the disastrous campaigns against 
transatlantic freedom — the world has read 

with profit the sequel of his history in that 
great transaction. He had opposed every 
effort to emancipate the trade of Ii elan 

t is an agreeable duty for an Irish writer to 
detail the concessions wrung from him by 
the arms of the Volunteers, and the elo- 
quence and genius of those who led them 
to victory. On the 13th of December. 17*79, 
he introduced into the English legislature 
three propositions : to permit, first, the ex- 
port of glass; second, the export of woollen 
goods; and third, a free trade with the 
English settlements in America, the West 
Indies, and Africa. 

In connection with these propositions, 
Foster, the Speaker of the Irish House, and 
on that occasion the representative of Gov- 
ernment, On the 20i h of the same month, 
moved two resolutions in the Irish legis- 
lature. 1st, That the exportation of the 
manufactures of this country would tend 
to relieve her distresses. '2d, That great 
commercial benefits would flow from the 
permission to trade with the American, 
Indian, and African settlements. Proposi- 
tions of very manifest truth, but tardily 
acknowledged by the English and Irish 
Governments, whose recognition is obviouslv 
attributable to a style of political reasoning 
which will prove any thing that a nation of 
men requires to demonstrate. The proposi- 
tions of Lord North, and the resolutions of 
Foster, were the basis of the bill which some 

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mnths later gave a free trade to Ireland ; %&£i^^^ 
id, for the first time since William the /T^A^vTl 
bird destroyed the woollen manufacture, MnjC^£> 



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Th 

and bis English Parliament laid restrictions 
on her productive industry, her people were 
free to use the resources a liberal nature 
offered them, and which a foreign tyrant, 
sealed from their anxious hands. The efforts 
they had made hitherto to free their trade 
were the efforts of Blaves — petition and re- 
monstrance ; it was not until they demandei 
free trade, with the Volunteer alternative, 
that England struck. 

The Volunteers and the country had soon 
a more striking proof of the power which 
their attitude excited over the obstinate 
maxims of English policy. 

Lord North, in February, 1780, iutro- 



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134 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



duced his free trade bill in a speech which 
was the best refutation of his former argu- 
ments, and the severest condemnation of his 
former conduct, 

The intelligence of the concessions made 
by tliHt bill — liberty to export woollen manu- 
factures, and to trade with the British col- 
onies, was received with great joy by the 
people. But their joy was tempered with a 
wise care for the future, and the greater the 
conceded advantages were, the more did 
they feel themselves pressed by the insecu- 
rity of possession. The very magnitude of 
the gift taught them with greater force the 
true principles of freedom. They reflected 
that the right which jealous power had 
respected in its hour of weakness, it. would 
trample on with recovered strength. What 
ij security had they that at some future period, 
when they had possibly established a thriv- 
ing trade, and expend, d niueh labor and 
money in creating a prosperous commerce, 
t'neio might not arise another William, ready 
to gratify the insoleut avarice of England, 
by the destruction of their trade and manu- 
factures? The wisdom of Swift, of Lucas, 
and of Molyneux, appealed to them in the 
hour of recovered trade, and pleaded strong- 
ly for unrecovered liberty. They received 
a free trade then, not as a gift from bounty, 
but as a surrendered right from weakened 
power; and, rejoicing at the extent of the 
benefit, they were neither fools nor syco- 
phants; nor did they compromise their duty 
to their country by a needless excess of 
gratitude to her frightened oppressor. Thus, 
in the resolutions which record the people's 

joy, we may find the strongest expressions 
of their determination to effect greater things 
than the emancipation of their trade. Every 

county in Ireland addressed its representa- 
tives; every corps of Volunteers addressed 
its officers; and the spirit of these ett'usions 
may be judged from one, selected from 
amongst many, to which the spirit of the 
day gave birth. The gentlemen of the 
grand jury and freeholders of the county of 
Monaghan, addressing their representatives, 
amongst other things, said : 

" While we rejoice ill common with the 
rest of our fellow-subjects at the advantages 
which Ireland has latterly obtained, and 
which we are fullv convinced arc attribut- 




able to the parental attention of his majesty, 

the virtue of our Parliament, and the spirit 
of our people; yet, as these advantages ar» 
confined to commerce, out satisfaction must, 
be limited, lest our rights and privileges 
should seem to be lost in the joy which 
attends a partial restoration of them. We 
do affirm that no Parliament had, has, or of 
right Ought to have, any power or authority 
whatsoever, in this kingdom, except tin- Par- 
liament of Ireland ; that no statute has the 
force of law in this kingdom, unless enacted 
b\ the king with the consent of the Lords 
and I 'ominous of the land ; on this principle 
the connection between Great Britain and 
Ireland is to be founded, and on this princi- 
ple we trust, not only that it- may be render- 
ed secure and permanent, but that the two 
kingdoms may become strongly united and 

advantageously circumstanced, as to be en- 
abled to oppose with success the common 
enemies of the British empire, Wn.it you 
have clone, we look on as a beginning; and 
we trust that the termination of the session 
will he as beneficial to the constitution as 
the commencement has been to the com- 
merce of the country." 

These were the sentiments of manly but 
conditional loyalty, of generous love of free- 
dom above even the material benefits of trade, 
which led to the Revolution of 1782, and 
whose diversion into other channels after 
the Volunteers had ceased to exist as a great 
national army, drove so many great and 
upright men into conspiracy and revolt. 

The desire of constitutional liberty having 
one.' seized upon the people, several means 
of obtaining that object were adopted. In 
Parliament, a short mutiny bill became a 
favorite measure. The evils of a standing 
army, the dangers to freedom inseparable 
from the existence within the realm of a 
large force of armed men, having from its 
very organization no sympathies with the 
p.ople, were eloquently dwelt upon by the 
leading Patriots in the House; magistrates 
refused to billet soldiers under a mutiny act, 
to which they objected on two grounds — 
first, that it was an English act of Parlia- 
ment, and secondly, that it. was perpetual, 
and created an armed irresponsible authority 
within the state. The Irish mutiny act had 
only extended to six mouths — it had been 




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C.N6 .UUMHi5 




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DECLARATION OP RIGHT. 



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returned from England with ;i change ren- 
iring it perpetual; thus the legislation 
in ght well I"' called English, and the princi- 
ple despotic. The act was resisted, and it 
would have remained a dead letter, but that 
the ultimate decision of the matter rested 
with the judges, and it was not thought 
advis ble to resorl to their tribunals. But 
the time had arrived when Henry Grattan 
commenced, in grave and noble earnest, the 
quarrel of parliamentary liberty. And 
never was a man more fitted by nature for 
a great work than be was. Swift had writ- 
ten of Iri>h polities with masterly power; 
Molyneux, with considerable learning; and 
Lucas, with homely vigor and honest zeal; 
but in Henry Grattan all the qualities of 
greatness were combined, lie was a man 
of a pure spirit and a noble genius. He 
was an accomplished scholar, and a poet; 
but his scholarship and his poetry gave way 
to a grand, peculiar, and electric oratory, 
unsurpassed, probably unequalled, by the 
grea est speakers of any age or nation. It 
was argumentative and logical in the highest 
iee; but it was also imaginative and 
picturesque. Its figures were bold and new 
— its striking peculiarity consisted in the 
total absence of the usual or the vulgar. 
In its noble flights, in the utter abandonment 
of genius, there was a grandeur and elegant 
proportion, a profound wisdom, and a start- 
ling vehemence, which contributed to give 

to tl 'ator all the weight of inspiration. 

Bui Grattan was not only a consummate 
orator, be was a patriot in the largest and 

broadest sens.-, and was the first statesman 
in Ireland who both aspired to national in- 
dependence for his country, and perceived 
the impossibility of maintaining that inde- 
pendence, even it' established, without associ- 
ating the mass of proscribe! Catholics in 
the national aspirations and national triumph. 
The commercial tyranny of England being 
now broken down, and the country obvioush 
i for a further advance, Grattan fixed the 
19th of April, 1T80, as the day on which 

be would ve his celebrated Declaration 

of Right, which, if adopted, would be a dis- 
tinct ultimatum to England, and, adopted 
in the front <>t' the Volunteer array, would 
be an unmistakable challenge and defiance. 
The scene presented on that memorable day 



by Dublin and the Irish Parliament House 
on College Green is vividly described by 
MacNevin : 

" No greater day, none of more glory ever 
rose upon this country, than that which 
dawned upon the Senate House of Ireland 
on the 19th of April, 1780. The dull 
Chronicles of the time, and the meagre press 
which then represented popular opinion, are 
filled with details of the circumstances under 
which Grattan brought forward his Declara- 
tion of Right. They were circumstances 
certainly unequalled in our history of military 
splendor and moral triumph. The streets 
around the Attic temple of legislation were 
thronged with the disciplined numbers of 
the Volunteers, and the impatient multitude 
of the people. The uniforms of the Irish 
army, the gaudy orange, the brilliant scar- 
let, and the chaster and more national green 
— turned up with different facings, according 
to the tastes of the various corps — contrast', I 
gayly with the dark background of the civil- 
ian mass that watched with eager eyes the 
extraordinary scene. Over the heads of the 
crowd floated the banners of the Volunteers, 
with the watchwords of freedom and politi- 
cal regeneration worked in gold or silver on 
a ground of blue, green, or white. And 
truly the issue to be tried within the walls 
of that magnificent building was one great 
in its effects, and illustrious from the char 
acter of the contending parties. It was a 
trial of right between two great nations — 
but more, it was to be either a precedent of 
freedom or an argument of usurpation. 
Much depended on fhe result, not alone as 
to the present interests, but as to the future 
destinies of the country; and the great men 
who were engaged in conducting this con- 
troversy of liberty were fully alive to the 
dignity of their parts, and fully competent to 
the successful discharge of the lofty missiou 
they had undertaken. 

"Within the walls of the House of Com- 
mons, a scone of great interest presented 
itself to the eye. The galleries were throng- 
ed with women of the first fashion, beautiful, 
elegantly dressed, and filled with animated 
interest in the anticipated triumph of an 
eloquence to which the place was sacred. 

Scattered through the House were several 
officers of the Volunteers, for a considerable 



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HISTOBY OF IRELAND. 



number of the members held commissions 
in that great body. But the chief attrac- 
tions of the House were those distinguished 
men who were upon that clay to make the 
noblest chapter in the history of Ireland — 
men celebrated beyond those of almost any 
age for the possession of the highest of 
man's qualities — eloquence, wit, statesman- 
ship, political wisdom, and unbounded know- 
ledge. There were to be seen and heard 
there that day the graceful and eloquent 
Burgh ; the intrepid advocate, the consum- 
mate orator, the immaculate patriot, John 
Philpot Curran ; the wise statesman, Flood; 
and the founder of Irish liberty, who watch- 
ed it in its cradle, and who followed it to its 
grave, Grattan. Amongst the spectatois 
were Lifford, the chancellor, whose voice 
had negatived every liberty, and denied 
every concession; Charlemont, the truest of 
patriots, but the worst of statesmen ; and 
Frederick, the Karl of Bristol and the Bishop 
of Derry, whose coronet and mitre could not 
keep down the ambition of a tribune, nor 
conceal tin- finest qualities of a demagogue. 
All eyes were turned to Grattan." 

" After a speech of consummate power, 
in which he imparted to the doctrines of 
freedom a more spiritual cast than they had 
yet assumed in Ireland, he moved his three 
resolutions. 1st, That his most excellent 
majesty, by and with the consent of the 

Lords and Commons of Ireland, are the 
only power couipcteut to enact laws to bind 
Ireland. 2d, That the crown of Ireland is, 
and ought, to be, inseparably annexed to the 
crown of Great Britain. 3d, That Great 

Britain and Ireland are inseparably united 
under one sovereign, by the common and 
indissoluble ties of interest, loyalty, and free- 
dom. Mis resolutions were seconded by 
Robert Stewart, the lather of the man who, 
of all others, was most active in destroying 
the great, fabric of freedom which llenrv 
Grattan commenced upon that day to rear. 
He was oppose.! by Foster and Fitzgibbon ; 
and to show how completely Irish freedom 
was the child of arms, the latter attacked 
the Volunteers as a giddy faction, which 
dealt in violence and clamor, lie felt that 
Grattan was indeed fortified by the resolu- 
tions of the armed citizens, and accordingly 
was liberal of invective against them. Yet 



Fitzgibbon represented himself as an enemy 
to the usurpations of England. It was singu- 
lar that on this occasion Flood was opposed 
to bringing forward the qttesuou of Irish 
liberty, lie thought, that the time of Eng- 
land's distress was an improper one at which 
to urge the lights of Ireland." 

The eloquent writer just cited has been 
Somewhat carried away by his enthusiastic 
sympathy with the great effort of Grattan 
and exaggerates its importance. The debate, 
it is true, was extremely interesting; and if 
it led to no immediate practical result in 
the House, it kept the subject alive before 
the nation, and gave it fresh vitality and 
power. It seems that scarcely any mem- 
ber, with perhaps one or two exceptions, 
ventured to oppose directly the principles of 
the resolutions. The Castle party, however, 
defeated them by a motion, that there being 
an equivalent resolution already ou the jour- 
nals of the House (alluding to one iiF Straf- 
ford's time, which was not equivalent), it 
was useless to pass this. The amendment 
was carried, and the Declaration of Right 
was not pressed at that time to a division 
Plowden thus sums up the result; 

"After it most interesting debate, that 
lasted till six o'clock in the morning, in 
which every man but one acknowledged its 
truth, either expressly or by not opposing 
it, Mr. Flood, who well knew that the min- 
isterial members were committed to negative 
the motion if it came to a division, recom- 
mended that no question should be put, 
and no appearance of the business entered 
on the journals, to which Mr. Grattan con- 
sented." 

Substantially, however, the object of the 
Declaration was accomplished. If it did not 
convince the ministerial members, it con- 
vinced the Volunteers, and made more Vol- 
unteers. It also convinced the Government 
of the depth and strength of the new national 
spirit in Ireland, as we learn from a letter of 
Lord Buckinghamshire, the clay after, to 
Lord Hillsborough, lie says: ''It is with 
the utmost concern I must acquaint your 
Lordship that, although SO many gentlemen 
expressed their concern that the subject had 
been introduced, the Sense of the House 

against the obligation of am/ statutes of the 
Parliament of Great Britain, withiu this 



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kingdom, is represented to me lo have been 
almost unanimous." 

The people out-of-doors began now to be 
grievously discontented with their Parlia- 
]ii> n;. They were becoming more and mare 
thoroughly indoctrinated with the generous 
sentiments ofOrattan, not only through his 
own speeches and essays, but by means of 
tin.' brilliant pamphlets of Mr. Pollock, piib- 
li-.li.',! under the name of Owen Roe O'Neill, 
who entered very fully into the grievances 
of ilic country, and went the whole length 
of tin' claim to legislative independence. 
Indeed, it became evident that, without 
legislative independence, no concessions in 
r ispect of freedom of trade or any thing else 
could he relied upon as either efficient or 
permanent. 

After the fust burst of triumph over the 
commercial reforms of Lord North, it was 
found, oti examination and trial, that the 
law had been so contrived as to render the 
concessions nearly illusory. Especially iu 
the matter of the trade in refined sugar, 
it was seen that the new law, and a treach- 
erous addition which had been made to it 
after its passage in the British Parliament, 
I, ii led to destroy the sugar refineries of Ire- 
land, then an important branch of industry ; 
and a petition was preseuted by the town of 
Ni « rv, not only exposing this contrivance, 
but also adverting earnestly to what was 

now boci tie- chief parliamentary topic, 

the '■mutiny bill.'' In short, the aroused 
spirit of tlir people demanded that the prin- 
ciple of English domination in Ireland should 
be assailed at every point ; and in nothing 

was that principle so momentous and so 
menacing as in the practice of governing 

the standing army of Ireland (12,000 to 
15,000 strong) by a perpetual mutiny act 
passed in England. So char 1, however, 

was the Parliament with its small and doubt- 
ful success m the matter of free trade, that 
it not only liberally granted the supplies 
for a year and a half longer, but agreed to 
the English mutiny bill, which was per- 
il, by a majority of . r )2. In short, it 
was plain thai this Parliament, so extensive- 
ly corrupted and so well disciplined by the 
1 . tie influence (that is, by the corrupt ex- 
penditnre of the people's money), could not 
be relied upon to realize the lofty aspiration 




of the nation. Absolute national 
dence was now their fixed purpose. 

The year L780 was one of incessan 
organization; reviews look place throughou 
all Ireland; and a great provincial meeting 
was appoiuted for the November of that 
year, previous to which in all parts of the 
country the Volunteer corps were reviewed 
by the commanding officers in each district. 
The Earl of Belvidere reviewed the troops 
of Westmeath ; the Limerick and Clare 
Volunteers were reviewed by Lord Kings- 
borough; the Londonderry by Lord Erne; 
the Volunteers of the South by Lord Shan- 
non; those of Wieklow by Lord Kings- 
borough; and the Volunteers of Dublin 
county and city, who had formed themselves 
into associated corps, by Lord Carysfort, Sir 
Edward Newenham, and other men of rank, 
patriotism, and fortune. These reviews 
were attended with every circumstance of 
brilliancy. There was no absence of the 
pomp of war. The Volunteers had supplied 
themselves with artillery, tents, and all the 
requisites of the field. They bad received 

many presents of ordnance ; numerous stands 
of colors had been presented to them, with 
no absence of ceremony and splendor, by 
women of the highest station and figure in 
the country, whose pride it was to attend 
the reviews iu their handsomest equipages 
and clothed in their gayest attire. 

Until the middle of the year 1T80, the 
Volunteers had acted in independent troops 
and companies, only linked together by their 
community of feeling and design: but il 
was apparent that lor any general movement, 
for any grand military measure (which 
every day seemed to render more imminent), 
they needed a closer organization and a 
commander-in-chief. Their choice fell upon 
James Caulfield, earl of Charlemont, the de- 
scendant of one of the adventurers who had 
come over in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and 
had been rewarded for his exertions iu help- 
ing to crush O'Neill by large grants or 
confiscated estates. This Earl of Charle- 
mont was a man of limited capacity, but of 
much cultivation. He had travelled much, 
had written Italian sonnets, ami collected 
busts and intaglios. He had been nine 
years absent from Ireland, and returned just 
as the contest between Primate Stone and 



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HISTOHV OF IRELAND. 



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Henry Boyle was calming dowu into the 
disgrace of one and the corruption of the 

other. 

Lord Charlemont' s first Irish services were 
neither splendid nor honorable. He was 
chosen as the negotiator between Boyle and 
the lord-lieutenant. His duty was to strike 
a balance between what the. Irish Patriot 
wanted and the English official would give ; 
and he was eminently successful in eliciting 
harmony from the jarrings of sordid ambi- 
tion and Castle ecouomy. But he soon left 
the Castle sphere — though well fitted by 
taste and feeling to be a courtier, it should 
be with honor — and that was an impossi- 
ble fact in Ireland. It is said by Hardy, 
that Lord Charlemont was ignorant of the 
bargain struck between Boyle and the lord- 
lieutenant, by which the former got a 
pension ;* but there was enough of profli- 
gacy in the concessions made by both 
parties, even though money had never 
changed hands between them, to take all 
glory from the office of negotiator. 

As commander-in-chief, however, of the 
Volunteers, he made not only a dignified 
and ornamental standard-bearer, but a very 
active military organizer. He was great in 
reviews; and on the whole did his official 
duty well ; but he never could expand his 
mind wide enough to grasp the idea of 
associating in the new nation the two mil- 
lions of Catholics. 

In replying to the address communicating 
to him his election as commander-in-chief, 
he states with so much clearness and per- 
spicuity the position occupied by the Volun- 
teers, the services they had rendered, and ' the ships in the harbor; and there folio we 




have stood in the way of a similar attempt in any 
other cause. 

I sec with unspeakable pleasure the progress ot 
your discipline, and the increase ot'yonr associations ; 
the indefatigable, steady, and extraordinary ex- 
ertions, to which I have been a witness, afford a 
sufficient-proof, that, in the formation of an army, 
public spirit, a shame of being outdone, and the 
ambition to excel, tcill supply the place of reward 
and punishment — can levy an urmy, and bring it to 
perfection. 

The pleasure 1 feel is increased, when I reflect 
that your associations are not the fashion of a day, 
hut the settled purpose and durable principle of the 
pcopie ; from whence 1 foresee, that the advantages 
lately acquired will be ascertained and established, 
and that solid and permanent strength will be added 
to the empire. 

I entirely agree in the sentiment yon express with 
regard to the exclusive authority ot the legislature 
of this kingdom. 1 agree also in the expediency ot 
making the assertion ; it is no more than the law 
will warrant, and the real friends of botli nations 
subscribe. 

1 have the honor to be, 

Gentlemen, 

Your most obliged, faithful, and 

obedient humble serviyjt, 

July 15, 1780. Charlemont. 

The provincial reviews which followed the 
election of Lord Charlemont, were intended 
to convey significantly to the minister the 
readiness of an armed nation to second the 
propositions of their leaders in Parliament. 
Lord Charlemont visited Belfast to review 
the Ulster regiments, and was attended by 
Sir Annesley Stewart and Grattan as his 
aides. lie was met at Hillsborough by 
Mr. Dobbs, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Stewart, 
afterwards the Marquis of Londonderry. 
His arrival at Belfast, on the 1 1 ill of July 
was announced by a salute of seven guns 
from the artillery, which was answered by 



the spirit which animated them, that the 
reply is here presented in full as a perfect 
vindication of "that illustrious, adored, and 
abused body of men." 

Gentlemen, — You have conferred on mean honor 
of a very new and distinguished nature, — to be 
appointed, without any solicitation on my part, the 
revicwing-geueral of an independent army, raised t>y 
no other call titan that ttf public virtue : an army 
which costs nothing to the State, and has produced 
every thing to the nation, is what no other country 
1 .is it in tier power to bestow. Honored by such a 
delegation 1 obeyed it with cheerfulness. The in- 
ducement was irresistible; I felt it the duty of 
every subject to forget impediments which would 



* Life of Charlemont, vol. i., p. 93. 



lips 
a brilliant review of three thousand men. 

The dispatches of Lord Buckinghamshire 
to Lord North at this period, are evidences 
of a system of downright, bribery — for the 
purpose of retaining and insuring his parlia- 
mentary majority — so general and so profuse, 
that nothing could bear comparison with it, 
but the worse corruption by which the Union 
was carried. Between September 8th, l'FSO, 
and November 19th of the same year, the 
lord-lieutenant forwarded several dispatches 
to the English minister, in which he recom- 
mends over one hundred men of rank and 
j fortune, and some of their wives, to rewards 
for past services, or to bribes for prospective 



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services. Sir Robert Deane, an uniform and 
laborious drudge, impeded by no conscience 
anil burdened by no principle, who, as his 

viceregal eulogist remarks, always with firm 
friends supported government and never 
suggested a difficulty, was recommended for 

a peerage. Several other men with similar 
Services to parade, with just the same degree 
of conscience or principle, had their claims 
for a degraded honor allowed by the lord- 
lieutenant.* 

The dispatches of this viceroy in these 
two months (September ami October, 1780) 
are extant, and should be rendered familiar 
reading lo all those who are disposed to trust 
in the integrity and the promises of English 



* The sources of patrician honors in Ireland, it is 
much to he regretted, are very impure and tainted. 
From tiiis censure must of course he excepted the 
imcient aristocracy of the land, in whose veins still 
runs an honorable stream, uncontaminated by the 
impurity of the Williamite, or Union creation. The 
successive creations in Cromwell's and William's 
time, and at the Union, deepen in infamy as they 
approach our own days. The parties recommended 
for honors in Lord Buckingham's profligate dis- 
patches, some of whose names are inserted in this 
note, have different qualifications ; one is poor, 
another who is rich lias poor relations ; there is no 
political profligate, however wealthy or embarrassed, 
that is not recommended for promotion or pay, in 
his own person or in that of some convenient 
relative. Amongst the rest, Lords Mountcashel, 
Euniskillen, Cariow, and Farnliam, nrc recom- 
mended for earldoms. In the general recommenda- 
tions are the names of James Carigue Ponsonby, 
c'narles Henry COoke, Francis Bernard Beamish, 
Ponsonby Tottenham, James Somerville, William 
Caulfield, Thomas Nesbitt, Sir Boyle Roche, Dame 
Jam- Heron, and other honorable persons. The fol- 
lowing is curious; it is in a letter to Lord Hills- 
borough from the lord lieutenant: 

'■ With respect to the noblemen and gentlemen 
whose requests hive not succeeded, I must say that 
no man can see the inconvenience of increasing the 
number of poors more forcibly than myself, hut the 
recommendation of many of 'those persons submitted to 
his majesty for thai honor, arose frost enoagi mi nis 

TAKEN IT AT THE PREB9 OF THE Mo.MF.vr. To SECURK 

questions upon whioh TiiF. English Government 
were very PARTICULARLY anxioi s. My sentiments 
cannot but be the sam- with respect to the Privy 
Council and pensions, and I had not contracted any 
absolute engagements of recommendation either t<> 
\tion t TILL liiFFicri.Tii is aiiosic which 
irily occasioned so much ami so forcibly eom- 
llinilitiated anxiety in his majesty's cabinet, that J 
must have been culpubie m nkglectino any pussiblk 

KEANS ol SECURING A MAJORITY IN nil. HOUSE of 

C'-.mmons. Mr. Townsliend was particularly i in- 
to me by L"rd Shannon fur a seat in the 
Privy Council, and 1 have reason to think his lord- 
ship in extremely anxious for his success.* 1 



statesmen.* In the Houses, both of Lords 
and Commons, his management was too suc- 
cessful, and the people now looked upon Par- 
liament as their worst enemy. On the 2d 
of September, 1780, Lord Buckinghamshire 
prorogued the servile Parliament with one 
of those speeches, half cant and half sarcasm, 
which were then, and are now, the usual 
kind of viceregal addresses in Ireland. He 
thanked the House for their "liberal sup- 
plies" (for which the people cursed them), 
and added, "your cheerfulness in giving 
them, and your atteution to the ease of tlic 
subject in the mode of raising them, must 
be very acceptable to his majesty; on my 
pait, I assure you they shall be faithfully 
applied" To both Houses he said that 
"the heart of every Irishman must exult at 
the fair scene of prosperity now opening to 
his country," congratulated them on ihe 
commercial relaxations, which he called 
"the diffusive indulgence of his majesty;" 
and so took his leave both of that Parliament 
and of Ireland. Fortunately, the cause of 
Ireland at that day rested neither upon him 
nor upon them. He was recalled soon after ; 
and on the 23d of December, 1780, Lord 
Carlisle was appointed in his place. 



CHAPTER XX. 

1781— 17S2. 
Parliament — Thanks to the Volunteers— Habeas 
Corpus — Trade with Portugal — Grattau's financial 
expose — Gardiner's measure for Catholic Relief— 
Dungannon — The loth of February, ITS'2 — De- 
bates on Gardiner's Bill — -Grattan's Speech — lie- 
tails of this measure — Burke's opinion of it- 
Address to the King asserting Irish Independence 
— England yields at once — Act repealing the 6th 
George I.— Repeal of Poynings' Law — Irish In- 
dependence. 

There is small interest in following the 
details of parliamentary business during the 
first rear of Lord Carlisle's viceroyalty ; 
because it was every day more evident that 
the power which would decide the destinies 
of the country lay outside the walls of Par- 
liament. Indeed, on the discussion of the 
perpetual Mutiny Bill for Ireland, Grattan 
had declared that if it passed into law lie 
would secede, and appeal to the people, a 

* They are to be found in Grabtan's Life, by his 
son. \ ol. ii 



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niSTOl'.Y OF [RELA-ND. 



formidable threat at a moment when the | 
people were in such a good condition to hear 
and Jccidc such an appeal. Lord Carlisle 
was accompanied by Mr. Eden as secretary, 
a man already known by his unsuccessful 
diplomacy in America, and known nlso by 
liis hostility to the pretensions of Ireland, 
lie had written and published a letter " On 
tlie. Representations of Ireland respecting a 
Free Trade," of which Mr. Dobbs, a stanch 
patriot, thus writes: — "From a letter writ- 
ten by Mr. Eden, secretary to Lord Carlisle, 
on the subject of Irish affairs, and which had 
been answered by Counsellor Richard Sheri- 
d an, we had no great reason to rejoice at 
this change."* 

On the 9th of October, 1781, the Earl of 
Carlisle met the Parliament. There was 
the usual common-place speech, recommend- 
ing the Protestant Charter Schools; the 
linen trade; assuring Parliament of his 
majesty's ardent wishes for the happiness, etc., 
of the Irish people; and even speaking com- 
placently of the " spirited offers of assistance" 
which had lately been made to the Govern- 
ment from every part of the kingdom, 
which was, though without naming them, a 
kind of compliment to the Volunteers. Mr. 
O'Neill moved a servile address in reply. 
Mr. (iiattan, who had no idea of Buffering 
any neglect or disrespect to the Volunteers, 
took notice of the extreme caution with 
which the address avoided mentioning the 
word Volunteer, that wbolesomeand salutary 
appellation which he wished to familiarize 
to the royal ear; he would not, however, 
insist on having it inserted, as he had reason 
to believe the right honorable mover did 
intend to make a proper mention of those 
protectors of their country. 

Mr. O'Neill declared he was not deceivi d 
in this opinion, that the motion to which he 
had alluded was intended to thank the 
Volunteers of Ireland for that glorious 
spirit, unexampled in all history, with which 
they had so eagerly pressed forward, when 
the nation was thought to be in danger. 
lie then moved that the thanks of the 
House should be given to all the Volunteers 
of Ireland, for their exertions and continu- 
ance, and for their loyal and spirited dec- 
larations on the late expected invasion. 
* Dubbt' Hist, of Irish Affairs. 



Mr. Conolly seconded the motion. After 

soi reposition from Mr. Fitzgibbon, the 

thanks of the House were voted unanimously. 

The very next, day an important bill was 
moved for. Ireland had never yet enjoyed 
the protection of a Habeas Corpus act; 
nor, indeed, lias she ever enjoyed it until 
this day, because that law has been regu- 
larlv suspended in Ireland precisely at the 
times when it was most needed. 

On the 10th of October, 1781, Mr. Brad- 
street, the recorder, a very stauch patriot, 
moved in the House of Commons for leave 
to bring in the heads of a Habeas Corpus 
bill, prefacing his motion by observing that 
the liberty and safety of the subjects of 
Ireland were insecure until a Habeas Corpus 
act should take place; that arbitrary power 
had made great strides and innovations on 

public liberty, but was effectually restrained 

by that law which had its full operation in 
England, but did not exist in Ireland. It 
was, he said, the opinion of a great and 
learned judge, that this law was the grand 
bulwark of the constitution. Leave was 
granted; and Mr. Yelvertou and the. re- 
corder were ordered to prepare and bring 
in the same. 

Some few other proceedings in this ses- 
sion deserve to be noticed. Mr. Grattan 
again endeavored to procure an act for 
limitation of the Mutiny Act. Sir Lucius 
O'Brien moved for redress in the matter of 
Irish trade with Portugal; and the guild of 
merchants presented a petition stating that 
the great advantages which the nation had 
been promised h\ a freedom of trade to all 
the world weie likely to prove imaginary; 
as from the state of general war our com- 
merce was confined to very few nations, and 
amongst them the kingdom of Portugal, 
from which the greatest hopes had been 

com eived, had refused to receive our manu- 
factures, quantities of which were then lying 
stopped in the eustoui-hoilse of Lisbon, and 

praying the House to interfere for redress. 

The influence of the Court party, which was 
still paramount on most questions, was 
sufficient to prevent any effectual action on 
these subjects. The principal care, indeed, 

of the new viceroy and his adroit secretary 
was to prevent or suppress discussion upou 
any subject which would tend to open up 



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the greal national question of independence. 
Mr. Barry Yelverton, ispeating of tins 
motion on the Portuguese trade, said he 
"thought there had been sumo design in the 

S P n i '" lead their imaginations away from 

this important object; it had, indeed, talked 
of Protestant charter schools, making of 
roads, digging of canals, and carrying of 
corn; and contained half a dozen lines that 
might be found in every speech for fifty 
years past; subjects more proper for the in- 
quiry of a county grand jury, than for the 
greal inquest of the nation; but not one 
word of our trade to Portugal; that had 
been designedly omitted." 

The same Mr. Yelverton gave notice of a 
motion to bring in a bill to regulate the 
transmission of bills to England; in other 
words, for a repeal of Poynings' Law. Many 
of the Patriots now saw that the mind and 
spirit of the nation were firmly bent on one 
groat purpose; aud accordingly they began 
to be desirous, each to have his own name 
well forward as a mover in the good work. 
But before Yelverton's motion, arrived offi- 
cial news of that most happy and propitious 
event— the surrender of Lord Cornwallis 
and his army to the French and Americans 
atYorktown. With a polite affectation ol 
grief, Yelverton abandoned his motion, and 
moved instead an address to the king ex- 
pressive of sympathy and unalterable attach- 
ment, "and to entreat his majesty to be- 
lieve, that we hold it to be our indispensable 
duty, as it is our most hearty inclination, 
cheerfully to support his majesty to the 
utmost of our abilities, in all such "measures 
as can tend to defeat the confederacy of bis 
majesty's enemies, and to restore the bless- 
ings of a lasting and honorable peace." 

Several friends of Mr. Yelverton's, con- 
ceiving that his motion would commit them 
into an approbation and support of the 
American war, on that account alone de- 
clined supporting it: tie- question, however, 
being put, the motion was carried by a 
najority of lt)7 against 87. 

In this Bession, also, Mr. Grattan mad.' an 
txposi of the financial couditiod of the 
country. This speech led to no action, bm 
is worth some attention, because it shows to 
what a hopeless state of embarrassment, or 

rather national ruin, Ireland had been re- 



duced. As usual, Grattan spoke with bold 
and bitt.-r personal allusion, careless of the 
fact that perhaps a majority of his auditors 
were themselves corrupt pensioners on the 
public treasury. " Your debt," said he, " in- 
cluding annuities, is £2,667,600; of this 
debt, in the last fourteen years, you have 
borrowed above £1,000,000, in the last 
eight years above £1,500,000, aud in the 
last two years £910,090. I state not only 
the fact of your debt, but the progress of 
your accumulation, to show the rapid mor- 
tality of your distemper, the accelerated 
velocity with which you advance to ruin; 
and if the question stood alone on this 
ground, it would stand firm; for I must 
further observe, that if this enormous debt 
be the debt of the peace establishment, not 
accumulated by directing the artillery of 
your arms against a foreign enemy, but by 
directing the artillery of your " treasury 
against your constitution, it is a debt of 
patronage and prostitution." 

He next went into an account of the 
revenues and expenditures of the kingdom; 
showed that the increase of expenses for two 
years amounted to £550,000, while the in- 
crease of revenue for the same two years was 
but £00,000 ; and that this profligate s\ sti m 
was only continued and aggravated each 
succeeding year. Then he proceeded— " I 
have stated your expenses as exceeding your 
income, £484,000, and as having increased 
in fourteen years above half a million. As 
to the application of your money, I am 
ashamed to state it; let the minister defend 
it; let him defend the scandal of givin« 
pen-ions, directly or indirectly, to the first 
of the nobility, with as little honor to them 
who receive, as to the king who gives. Let 
him defend the minute corruption, which in 
small bribes and annuities, leaves honorable 
gentlemen poor, while it makes then, de- 
pendent.'' 

On the 11th of December, Mr. Flood, who 
was anxious that he also should be on the 
record prominently against the obnox ous 
Poynings' Law, brought forward a motion 
for the appointment of a committee "to ex- 
plain the law of Poynings." He made ;l 
learned and statesmanlike speech, was an- 
swered by a Court member; and his motion 
was voted down by 139 against 07. 



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142 



HISTORY OF IV.EI.AND. 



Tliis same session an effort was made by 
Mr. Luke Gardiner (afterwards Lord Mount 
joy) to procure a measure of relief for the 
Catholics. This gentleman, like Lord 
Charlemont, had lately returned from a resi- 
dence in Europe; and had often lamented 

since his return that Ireland, he was asliai I 

to confess, was the most intolerant country, 
Catholic, or Protestant, in all the world. < »n 
the 13th of December he gave notice of his 
intention to bring in the heads of a bill for 
some mitigation of the penal laws. A few 
days after, when Mr. Gardiner introduced 
the subject again, Grattan warmly and eager- 
ly gave his support in advance to some 
large arid just measure, including both 
Catholics and Dissenters, declaring emphat- 
ically that "it should be the business of 
Parliament to unite every denomination of 
Irishmen in brotherly affection and regard 
to the constitution." Every denomination 
of Irishmen! Including Catholics! It was 
new language in that House: it was the 
first Lime perhaps, since King James's Parlia- 
ment, that there had been so much as a hint 
of treating Catholics and Protestants as on 
an equal footing before the law. No won- 
der that it disquieted Cromwellian squires. 
Sir Richard Johnson nervously protested at 
once "that he would oppose any bill by 
which Papists were permitted to bear arms?' 

That Henry Grattan's idea, though not 
then fully developed, did go the full length 
of absolute equality, may be inferred from a 
remarkable passage in the end of his short 
speech. " It had been well observed by a 
gentleman of first-rate understanding (a 
member of the British Parliament), that lie- 
land could never prosper till its inhabitants 
were, a people; and though the assertion 
might seem strange, that three millions of 
inhabitants in that island should not be 
called a people, yet the truth was so, and so 
would continue till the wisdom of Parlia- 
ment should unite them by all the bonds of 
social affection. Then, and not till then, 
the country might hope to prosper." 

This bill of Mr. Gardiner, which was very 
cautious and modest, merely relaxing a little 
further the rigors of the laws which debarred 
Catholics from having property and from edu- 
cating their children, was postponed from 
Week to week, and was still pending when the 




great event of the century (for Ireland) took 
place in the parish church of Dungannon, 
in the county Tyrone. It should be men- 
tioned that there was great difference of 
opinion among the Volunteers with respect 
to any indulgence whatever shown to Papists; 
and that in particular the Sligo Volunteers, 
commanded by Mr. Wynne, addressed their 
colonel, requiring him to use his influence 
to defeat the measure. The conduct of 
these Sligo Volunteers is admirably rebuked, 
and the contrast of their professions and 
their intolerance delineated with great power 
and severity in a scries of letters in the Free- 
man's Journal of the day, beginning with 
the date of the 19th of January, 1782. 

But the cause of the country was now re- 
moved into another and a higher court than 
that of the corrupt Parliament. All the 
year 1781 had been a time of active organi- 
zation for th<' Volunteers: the companies 
had been formed into regiments, maliv thou- 
sands of Catholics were now gathered into . 
the organization ; numerous reviews con- 
tinued to be held; and it was determined 
that the regiments should DOW be brigaded. 
On the 28th of December, 17s I, the officers 
and delegates of the First Ulster regiment, 
commanded by Lord Charlemont, met at 
Armagh, and resolved to hold a Convention 
of the Ulster delegates at Dungannon. It 
was the idea of Grattan : he had failed in 
his endeavor to join issue with England by 
his Declaration of Right in Parliament, and 
resolved now to put himself upon the coun- 
try. Both friends and enemies of the Irish 
national cause were almost bewildered by 
the boldness of this conception — "Will no- 
body stop that madman, Grattan?" cried 
Edmund Burke. The Castle, on its side, 
hoped that this armed Convention would 
put itself in the wrong by some intemperate 
violence or plain illegality. In fact, the lan- 
guage of. the resolutions passed at the pre- 
liminary meeting iii Armagh was startling. 

'• Resolved, That with the utmost concern, 
we behold the little attention paid to the 
constitutional rights of this kingdom, by the 
majority of those whose duty it is to estab- 
lish and preserve the same. 

" Resolved, That to avert the impending 
danger from the nation, and to restore the 
constitution to its original purity, the most 



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MEETING IX THE CHUKCHI AT DUNGANNOX. 



143 



vigorous and effective methods, must be pur- 
Bued,to root out corruption and Court influ- 
ence from the legislative body. 

" Resolved, That to open a path towards 
the attaining of this desirable point, it in ab- 

solutelj requisite that a n ling be held in 

tlic must central town of the province of 
Ulster, which we conceive to be Dungannon, 
to which said meeting every Volunteer asso- 
ciation of the sai.] province is raosl earnestly 
requested to Bend delegates, then and there 
to deliberate on the present alarming situa- 
tion of public affairs, and to determine on, 
and publish to their country, what may be 
the result of said meeting. 

'• Resolved, That as many real and lasting 
advantages may arise to this kingdom, from 
said intended meeting being held before the 
present session of Parliament is much far- 
ther advanced, Friday, the 15th day. of Feb- 
ruary next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, is 
hereby appointed for said meeting, at Dun- 
gannon as aforesaid." 

Dungannon was then, and is still, but a 
small market town of Tyrone County, about 
s x miles from the shore of Lough Neagh. 
Two hundred years before, it had been the 
chief seat and stronghold of Hugh O'Neill, 
high-chief of Tyr-eoghain, who was the 
most formidable enemy that English power 
had ever encountered in Ireland. The little 

town had no assembly-room capable of ac- 
commodating the meeting; and it was de- 
termined to use the parish church for thai 
purpose. Od the loth of February, From 
'. county of Ulster, the delegates met. 
They represented thirty thousand armed 
men; and felt that they had full power and 

credentials to deliberate and decide for a 
great army, not only for the Ulster Volun- 
teers, but for those of all Ireland. What 
might they not have done on that day ! 
England had suffered deep humiliation, and 
was truly in imminent peril. In America, 
after the surrender of Cornwallis, she 
could not strike another blow. She was 
still at war, both with France and with 

Spain, In Ireland it would base been im- 
possible for her to place in the field one half 
tie- number of the Volunteer army; and 
even of that half, the Irish regular force 
would without doubt have fraternized with 

the Volunteers.— " Had theV chosen that 



lU'nl' of action," says Thomas McNevin, 
"which many ainongsl them might have 
secretly thought the path of wisdom, as the 
path of honor, the result on the destinies of 
England would have been perilous indeed. 
We cannot doubt the issue of a war. A 
national army, composed of the flower of a 
bold and valiant people, treading their native 
and familiar soil, fighting for In ■ and lib- 
erty, commanded by the most, distinguished 
men in the country, numerous anil disciplin- 
ed, and impatient for the field — no mercen- 
ary soldiers, whose mean incentive was pay 
and plunder, and rapine, and hereditary ha- 
tred, could have withstood their glorious on- 
slaught." But other, and more moderate 
counsels prevailed; "perhaps wiser," says 
Mr. McNevin. 

Of the resolutions prepared for the adop- 
tion of the. military delegates, the first was 
written by (■rattan, and the second by 
Flood. Mr. Dobbs, of Carrickfergus, was 
just about to start for the Convention, whin 
Graltan, the unchanging friend of the Cath- 
olics, thrust into his hand the resolution in 
their favor, which afterwards passed at Dun- 
gannon, with Only two dissenting voices of 
benighted Protestants. 

On the memorable loth of February, 
1782, "the church of Dungannon was full 
to the door." The representatives of the 
regiments of Ulster — one hundred and 
toity three corps — marched to the sacred 
place of meeting, two and two, dressed in 
various uniforms and fully armed. Deeply 
they felt the great responsibilities which 
had been committed to their prudence and 
courage ; but they were equal to their task, 
and had not lightly pledged their faith to a 
trustful country. The aspect of the church, 
the temple of religion, in which nevertheless 
no grander ceremony was ever performed, 
was imposing, or, it, might be said, sublime. 
Never, on that hill where ancient piety had 
fixed its seat, was a nobler offering male to 
God than this, when two hundred of the elect- 
ed warriors of a people assembled in his tab- 
ernacle, to lay the deep foundations of a 
nation's liberty. Colonel Irwin, a gentleman 
of rank, a man firm and cautions, of un- 
doubted coinage but, great prudence, presid- 
ed as chairman. The following resolutions 
were then passed : — 



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'' Whereas, it liiis been asserted that Vo 
unteers, as such, cannot with propriety de- 
bate, or publish their opinions ou political 
subjects, or ou the conduct of Parliament or 
political men. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That a citizen 
by learning the use of arms does not aban- 
don any of his civil rights. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That a claim of 
any body of men, other than the King, Lords, 
.■ind Commons of Ireland, to make laws to 
bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional, ille- 
gal, and a grievance. 

" Jtcsol en/, with one dissenting voice only, 
That the powers exercised by the privy 
Councils of both kingdoms, under, or under 
color, or pretence of, the law of Poyning's, 
are unconstitutional, and a grievance. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That the ports 
of this country arc by right open to all for- 
eign countries not. at war with the king; 
and that any burden thereupon, or obstruc- 
tion thereto, save only by the Parliament of 
Ireland, arc unconstitutional, illegal, and a 
grievance. 

" Resolved, with one dissenting voice only, 
That a Mutiny Bill not limited in point of 
duration, from session to session, is uncon- 
stitutional, and a grievance. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That the inde- 
pendence of judges is equally essential to 
the impartial administration of justice in 
1 1 eland as in England, and that the refusal 
or delay of this right to Ireland, makes a 
distinction where there should be no dis- 
tinction, may excite jealousy where perfect 
union should prevail, and is in itself uncon- 
stitutional and a grievance. 

" Resolved, with eleven dissenting voices 
only, That it is our decided and unalterable 
determination to si ek a redress of these 
grievances, and we pledge ourselves to each 
other and to our country, as freeholders, 
fellow-citizens, and men of honor, that we 
will, at, every ensuing election, support 

those only who have supported and will sup- 
port US therein, and that will use all consti- 
tutional means to make such our pursuit of 

redress speedy and I ll'eetual. 

"Resolved, with one dissenting voice onlv, 

Th»t the right honorable and honorable the 
minority in Parliament, who have supported 

these our constitutional rights, are entitled 



to our most grateful thanks, and that the 
annexed address be signed by the chairman 
and published with these resolutions. 

" Resolved, unanimously, That four mem 
hers from each county of the province of 
Ulster, eleven to be a quorum, be and are, 
hereby appointed a committee, till the next 
general meeting, to act for the Volunteer 
corps he-re represented, and, as occasion shall 
require, to call general meetings of the prov- 
ince, viz.: — 

Lord Visc't Enniskillen, Major Charles PiifTcn, 

Col. Morvyh ArchdnM, Capt. John Harvey, 

Col, William Irvine, Capt. Robert Campbell, 

Ool. Bobt. M'Clintook, ('apt. Joseph Polloek, 

Col. John Ferguson, Capt. Waddol Cunningham 

Col. John Montgomery, Capt. Francis Kvans, 



Col. Charles Leslie, 
Col, Franois Luoaa, 
Col. Tlios. M. Jones, 
Col. .lames Hamilton, 
Col. Andrew Thomson, 
Lieut. -Col. C. Noshilt, 
Lieut, i "l. A. Stewart, 
Major .lanes Patterson, 

Major Franeis I lohbft, 



Capt. .John Cope, 
Capt. .lames DuWBOn, 

Capt. James Aoheson, 
Capt. Daniel Eecles, 
Capt, Thomas I tiokaon, 
Capt. David Bell, 
i ' apt. Joint Coulaqjrj 
Capt. Robert Blackj 

Rev. Wm. I 'raw font, 



Major James M'Cliutoek, Mr. Robert Thompson; 

" Resolved, unanimously, That said com 
mittee do appoint nine of their members to 
be a committee in Dublin, in order to com- 
municate with such other Volunteer associa- 
tions in the other provinces as may think 
proper to come to similar resolutions, and to 
deliberate with them on the most constitu- 
tional means of carrying them into effect. 

"In consequence of the above resolutions, 

the Committee have appointed the following 

gentlemen for said committee, three to be a 
quorum, viz. : — 

Col. Mervyn Arelelall, Major Franois Dobba, 
Col. William Irvine, Capt. Francis Evans, 

Col. John Monleomery, Capt. .lames Dawson, 
Col. Thomas M. Jones, Capt. Joseph Pollook, 
Mr. Robert Thompson, 

'• Resolved, unanimously, That the com- 
mittee be, and are hereby instructed to call 
a general meeting of the province, within 
twelve months bom this day, or in fourteen 

days .after the dissolution of the present Par- 
liament, .should such an event sooner take 
place, 

" Resolved, unanimously, That the court 
of Portugal has acted towards this king- 
doiu, being a part of the British empire, in 



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Mii-li ii manner, .'is to call upon us to declare, 
and pledge ourselves to each Other, thai we 
will not consume anj wine .if tin' growth of 
Portugal, and that we will, t<> the extent of 
our inrin. -nee, prevent t he use of Baid wine, 
brvc and except the wine at present in this 
kingdom, until Bueh time as our exports 
shall be received in the kingdom of Portu- 
gal, as the manufactures of part of iho Brit- 
ish empire. 

" Resolved, with two dissenting voices 
only to this and the following resolution, 
That we hold the right of private judgment, 
in matters of religion, to be equally sacred 
in others as ourselves* 

" Resolved, therefore, That as men and as 
Irishmen, as Christians and as Protestants, 
we rejoice in the relaxation of the penal 
laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-sub- 
jects, and that we conceive the measure to 
be fraught with the happiest consequences 
to the Union and prosperity of the inhabit- 
ant; of Ireland." 

Si ime formal resolutions followed of thanks 
to Lord Charlemont, to Colonel Dawson, 
who had been active in getting up the Con- 
vention, and Co Colonel Irwin. The meeting 
terminated by the adoption of an address to 
the Patriot minorities in the Lords and Com- 
mons, remarkable for its comprehensive 
brevity and admirable succinct eloquence: — 

"My Loisns A\n Gr.Nii.KMEN. — We thank 
you for your noble aud spirited, though 
hitherto ineffectual efforts, in defence of the 
great constitutional and commercial rights 
of your country. Go on. The almost 
unanimous voice of the people is with yon; 
and in a free country the voice of the people 
must prevail. We know our duty to our 
Sovereign, and are loyal. We know out- 
duty to ourselves, and are resolved to be 
free. We seek for our rights, and no more 
than our rights; and, in so just a pursuit, 
we should doubt the being of a Providence 
if we doubted of success. 
" Signed by order, 

"William Ikvine, Chairman." 

Bach were the proceedings at Dungannon. 
All Ireland adopted the resolutions; and 

meetings were held in every county formally 
to accept the exposition of the public, mind 
I'J 



which the Volunteers of Ulster had given. 
J'he freeholders of each county, and th 
grand juries adopted the resolutions. 

The delegates of Connaught met in pursu 
ance of the requisition of Lord Clanricarde ; 
the delegates of Munster assembled at Cork 
under the presidency of Lord Kingsborough, 
and the delegates of Leinster at Dublin 
under that of Colonel Henry Flood. 

It was in vain that the Government re- 
newed its old cabals, or made overt resist 
ance to the progress of the Dungannon 
movement. The example of the North was 
followed in every quarter. And what is 
peculiarly worthy of notice in the history of 
the day is this, that there was no diversity 
of opinion amongst the armed battalions in 
the different parts of the country. Such 
division of opinion, especially on the subject 
of the Catholics, might naturally have been 
expected ; but the result was one of great 
and singular unanimity on the important 
topics which agitated the public mind. 'J'he 
Dungannon resolutions constitute the char- 
ter of Irish freedom, embracing all the 
points necessary for the perfect independence 
of the country, legislative freedom, control 
over the army, religious equality, and free- 
dom of trade. They are the summary of 
the political requisitions of the Patriot party 
in the Parliament for which they had bi en 
struggling since the days of Molyneux, for 
which it was vain to struggle until an armed 
force was ready to take the field in their be- 
half. And no one can read the history of 
this great Convention without feeling that it 
was virtually a declaration of war, with the 
alternative of full concession of all the 
points of the charter of liberty. The Dun- 
gannon delegates were empowered by the 
nation, speaking through her armed citizens, 
to make terms or to enforce her rights; a 
hundred thousand swords were ready to 
obey their commands. England could not 
have brought into the field one-half that 
number; and the rights of Ireland were vir- 
tually declared on the 15 th of February. It 
was a marvellous moderation which content- 
ed it-elf with constitutional liberty in a po- 
litical connection with England, and subjec- 
tion to her monarch ; it would not have re- 
quired another regiment to have struck olF 
the last link of subjugation and to have es- 



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ta Wished t lie national liberty of Ireland on a 

wider basis tliau any upon which it ever 
Mood. 

In the mean time, and whilst general liber- 
ty was approaching towards its triumph, tol- 
eration to the Roman Catholics was making 
large and important strides. The declara- 
tion of the Dtingannon delegates, so general 
and so impressive, being the opinion of the 
whole armed delegation of Ulster with but 
two inglorious exceptions, had a very great 
effect through Ireland. It was unfortunate 
for the subsequent career of the Volunteers 
that the principles which their armed repre- 
sentatives propounded at Dtingannon, were 
not. adopted by some of their leading minds. 
The seeds of ruin lay deep in the intolerant 
exception of the Catholics from the general 
rule of liberty. It was unwise, it was un- 
gracious, it was impolitic. Flood and Charlo- 
moiit would have raised a lofty temple to 
freedom, but would not permit the great 
preponderant majority of the nation to en- 
ter its gates, nay, even 'Mo inscribe their 
names upon the entablature.'' But, though 
some, of the distinguished officers of the Vol- 
unteers would have thus withheld the bless- 
ings of liberty from their fellow-countrymen, 
it is to be borne in mind — and principally 
because much argument has been based upon 
the concessions granted since ihe Union bv 
the united legislature to the Catholics — that 
the principles of enlightened liberality made 
a wonderfully rapid progress in our native 
Parliament during the era of its glory. 

Mr. Gardiner's Catholic Relief bill was in- 
troduced on the loth of February, the same 
day on which the Dunganiioii Convention 
met in the church of Dungannon. Fitzgib- 
boll, afterwards Lord Clare, endeavored to 
defeat the measure by suggesting that it 
repealed the act of settlement, and disturbed 
Protestant titles. A good deal of alarm was 
created by his opinion, and time was taken 
to inquire into its soundness. On examina- 
tion it was considered bad, and the House 
went into committee on the bill on the 20th 
of February, 1782. The measure proposed 
to concede to the Catholics, 1st, the enjoy- 
ment of property ; 'idly, the free exeicise 
of their religion ; 3dly, the lights of educa- 
tion; -tthlv, of marriage; and Sthly, of car- 
rying arms. Flood supported the bill, but 



ungraciously labored to establish a distinc- 
tion between the rights of properly and the 
rights of power, lie said, '"Though I would 
extend toleration to the Roman Catholics, 
yet I would not wish to make a change in 
the state, or enfeeble the Government." Mr. 
Gardiner, replying to the objection, that if 
this bill should pass, there would no longer 
be any restraint oil Roman Catholics, said 
— '• But was it not a restraint upon a man 
that he could hold no trust nor office in the 
state? That he could not be a member of 
Parliament, a justice, or a grand-juror? 
That he could not serve in the army of his 
country, have a place in the revenue, be an 
advocate or attorney, or even become a free- 
man of the smallest corporation ? If gen- 
tlemen labored under these incapacities 
themselves, would they think them no re- 
straint?" FitZgibboi), who had endeavored 
to defeat the measure at first, on the ground 
that it would disturb Protestant liiKs, now 
supported it, saying that "though it would 
be improper to allow Papists to become pro- 
prietors of boroughs, there was no good rea- 
son why they should not possess estates in 
counties, nor why Protestant tenants holding 
under them should uot enjoy a right of vo- 
ting for members of Parliament.'' There 
was no question in this bill of allowing them 
to vote themselves, Still less of allowing them 
to be members of Parliament. The Attorney- 
General, Sir Hercules LangrisliC, Sir Henry 
Cavendish, Mr. Ogle, the Provost, Mr. Walsh, 

Mr. Daly, Sir Boyle Roche, and Mr, lingual, 
spoke warmly for the bill. In the course of 
the several debates upon these measures of 
Mr. Gardiner, there were many objectors to 
each clause, and their objections rested on 
diverse grounds. Mr. Flood's vehement op- 
position to giving the Catholics any rights 
which might gradually invest, them with po- 
litical power was sustained by Mr. Mont- 
gomery, Mr. Warburton, Mr. Rowley, Mr. 
John Burke and Mr. St. George. Many 
members, to their immortal honor, expressed 
themselves plainly and unreservedly a^ in 
favor of wiping off the whole Penal Code at 
once, not only in justice to the Catholics, 
hut for the benefit of the whole country. 
Amongst these we find the names of Sir 
Lucius O'Brien, Mr. Forbes, Mr. Hussey 
Burgh, Mr. Yelverton, Mr. Dillon, Captain 



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DEBATES OX GARIUXKIt S BILL. 



147 



Hall, mul Mr. Mossom. The clause permit- 
ting Catholics to go abroad for education 
was Btrenuously resisted lv Fitzgibbon, Ma- 
son, Bushe, and others. It is needless to 
say that Mr. Grattan supported all the bills, 
and all their clauses. Indeed (lie debates 
are chiefly interesting because they were the 
occasion of the enunciation by him, for tlie 
first time, of the grand and generous thought 
of a true Irish nationality. He said: "I 
object to any delay which can be given to 
this clause; we have already considered the 
subject on a larger scale, and this is but a 
part of what the clause originally contained. 
We have before us the example of England, 
who four years ago granted Catholics a right 
of talcing land in fee ; the question is mere- 
ly, whether we shall give this right or not, 
<3 and if.we give it, whether it shall be accom- 
panied by all its natural advantages? Three 
years ago, when this question was debated 
in this house, there was a majority of three 
against granting Catholics estates in fee, 
ami they were only allowed to take leases 
of 999 years. The argument then used 
against granting them the fee was, that they 
might influence elections. It has this day 
been shown, that they may have as effectual an 
influence by possessing leases of 999 years, 
as they can have by possessing the fee; at 
that time, I do declare I was somewhat pre- 
judiced against granting Roman Catholics 
estates in fee, but their conduct since that 
period has fully convinced me of their true 
attachment to this country. When this 
country had resolved no longer to crouch 
beneath the burden of oppression that 
England had laid upon her; when she armed 
in defence of her rights, and a high-spirited 
people demanded a free trade, did the 
Roman Catholics desert their countrymen \ 
No: they were found amongst the foremost. 
When it was afterwards thought necessary 
to assert a free constitution, the Roman 
Catholics displayed their public virtue; they 
did not endeavor to take advantage of your 
situation; they did not endeavor to make 
terms for themselves, but they entered frank- 
ly and heartily into the cause of the country; 
judging by their own \ ii tne, that they in ghl 
depend upon your generosity for their re- 
ward. But now, after you have obtained a 
free trade, alter the voice of the nation has 



asserted her independence, they approach 
this House as humble suppliants, and beg to 
be admitted to the common rights cf men. 
Upon the occasions I have mentioned, I did 
carefully observe their actions, and did then 
determine to support their cause whenever 
it came before this House, and to bear a 
strong testimony of the constitutional prin- 
ciples of the Catholic body. Nor should it 
be mentioned as a reproach to them that 
they fought under the banner of King 
James, when we recollect that before they 
entered the field, they extorted from him a 
Magna Cliarta, a British constitution. In 
1779, when the fleets of Bourbon hoveled 
on our coasts, and the Irish nation roused 
herself to arms, did the Roman Catholics 
stand aloof \ Or did they, as might be ex- 
pected from their oppressed situation, offer 
assistance to the enemy ? No : they poured 
in subscriptions for the service of their coun- 
try, or they pressed into the ranks of her 
glorious Volunteers. 

" It has been shown that this clause 
grants the Roman Catholics no new power in 
the state; every argument, therefore, which 
goes against this clause goes against their 
having leases for 999 years, every argument 
v. hich goes against their having leases for 999 
years, goes against their having any leases at 
all; and every argument which goes against 
their having property, goes against their hav- 
ing existence iu this land. The question is 
now, whither we shall grant Roman Catholics 
a power of enjoying estates, or whether we 
shall be a Protestant settlement or an Irish 
nation \ Whether we shall throw open the 
gates of the temple of liberty to all our 
countrymen, or whether we shall confine 
them in bondage by penal laws? So long 
as the Penal Code remains, we never can be 
a great nation ; the Penal Code is the shell 
in which the Protestant power has been 
hatched, and now it is become a bird, it 
must burst the shell asunder, or perish in it. 
I give my consent to the clause in its prin- 
ciple, extent, and boldness, and give my 
consent to it as the mo-t likely means of 
obtaining a victory over the prejudices of 
Catholics, and over our own. 1 give my 
consent to it, because I would not keep two 
millions of my fellow-subjects in a state of 
slavery ; and because, as the mover of the 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



''X'M 






Declaration of Rights, I should be ashamed 
of giving freedom to but six hundred thou- 
sand of my countrymen, when I could ex- 
tend it to two millions more." 

The relief measures of Mr. Gardiner were 
contained in three separate bills, very cau- 
tiously and moderately prepared, in order 
to avoid too rude a shock to the Protestant 
Ascendency. To read these bills with their 
restrictions and exceptions, gives a vivid idea 
of what Protestant Ascendency in Ireland 
then was. The first enables Catholics to 
take and hold, in the same manner as Prot- 
estants, any lands and hereditaments except 
advowsons, manors, and boroughs returning 
members to Parliament. It removes several 
penalties from such of the clergy as should 
have taken the oath and been registered; it 
confines its operation to the regular clergy 
then within that kingdom (by which the 
succession of other regulars from abroad 
might be prevented), it deprives any clergy- 
man officiating in a church or chapel with a 
steeple or bell of the benefit of the act, and 
repeals several of the most obnoxious parts 
of the acts of Anne and Geo. I. and Geo. II. 

The second of the series of measures re- 
lated to education — "An act to allow per- 
sons professing the Popish religion to teach 
school, and for regulating the education of 
Papists," etc. It repeals certain parts of the 
acts of William and Anne, which inflicted 
on any Catholic teaching school, or privately 
instructing youth in learning, the same 
pains, penalties, and forfeitures as any Popish 
regular clergyman was subjected to (trans- 
portation, and in case of return, death), but 
excepts, out of its benefits, those who should 
not have taken the oath of allegiance, who 
should receive a Protestant scholar, or who 
should become ushers under Protestant 
schoolmasters. The act also enables Cath- 
olics (except ecclesiastics) to be guardians to 
their own or any other Popish child. These 
two first bills passed, and became law. 

The third bill was for permitting inter- 
marriages between Protestants and Papists: 
but the liberality of the House had not yet 
arrived at such a revolutionary point : they 
felt that they must draw the line some- 
where; so they threw out this bill by a ma- 
jority of eight. 

Yet these wretched and pitiful measures, 



which by their small relaxations only made 
more offensively conspicuous the great op- 
pression of the Penal Code, were regarded 
in Ireland as a mighty effort of liberalism. 
Mr. Burke, who had a soul great enough to 
see the matter in its true light, thus speaks 
of these bills in his letter to a noble lord : — 
"To look at the bill, in the abstract, it is 
neither more nor less than a renewed act of 
universal, unmitigated, indispensable, excep- 
tionless disqualification. One would imagine 
that a bill inflicting such a multitude of in- 
capacities, had followed on the heels of a 
conquest made by a very fierce enemy, un- 
der the impression of recent animosity and 
resentment. No man, on reading that bill, 
could imagine that he was reading an act of 
amnesty and indulgence. This I say on 
memory. It recites the oath, and that 
Catholics ought to be considered as good 
and loyal subjects to his majesty, his crown, 
and government; then follows a universal 
exclusion of those good and loyal subjects 
from every, even the lowest, office of trust 
and profit, or from any vote at an election; 
from any privilege in a town corporate; 
from being even a freeman of such corpora- 
tions; from serving on grand juries; from a 
vote at a vestry ; from having a gun in his 
house, from being a barrister, attorney, soli- 
citor, or, etc., etc., etc. 

" This has surely more of the air of a 
table of proscriptions, than an act of grace. 
What must we suppose the laws concerning 
those good subjects to have been, of which 
this is a relaxation ? When a very great 
portion of the labor of individuals goes to 
the state, and is by the state again refunded 
to individuals through the medium of offices, 
and in this circuitous progress from the pub- 
lic to the private fund, indemnifies the fami- 
lies from whom it is taken, an equitable 
balance between the Government and the 
subject is established. Put if a great body 
of the people who contribute to this state 
lottery, are excluded from all the prizes, the 
stopping the circulation with regard to 
them must be a most cruel hardship, 
amounting in effect to being double and 
treble taxed, and will be felt as such to the 
very quick by all the families high and low, 
of those hundreds of thousands, who are 
denied their chance in the returned fruits of 



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BURKES OPINION OF GARDINER S RILLS. 



149 



their own industry. This is the thing 
meant by those who look on the public rev- 
enue only as a spoil ; and will naturally 
wish to have as few as possible concerned 
in the division of t lie booty. If a state 
should be so unhappy as to think it cannot 
6iibsist without such a barbarous proscrip- 
tion, the persons so proscribed ought to be 
indemnified by the remission of a huge part 
of their taxes, by an immunity from the 
offices of public burden, and by an exemp- 
tion from being pressed into any military or 
naval service. Why are Catholics excluded 
from the law ? Do not they expend money 
hi their suits? Why may not they indem- 
nify themselves by profiting in the persons 
of some for the losses incurred by others ? 
Why may they not have persons of confi- 
dence, whom they may, if they please, em- 
ploy in the agency of their affairs? The 
exclusion from the law, from grand juries, 
from sheriffships, uuder-sheriffships, as well 
as from freedom in any corporation, may 
subject them to dreadful hardships, as it 
may exclude them wholly from all that is 
beneficial, and expose them to all that is 
mischievous in a trial by jury." 

It has seemed needful to go into details 
on the provisions of these bills of Mr. Gar- 
diner, in order to show that at the very mo- 
ment wlren Ireland was proclaiming her in- 
dependence, and preparing to fight for it — 
reiving too upon the aid of the Catholic 
people— there were few indeed who so much 
as dreamed of making those Catholics citi- 
zens or members of civil society. This rad- 
ical vice is quite enough to account for the 
short life of Ireland as an independent na- 
tion. In truth nobody in Europe had any idea 
of religious equality, none doubted the right 
of the orthodox to possess themselves of the 
lauds and goods of the heterodox, until 
a few years after this period, when France 
gave the noble example of absolute equality 
before the law for all religions. 

In the course of this same eventful Febru- 
ary, Grattan brought on a new motion for 
an addre8S to the king, declaring the rights 
of Ireland. But within that corrupted at- 
mosphere, upon those bribed benches, was 
the very worst place for liberty to breathe. 

The time had not yet arrived, though it 
was near at hand, for the Irish Parliament 




to assent to the proposition of its own free- 
dom. They started hack reluctant from the 
glowing form of Liberty ; not even with a 
nation in aims behind them, anil with a 
man of the inspired eloquence of Grattan 
amongst their sordid ranks, could their valor 
and hi* genius triumph over the inveterate 
corruption and servility of that House. 
Grattan's motion was lost by a majority of 
137 to 68. But the fate of that statesman 
who had long sat at the fountain head of 
corruption, and who ministered so liberally 
to the profligacy of the Irish majority — the 
worst minister that England ever had, whose 
obstinate perseverance in principles opposed 
to the theory of the British constitution, lost 
to England the noblest member of her great 
confederation — was at length sealed. He 
was obliged to relinquish, with disgrace, the 
post he had held with dishonor. Defeat 
and disaster followed Lord North into his 
retirement, He was succeeded by Lord 
Rockingham and Charles Fox; Lord Car- 
lisle was recalled, and the Duke of Portland 
was chosen to administer the complicated 
affairs of Ireland. Grattan, on the 14th of 
March, declared that he would bring on the 
Declaration of Rights, and he moved, and 
succeeded iu carrying a very unusual sum- 
mons, that the House be called over on 
Tuesday, the 16th of April next, and that the 
Speaker do write circular letters to the mem- 
bers, ordering them to attend that day, as- 
they lender the rii/hls of the Irish Parliament. 
The Duke, of Portland made a triumphant 
entry into Dublin, and he was welcomed, 
fur no good reason that the history of the 
times cau give, with the loudest acclama- 
tions. His arrival appeared to promise the 
fulfilment of all the hopes of Ireland, and he 
received, by anticipation, a gratitude which 
he never deserved. But his coming had 
been preceded by some of the habitual pol- 
icy of his party. Letters of honeyed cour- 
tesy, as hollow as they were sweet, were 
dispatched by Fox to "his old and esteemed 
friend the good Earl of Cbarlemont."* 
Whig diplomacy and cunning never con- 
cocted a more singular piece of writing. 
He alludes with graceful familiarity to the 
long and pleasing friendship which had ex- 

* Hurdy's Life of Charlemout, vol. ii., p. i. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



I1M 



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isted between thein, ami after a variety of 
compliments, begs for a postponement of the 
House for three weeks, in order that the 
Dnke of Portland might have an oppor- 
tunity of inquiring into the Opinions of 
Lord Chavlcinont, and of gentlemen of the 
first weight and consequence. But Fox 
was well aware of their opinions. They 
were recorded in the votes and speeches of 
the two Houses, and in the military trans- 
actions of the Volunteers. No man knew 
them better tl.au Fox. He had beeu in 
communication with the leaders of the Pa- 
triot party, and was well aware of the 
merits of their claims. And his proposition 
was a feeble device to try the chapter of ac- 
cidents. But Charlemont was firm, for 
Grattan would give "no time." The general 
of the Volunteers replied in terms of cour- 
teous dignity, but unwonted determination. 
He told the wily minister of England that 
the Declaration of Rights was universally 
looked up to as an essential and necessary 
preliminary to any confidence in the new 
administration. "We ask for our tights — 
our incontrovertible rights— restore them to 
u*, and forever unite in the closest and best 
riv.tcd bonds of affection, the kingdom of 
Ireland to her beloved, though hitherto un- 
kind sister." This was the sentimental cant 
of politics; but the upshot was, that the 
Declaration of Rights was to be moved on 
the 16th of April, and it was only left to the 
genius of intrigue to yield with assumed 
grace what England dared no longer with- 
hold. No civil letters to courtly vanity— no 
philosophic generalities and specious prom- 
ises could effect any thing with Volunteer 
artillery. The epistles had all the graces of 
Horace Walpole, and were abundant in com- 
pliments; the compliments were returned, 
but the Declaration was retained. Grattan, 
if his own wisdom could have allowed it, 
would not have dared to pause. He stood 
in the fist rank— a hundred thousand men 
were behind him in arms — he could not hes- 
itate. It was his glory, and his wisdom to 
advance. And he advanced in good earnest, 
nor staid his foot till it was planted on the 
ruins of usurpation. 

On the 9th of April. Fox communicated 
to the House of Commons in England, the 
following message from the king : — 




"Georije It.: His Majesty, being concerned 
to find that discontent and jealousies are 
prevailing among his loyal subjects in Ire- 
land, upon matters of great weight and im- 
portance, earnestly recommends to this 
House, to take the same into their most 
set ions consideration, in order to such a 
final adjustment as may give mutual satis- 
faction to both kingdoms. G. R " 

A similar communication was made to 
the Irish Parliament by John Hely Hutchin- 
son, principal secretary of state in Ireland, 
who, at the same time, stated that he hail 
uniformly maintained the right of Ireland 
to independent and exclusive legislation, and 
declared that he would give his earnest sup- 
port to any assertion of that right whether 
by vote of the House, by address, or by en- 
actment. 

A scene of still greater excitement and 
interest occurred on this occasion, th^n that 
which had so carried away the ci izens of 
Dublin two years before, when Grattan first 
introduced the question of Irish lights. 
The nation had become strong and confident 
by success — they had achieved free trad — ■ 
their military organization had attained the 
greatest perfection of discipline ami skill — 
their progress was, indeed, triumphant, they 
had but one short step to take. There was, 
therefore, great excitement through Ireland 
as to the issue of Grattan's Declaration of 
Right, not that they apprehended failure, but 
that all men felt anxious to see the realiza- 
tion of their splendid hopes. The streets of 
Dublin were lined with the Volunteers — the 
House of Commons was a great centre, 
round which all the city appeared moving. 
Inside, rank and fashion and genius were 
assembled ; outside, arms were glistening 
and drums sounding. It was the commence- 
ment of a new government, and the king 
had sent a message of peace to Ireland. 

The message was similar to that delivered 
to the English House, and when it had been 
read, Mr. George Ponsonbv moved that an 
addnss should be presented, which might 
mean anv thing, and meant nothing. It was 
to tell his majesty that the Hou-e was thank- 
ful for a sjracious message, and that it would 
take into its serious consideration the dis- 
contents and jealousies which had arisen in 
Ireland, the causes ot which should be in- 



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ADDRESS TO Till; KING ASSERTING IRISH INDEPENDENCE. 



151 



vestigated with all convenient dispatch, and 
be submitted to the royal justice and wisdom 
of liis majesty. 

When this motion, very full of tlic solemn 
plausibilities of loyalty and the generalities 
of pretended patriotism, w.-is made, Henry 
Grattan rose to move his amendment. It 
was a moment of great interest. The suc- 
cess of the motion was certain, but all par 
lies were anxious to learn the extent of the 
demands which Grattan was about to make. 
As the k herald and oracle of his armed 
countrymen" he moved the amendment 
which contained the rights of Ireland ; and 
confident of its success, he apostrophized his 
country as already free, and appealed to the 
memory of those great men who had first 
taught the doctrine of liberty which his no- 
bler genius had realized. He moved : 

"That a humble address be presented to 
his majesty, to return his majesty the 
thanks of this House for his most gracious 
message to this House, signified by his 
grace the lord-lieutenant. 

"To assure his majesty of our unshaken 
attachment to his majesty's person and 
government, and of our lively sense of his 
paternal care in thus taking the lead to ad- 
minis'er content to his majesty's subjects 
of Ireland. 

"That, thus encouraged by his royal in- 
terposition, we shall be^ leave, with all duty 
and affection, to lay before his majesty the 
causes of our discontents and jealousies. 
To :;sMire his majesty that his subjects of 
Ireland arc a free people. That the crown 
of Ireland is an impel ial crown inseparably 
annexed to the crown of Great Britain, on 
which connection the interests and happi- 
ness of both nations essentially depend : but 
that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct 
kingdom, with a Parliament of her own — 
the sole legislature thereof. That there is 
no body of men competent to make laws to 
bind this nation except the King, Lords, and 
Commons, o£ Ireland ; nor any other Parlia- 
ment which hath any authority or power of 
any sort whatsoever in this country save 
only the Parliament of Ireland. To assure 
baa majesty, that we humbly conceive that 
in this right the very essence of our liberties 
exists; a right which we, on the part of a 
the people of Ireland, do claim as their 



birthright, and which we cannot yield but 
with our lives. 

"To assure his majesty, that we have 
seen with concern certain claims advanced 
by the Parliament of Great Britain, in an 
act entitled 'An act for the better securing 
the dependency of Ireland :' an act con- 
taining matter entirely irreconcilable lo the 
fundamental rights of this nation. That we 
conceive this act, and the claims it advances, 
to be the great and principal cause of the 
discontents and jealousies in this kingdom. 

"To assure his majesty, that his majesty's 
Commons of Ireland do most sincerely 
wish that all bills which become law in Ire- 
land should receive the approbation of his 
majesty under the seal of Great Britain; 
but that yet we do consider the practice of 
suppressing our bills in the council of Ire- 
land, or altering the same anywhere, to be 
another just cause of disconteut and jeal- 
ousy. 

" To assure his majesty, that an act, en- 
titled 'An act for the better accommodation 
of his majesty's forces,' being unlimited 
in duration, and defective in other instances, 
but passed in that shape from the particular 
circumstances of the times, is another just 
cause of discontent and jealousy in this 
kingdom. 

"That we have submitted these, the prin- 
cipal causes of the present discontent and 
jealousy of Ireland, and remain in humble 
expectation of redress." 

The address was carried unanimously in 
both Houses; and Parliament took a short 
recess, to allow time for the matter to be 
dealt with in England. Nobody, either in 
Ireland or in England, doubted the issue. 
It w;is quite certain that the declaration of 
the Irish Parliament was all-sufficient to es- 
tablish the liberty of the country. 

One may now be allowed to regret that 
Lord North's administration was no longer 
in power. In that case England would have 
refused concession ; would have attempted 
to enforce her pretensions in Ireland: war 
would have been the inevitable result; Ire- 
land would have necessarily made an alli- 
ance with France, wh.se great Revolution 
was now rapidly approaching ; sotheie would 
iave been happily an end to the British 
empire. Uufuituuately the statesmen of 



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tbat country were as wise as they weie 
treacherous. On the 17th of May, simulta- 
neously in the two Houses at Westminster, 
Lord Shelburue in the Lords and Mr. Fox in 
the Commons, having read the addresses of 
the Irish Parliament, moved— "That it was 
the opinion of that House that the act of 
the 6th Geo. I., entitled 'An Act for the 
better securing the dependency of Ireland 
upon the Crown of Great Britain,' ought to 
be repealed." 

On the 27th of May, the Duke of Port- 
land officially communicated to the Irish 
Parliament this great and memorable con- 
cession, which he said came from "the 
magnanimity of the king and the wisdom 
of the Parliament;" closing his message 
with these words: — "On my own part I en- 
tertain not the least doubt but that the 
same spirit which urged you to share the 
freedom of Great Britain will confirm you 
in your determination to share her fate also, 
standing or falling with the British nation." 
This is the kind of cant which has ruined 
Ireland : yet the plain and eternal truth — 
that while the British nation stands, Ireland 
must fall, and vice versa, was even then 
well understood by Irish patriots, and often 
avowed by Grattan himself. "Ireland," 
said lie, " Ireland is in strength; she has 
acquired that strength by the weakness of 
Britain, for Ireland was saved when America 
was lost : when England conquered, Ireland 
was coerced ; when she was defeated, Ire- 
land was relieved ; and when Charleston 
was taken, the mutiny and sugar bills were 
altered. Have you not all of you, when 
you heard of a defeat, at the same instant 
condoled with England, and congratulated 
Ireland ? " 

"Poyning's Law" was still on the statute- 
book ; and the work of enfranchisement was 
not complete until it was repealed : as it 
was an Irish statute, it was the Irish Parlia- 
ment which had to repeal it; and this was 
immediately done on motion of Mr. Yelver- 
ton. Grattan introduced a bill "to punish 
mutiny and desertion," which repealed the 
perpetual mutiny act and restored to Par- 
liament a due control over the army ; also 
another bill to reverse erroneous judgments 
and decrees, a measure which was supposed 
at the time to have settled the question of 



the final judicature of Ireland, and to have 
taken from the English Lords and King's 
Bench their usurped appellate jurisdiction. 

At the same time that the legislature 
was thus taking securities and guarantees 
(as it thought) for permanent independence, 
it was not forgetfnl of the honorable debt 
due to the ruau who, above all others, had 
conduced to restore the dignity and inde- 
pendence of Ireland. Fifty thousand pounds 
were voted to Henry Grattan, his friends 
having declined for him the larger tribute 
of £100,000 as at first proposed, and having 
also refused an insidious offer of the Phoe- 
nix Park and Viceregal Lodge, which had 
been made by Mr. Conolly on the part of 
the Government. 

Ir.land was now, at least formally and 
technically, an independent nation. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

1783—1784. 

Effects of Independence— Settlement not final — 
English plots tor the Union — Corruption of lrisl 
Parliament— Enmity of Flood and Grattan — Ques- 
tion between them — Renunciation Act— Second 
Dungannon Convention— Convention of Delegates 
in Dublin — Catholics excluded from all Civil Rights 
— Lord Kenmare — Lord Kenmare disavowed — 
Lord Temple — Knights of St. Patrick— Portland 
viceroy — Judicatioc Bill — Habeas Corpus— Bank 
of Ireland— Repeal of Test Act — Proceedings of 
Convention — Flood's Reform Bill — Rejected — 
Convention dissolved — End of the Volunteers — 
Militia. 

It would be extremely pleasing to have 
now to record, that this natiou, thus eman- 
cipated by a generous impulse of patriotism, 
and launched forth on a higher and wider 
career of existence, gave a noble example of 
public virtue, tolerance, purity, and liberal- 
ity. Such is not the record we are to give. 
England had not (of course) yielded the in- 
dependence of her "sister island" in good 
faith. Finding herself, for the moment, un- 
able to crush the rising spirit of her Irish 
colony by force, she feigned to give way for 
a time, well determined to have her revenge, 
either by fraud or force, or by any possible 
combination of those two agencies. From 
the very moment of the acknowledgment 
of Ireland's freedom, British ministers began 
to plot the perpetration of " the Union." 




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The very nobility of Dature and unsus- 
picious generosity of the leading Irish pa- 
triot of the da)", so prompt and eager to 
gush out in unmerited gratitude, so cordially 
impatient to put away every shadow of ill- 
will between the two "sister countries," 
gave the English administration a great ad- 
vantage in devising their plans for our utter 
ruin. 

" It is difficult," says Mr. MacNevin, " to 
have much sympathy for the extravagant 
amount of gratitude awarded to the British 
Parliament by the leading men of the day 
in Ireland. They treated the rights of Ire- 
land as though their establishment was not 
the work of Irishmen but the free gift of 
English magnanimity. Aud the address 
moved by Grattan 'did protest too much.'" 
Nothing can be imagined more artlessly in- 
nocent than this address moved by Mr. 
Grattan in reply to the viceroy's official an- 
nouncement to Parliament of the repeal of 
the declaratory act. It assures his majesty 
'• that no constitutional question between the 
two countries will any longer exist which 
can interrupt their harmony, and that 
Gnat Britain as she has approved our firm- 
ness so she may rely on our affection." It 
further assures his majesty "that we learn 
with singular satisfaction the account of his 
successes in the East and West Indie*," etc. : 
— which was doubtlessly extremely polite, 
but essentially false and foolish, because the 
mover of the address, and every one who 
voted for it, knew well that successes of Eng- 
land anywhere in the world were disasters 
to Ireland. 

Lord Clare, who understood the true re- 
lations between the two countries better 
than any other Irish statesman, in order to 
prove that the transactions of 1782, between 
Great Britain and Ireland were not consid- 
ered as final, tells us, that on the Cth of 
June the Duke of Portland thus wrote to 
Lord Shelburne : " I have the best reason 
to hope that I shall soon be enabled to 
transmit to you the sketch or outlines of an 
act of Parliament to be adopted by the 
legislatures of the respective kingdoms, by 
which the superintending power and supre- 
macy of Great Britain, in all matters of 
state and general commerce, will be virtually 

J effectually acknowledged ; that a share 
20 




of the expense in carrying on a defensive or 
offensive war, either in support of our own 
dominions, or those of our allies, shall bi 
borne by Ireland in proportion to the actua 
state of her abilities, and that she will adopt 
every such regulation as may be judged ne- 
cessary by Great Britain for the better or- 
dering and securing her trade and commerce 
with foreign nations, or her own colonies 
and dependencies, consideration being duly 
had to the circumstances of Ireland. I am 
flattered with the most positive assurances 

from and of their support 

in carrying such a bill through both Houses 
of Parliament, and I think it most advisable 
to bring it to perfection at the present mo- 
ment." And he happened to know from an 
official quarter, that the sketch of such an 
act of Parliament was then drawn. He 
knew the gentleman who framed it, and he 
knew from the same quarter, that blank and 
blank and blank and blank did unequivocal- 
ly signify their approbation of it. This 
communication was received with the satis- 
faction which it demanded by the British 
cabinet. On the 9th of June Lord Shel- 
burne wrote to the Duke of Portland in an- 
swer to his last dispatch: "The contents 
of your grace's letter of the 6th hist, are 
too important to hesitate about detaining 
the messenger, whilst I assure your grace of 
the satisfaction which I know your letter 
will give the king. I have lived in the 
most auxious expectation of some such meas- 
ure offering itself: nothing prevented my 
pressing it in this dispatch, except having 
repeatedly stated the just expectations of 
this country, I was apprehensive of giving 
that the air of demand, which would be 
better left to a voluntary spirit of justice 
and foresight. No matter who has the 
merit, let the two kingdoms be one, which 
can only be bv Ireland now acknowledging 
the superintending power and supremacy to 
be where nature has placed it, in precise and 
unambiguous terms. I am sure I need not 
inculcate to your grace the importance of 
words in an act, which must decide on the 
happiness of ages, particularly in what re- 
gards contribution and trade, subjects most 
likely to come into frequent question." 

It was easy for British statesmen to find 
iu Ireland the suitable material for their 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



usual system of corruption ; because the 
Parliament did not at all represent the na- 
tion. Not only were four-fifths of the peo- 
ple expressly excluded, as Catholics, from all 
share in the representation ; but of the 
three hundred members of the House of 
Commons, only seventy-two were really re- 
turned by the people : 123 sat for " nomi- 
nation boroughs," and represented only their 
patrons. Fifty-three peers directly appointed 
these legislators, and could also insure by 
their influence the election of about ten 
others. Fifty commoners also nominated 
ninety-one members, and controlled the 
election of four others. With such a con- 
dition of the popular representation, the 
British ministry knew that they could soon 
render it manageable ; and they only waited 
till their own foreign troubles should be over 
to re-establish the supremacy "where nature 
has placed it." 

The first evil omen for Ireland was the 
rivalry, or rather downright enmity of 
Flood and Grattan. The former had resign- 
ed his place, in order to act freely with the 
Patriots, and had labored by the side 
of Grattan in forming and inspiring the Vol- 
unteer force, and the potent public spirit 
which at length wrested from England's 
reluctant hands the formal recognition of 
Ireland's independence. If he ranks lower 
than Grattan on the roll of the Patriot 
party, it is because he remained to the last 
an enemy of Catholic emancipation, and per- 
sisted in favoring that vicious and petty pol- 
icy of confining the nation, with all its 
powers and rights, to one-fifth part of the 
inhabitants. 

In the first essential difference between 
these two men, Flood was clearly in the 
right. It was his opinion that a simple re- 
peal of the declaratory act of George the 
First by England was not a sufficient securi- 
ty against the resumption of legislative con- 
trol. His argument was intelligible enough : 
The 6th of George the First was only a de- 
claratory act ; a declaratory act does not make 
or unmake but only declare the law ; and 
neither could its repeal make or unmake the 
l.'.w. The repeal, unless there was an ex- 
press renunciation of the principle — is only 
a repeal of the declaration, and not of the 
legal principle. The principle remained as 




before, unless it was specially renounced. 
Many acts had been passed by thy British 
Parliament binding Ireland, and some of 
them before the declaratory act of George 
The act did not legalize these statutes ; it 
oidy declared that the principle of their en- 
actment was legal— its repeal does not es- 
tablish their illegality, but only repeals the 
declaration. Flood was historically right. 
In the reign of William and Mary, the Eng- 
lish Parliament usurped the absolute right 
of making laws for Ireland, and in 1691 
passed an act to make a fundamental altera- 
tion in the constitution of this country by- 
excluding Roman Catholics, who were the 
majority of the nation, from a seat in the 
Lords and Commons. It was true, he 
argued, that the Irish had renounced the 
claim of Englaud, but could such renuncia- 
tion be equal to a renunciation by England? 
In any controversy could the assertion of a 
party in his own favor be equal to the ad- 
mission of his antagonists Fitzgibbon was 
of the same opinion as Flood, and both in- 
sisted ou an express renunciation by Eng- 
land. 

Grattan, on the other hand, refused the 
security of a British statute, and exclaimed 
that the people had not come to England 
for a charter but with a charter, and asked 
her to cancel all declarations in opposition 
to it. It must be said that Ireland had no 
charter, ller Declaration of Right was not, 
a Bill of Rights, and Flood asked for a Bill 
of Bights. He was not satisfied without an 
express renunciation. But what guarantee 
against future usurpation by a future Parlia- 
ment, was any renunciation, however strong 1 
The true security for liberty was the spirit 
of the people and the arms of the Volun- 
teers. When that spirit passed away, re- 
nunciations and statutes were no more than 
parchment — the faith of England remained 
the same as ever, unchangeable. 

Whatever were the merits of the contro- 
versy, it was pregnant with the worst effects. 
The Parliament adopted the views of Grat- 
tan ; the Volunteers sided with Flood. A 
Bill of Rights, a great international com- 
pact, a plain specific deed, the statement, of 
the claims of Ireland and the pledge of the 
faith of England would have been satisfac- 
tory, and it must be confessed that men 



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ENMITY OF FLOOD AND GRATTAN. 



were not far astray in asking for it. But 
unfortunately, the great minds of the day 
so far participated in the weaknesses of hu- 
manity as to yield to small impulses and 
to plunge into a rivalry fatal to their coun- 
try, in place of uniting their powers for 
the completion of a noble and. glorious un- 
dertaking. It was unfortunate for their 
glory— it was fatal for liberty.* Flood, 
though legally right in the argument and 
wise in his suggestions, may unwittingly 
have permitted himself to be influenced by 
a feeling of jealousy. He had seeu the lau- 
rels he had been so long earning, placed on 
the brow of a younger and certainly a 
greater man, and his dissatisfaction was an 
unfortunate but a natural feeling. On the 
other hand, Grattan, whose peculiar work 
was the Declaration of Eights, felt indignant 
at the imputation cast ou his wisdom, and 
the impeachment of his policy by the meas- 
ures which Flood proposed. When Flood 
was refused leave lo bring in his Bill of 
Bights ou the 19th of June, Grattan, who 
had opposed it in one of his finest speeches, 
moved a resolution, which appears very in- 
defensible, " that the legislature of Ireland 
is independent; and that auy person who 
shall by writing or otherwise, maintain that 
a right in any other country to make laws 
for Ireland internally or externally exists or 
can be revived, is inimical to the peace of 
both kingdoms." It was a strong measure 
to denounce as a public enemy the wary 
statesman who read futurity with more cau- 
tion than himself. He withdrew his motion 
and substituted another : " that leave was 
refused to bring in said heads of a bill, be- 
cause the sole and exclusive right of legisla- 
tion, in the Irish Parliament in all cases, 

* " It wns deeply lamented tlmt at a moment crit- 
ical and vital to Ireland beyond all former precedent, 
an Inveterate and almost vnlgaz hostility should 
liave prevented the co-operation of men, whose 
counsels and talents would bave secured its inde- 
pendence. But that jealous lust for undivided 
honor, the eternal enemy of patriots and liberty, led 
them away even beyond the ordinary limits of par- 
liamentary decorum. The old courtiers fanned the 
Rami — the new ones added fuel to it— and the inde- 
pendence of Ireland was eventually lust by the dis- 
tracting result of their animosities, which in a few 
years was used as an instrument to annihilate that 
very legislature, the preservation of which had been 
the theme of their hostilities." — Harrington's lose 
and fall, chap. xvii. 



whether internally or externally, hath I n 

already asserted by Ireland; and fully, finally 
and irrevocably acknowledged by the Brit- 
ish Parliament." 

The opinion of the Lawyers' corps of Vol 
unteerswas in favor of Flood's interpretation 
of the constitutional, relations of the two 
countries. They considered that repealing 
a declaration was not destroying a principle, 
aud that a statute renouncing any pre-exist- 
ing right, was an indispensable guarantee 
for future security. They appointed a com- 
mittee to inquire into the question, which 
reported that it was necessary that an ex- 
press renunciation should accompany the 
repeal of the Ctli of George the First. 
Whereupon the corps of Independent Dub- 
lin Volunteers, of which Grattan was colo- 
nel, presented him with an address. They 
reviewed the whole argument, and ended by 
requesting their colonel to assist with his 
hearty concurrence and strenuous support, 
the opinions propounded by a committee 
"chosen from the best-informed body in this 
nation." Such an address, including at one 
and the same time, an approbation of the 
course pursued by Flood, and a request to 
Grattan to support the doctrines he had from 
the first opposed, was construed by his nice 
seuse of honor into a dismissal from his 
command. He did not resign lest his regi- 
ment might construe a peremptory resigna- 
tion as an offence. But he told them, that 
in the succession of officers, thev would 
have an opportunity "to indulge the rauge 
of their disposition." lie was, however, re- 
elected, nor did he lose the command until 
the October of the next year, when ho voted 
against retrenchment in the army. The 
Belfast First Volunteer company also ad- 
dressed him. Doubts, they said, had arisen 
whether the repeal of the Oth of George 
the First was a sufficient renunciation of 
the power formerly exercised over Ireland , 
they thought it advisable that a law should 
be enacted similar to the addresses which 
had been moved to his majesty, and which 
embodied the declaration of the Rights of 
Ireland. Grattan's answer was laconic, but 
explicit. He said he had given the fullest 
consideration to their suggestions: he was 
sorry he differed from them; he conceived 
their doubts to be ill-fouuded. With great 




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respect to their opinions, and unalterable at- 
tachment to their interest, he adhered to 
lie latter. They received a different an- 
wer from Flood, whom they admitted as a 
member of their corps. Similar circum- 
stances occurring in different other regi- 
ments, conduced to foster the evil passions 
of those two distinguished men, until they 
br. ike out into a disgraceful and virulent 
personal dispute. But there were worse 
consequences attending this unfortunate 
quarrel. Men whose united talents and zeal 
would have rendered secure the edifice of 
their joint labors, and the monument of 
their glory, were prompted to the adoption 
of different lines of policv. Grattan refused 
to advance. Flood was all for progress. 
Had both united to reform the constitution, 
and to secure its permanence, that event, 
which eventually put a period to the existence 
of the legislature of Ireland, would never 
have occurred. A decision in the Court of 
King's Bench of England, by Lord Mans- 
field, in an Irish case brought there by ap- 
peal, seemed to affirm the arguments, and 
to give weight to the objections of Flood. 
Mr. Towushend, in introducing in the Eng- 
lish Commons the Renunciation Bill (Jan- 
uary, 1783), said, that doubts were enter- 
tained as to the sufficiency of the simple 
repeal, and hail been increased by a late 
decision in the Court of King's Bench, 
which, however, he was informed, the court 
was bound to give, the case having coine 
uiiikr its cognizance before any question as 
to the appellate jurisdiction in Irish matters 
had been raised. He then moved "that, 
have be given to bring in a bill for remov- 
ing and preventing all doubts which have 
arisen, or may arise, concerning the exclu- 
sive rights of the Parliament and courts of 
Ireland, in matters of legislation and judica- 
ture, and for preventing any writ of error, 
or appeal from any of his majesty's courts* 
in Ireland from being received, hoard, or 
adjusted in any of his majesty's courts in 
this kingdom; and that Mr. Townshend, 
General Conway, Mr. Pitt, Mr. William 
Grenville, and the Attorney and Solicitor 
General do bring in the bill." The motiou 
passed without a division, and the Renuncia- 
tion Bill was the result, This vindicated 
the correctness of Flood's reasoning — it did 



not afford any additional security to liberty 
A solemn international compact, and inter- 
nal reform of Parliament were still required 
to render secure and indefeasible the settle- 
ment of '82. It is a matter of serious and 
grave regret, that Grattan did not take the 
same leading part in obtaining parliamentary 
reform, and relieving the legislature from 
internal influence, as in emancipating it 
from foreign control. He would have been 
a safe counsellor to the Volunteers ; and, 
had it been found advisable and consistent 
with the spirit of the constitution to ap- 
peal to another assembly of armed dele- 
gates, it would have met under better aus- 
pices than the Dublin Convention of 1783 — 
nor would it have terminated so ignomin- 
iously. But he was influenced by weaker 
counsels; and, admitting that no evil pas- 
sion of any kind was busy with him, we are 
forced to believe that he allowed his manly 
judgment to be swayed by inferior and 
timid minds. Reform was plainly necessary 
to the completion of his own labors. The 
House of Commons did not represent the 
people, nor did its construction give any 
guarantee for the security of popular liber- 
tics. Such a body might be forced into 
great and extraordinary virtue, as it was in 
'82; under such unusual influences, with the 
Volunteers in arms throughout the whole 
country, and men like Grattan, Burgh, and 
Flood amongst them, they were unable to 
resist the tide that was flowing; but there 
was no principle of stability in them, they 
were irresponsible and corrupt. Reform 
was the obvious corollary of the Declaration 
of Right. Had the framers of the constitu- 
tion of '82 united to consolidate and secure 
their own work, and ceased from the insane 
contentions by which they disgraced their 
success; had they given a popular charac- 
ter to the legislature which they freed from 
external control, and converted it. into the 
veritable organ of the national will, by con- 
ferring extensive franchises on the people, 
by including the Catholics in their scheme, 
and putting an end to the system of close 
boroughs, it would have been impossible for 
auv English minister, without a war, whose 
issue would have been doubtful, to destroy 
the legislative existence of the country by 
a union. 



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And this they could have done. The 
Volunteers were still in force. One hun- 
dred thousand men were in arms, and had 
urgently pressed upon their leaders the in- 
sufficiency of their work: they had de- 
manded reform in every provincial meeting* 
— at Belfast, on the 9th of June, 1783, a 
meeting of delegates from thirty-eight corps 
of Volunteers assembled after a review, and 
adopted the following resolution : — 

" Resolved, unanimously, That at an era 
so honorable to the spirit, wisdom, and loy- 
alty of Ireland, a more equal representa- 
tion of the people in Parliament deserves 
the deliberate attention of every Irishman ; 
as that alone which can perpetuate to future 
ages the inestimable possession of a free 
constitution. In this sentiment, we are 
happy to coincide with a late decision of 
the much-respected Volunteer army of the 
Province of Minister ; as well as with the 
opinion of that consummate statesman, the 
late Earl of Chatham; by whom it was held 
a favorite measure for checking venalitv, 
'promoting public virtue, and restoring the 
native spirit of the constitution." 

Similar meetings were had, and similar 
resolutions adopted in every part of Ireland. 
If the spirit of the Volunteers had been 
wisely directed, and their exertions turned 
into the proper channel, there seems to be 
no reason to doubt that the constitution and 
liberties of Ireland would have been firmly 
secured on a basis that would have with- 
stood the efforts of England. In the latter 
country, the question of Reform had met 
with the sanction of the Duke of Richmond 
aud Mr. Pitt. Reform associations had been 



* Towards the end of 1782, the Government set 
on foot a plan whose design was obvious enough — 
the embodying of Fenoible regiments. The Volun- 
teers took fire, and held meetings to oppose it in 
every quarter. Gahvay took the initiative, and was 
followed by Dublin and Belfast. The resolutions 
passed at the Tholsel in Gahvay, on the 1st of Sep- 
tember, 1782, to the effect that the Volunteers wore 
most interested in the defence of the country, and 
moat adequate to the duty — that raising Fencible 
region n'- without sanction of Parliament, was. un- 
COtlstituti'-nal, nor justified by ncecs.-iiy, and might 
be dftngeronj) t" liberty — were adopted at several 
meetings. The Belfast company met, protested 

a.' -t ^.e tie. isure, and addressed Flood. The 

plan was not then curried into execution. It was a 
manifest attempt to terrify and overawe the Volun- 
teers. Tiny wire too strong as yet to submit. 



formed, two of which, the "Yorkshire Asso- 
ciation," aDd the "London Constitutional 
Knowledge Society," entered into correspon- 
dence with the Volunteers, applauded their 
spirit, and urged upon them the utility of 
holding a national convention of the dele- 
gates of the four provinces. 

It was a suggestion quite consonant to their 
spirit and to their views, and they lost no 
time in acting upon it. In the month of 
July, 1783, delegates from several corps in 
Ulster summoned a general assembly of 
delegates from the entire province for the 
8th of September. Five hundred represent- 
atives met in pursuance of this requisition 



r 1 / 



at Duno-aut 



Flood travelled from Dub- 



lin to attend, but was detained on the road 
by illness. The Earl of Bristol was present, 
and took an active part in the proceedings. 
He was the son of Lord Hervey, and made 
a considerable figure for a few years in the 
proceedings of the Volunteers. There is no 
man of whom more opposite opinions are 
given. Whilst some represent him as a man 
of elegant erudition and extensive learning, 
others paint him as possessing parts more 
brilliant than solid, as being generous but 
uncertain ; splendid but fantastic ; an ama- 
teur without judgment ; and a critic without 
taste; engaging but licentious in conversa- 
tion ; polite but violent ; in fact, possessing 
many of the qualities which the satirist at- 
tributes to another nobleman of his country, 
the fickle and profligate Villiers. There 
could be no greater contrasts in his character 
than in his conduct and position. He wore 
an English coronet and an Irish mitre; at 
some have thought that he was visionary 
enough to have assumed the port of the trib- 
une ouly to obtain the power of a sovereign. 
He was indeed monarchical in his splendor 
— his retinue exceeded that of the most af- 
fluent nobleman — his equipages were mag- 
nificent — he delighted in the acclamations 
of the populace, aud the military escort 
which surrounded his carriage.f He was a 

* Mr. Grattan says this meeting tool; place at a 
meeting-house of dissenters in Belfast. The state- 
ment in the text is on the authority of the Historical 
Collection- relating to Belfast, p. 255, and Belfast 
Politics, p. 245. See also a pamphlet, History of 
the Convention, published in 1784. 

t lie was escorted to the Kotunda Convention by 
n troop of light dragoons, commanded by his nephew, 



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158 



niSTOKT OF IREI.ANR. 



man who possessed princely qualities ; be 
was costly, luxurious, munificent, and, in the 
strange antithesis of his position — bishop, 
earl, demagogue — was formed to attract the 
nation amongst which he had cast his lot. 
But his qualities were not dangerous; Gov- 
ernment was more afraid of him than they 
needed to be; and he effected little iu the 
history of his day, more than playing a 
splendid part in a transitory pageant. 

The second Dungannon Convention elect- 
ed for its president Mr. James Stewart, 
afterwards Marquis of Londonderry. He 
was the friend of Lord Charlemont. They 
passed a number of resolutions, but the 
most important was the following: — 

"That a committee of five persons be 
appointed to represent Ulster in a grand 
national Convention, to be held at noon, in 
the Royal Exchange of Dublin, on the 10th 
of November, then ensuing; to which, they 
hoped that each of the other provinces 
would send delegates to digest and publish a 
plan of parliamentary reform, to pursue 
such measures as may appear most likely 
to render it effectual ; to adjourn from time 
to time, and to convene provincial meetings 
if found necessary." 

Addresses were issued to the Volunteers 
of the three provinces, filled with the no- 
blest sentiments in favor of liberty, and 
abundant in the impassioned if not inflated 
eloquence in which the spirit of the day 
delighted to be clothed. There was, how- 
ever, an anomaly in their proceedings, and 
a striking and painful contrast between their 
abstract theories of liberty and their practi- 
cal manifestation. A proposition in favor 
of the Catholics was rejected. Here was a 
body of men, not endowed with the powers 
of legislation, but acting as a suggestive as- 
sembly, dictating to legislation the way in 
which it should go, and declaring that free- 
dom should be made more diffusive in its 
enjoyment ; yet they are found, on grave 
deliberation, rejecting from their scheme the 
vast body of the nation, whom they professed 
to emancipate and raise. The practical ab- 
surdity was the rock on which they split. 
And it is said regretfully and without re- 



Genrtro R. Fitzgerald. — Barringtoii s Hist and Fait 
oj the irisk Walton, c. 7. 



proach, that the influence of this intolerant 
principle upon their counsels is attributal 
to Lord Charlemont and Henry Flooi 
These good men were the victims of a nar- 
row religious antipathy, which prevented 
either of them from rendering permanent 
service to the cause of liberty. 

The interval between the Dungannon 
meeting and the Dublin Convention was 
stormy ; yet the first Parliament in the 
viceroyalty of Lord Northington opened 
with a vote of thanks to the Volunteers. 
This vote was the work of Government, It 
is most probable that it was a deprecatory 
measure, and intended to guard against any 
violence iu the Convention. This was the 
only measure of conciliation during the ses- 
sion. Sir Edward Newenham introduced 
the question of retrenchment in the public 
expenses, principally with reference to re- 
duction in the army. It was taken up 
warmly by Sir II. Cavendish ami Henry 
Flood ; and it certainly did appear as if this 
enmity to the regular army was a Volunteer 
sentiment, so strongly did the principal par- 
liamentary friends of that distinguished body 
persevere in the pressing upon the legislature 
the question of retrenchment. Grattau was 
opposed to any reduction in the regular 
forces — he said that it was a matter of com- 
pact that they remain at a certain standard 
settled in 1782, and he is accordingly found 
an opponent on all occasions of every pro- 
position of retrenchment. The question 
was unfortunate; it led to that degrading 
personal discussion which displayed the two 
greatest men in the country in the discredit- 
able attitude of virulent and vulgar personal 
animosity. On Sir H. Cavendish's motiou 
for reduction in the expenses of the kingdom, 
Flood eagerly and eloquently supported the 
proposition. But, wandering beyond the 
necessities of his argument, he indulged in 
some wanton reflections upon Grattau, and 
the result was an invective from the latter, 
so fierce, implacable, and merciless, that it 
leaves behind it at a great distance the finest 
specimens of recorded virulence. The es- 
trangement of these illustrious men was 
complete. And the triumph of their pas- 
sions was one, and not a very remote, cause 
of the downfall of their country. They 
could no longer unite to serve her; their 




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CONVENTION OF DELEGATES IN DUBLIN. 



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views, which bad differed so widely before, 
thenceforward became principles of antago- 
nism, to carry out which was a point of 
honor and an instinct of anger; and they 
whose combined wisdom would have ren- 
dried lilirrh secure, became unwittingly her 
most destructive enemies. The conservative 
policy of Grattan, and the progressive prin- 
ciples of Flood, in the acrimony of contest 
and the estrangement of parties, gave full 
opportunity to Government to perfect that 
scheme which ended in the Union. 

We have now arrived at what may well 
be called the last scene of the great political 
and military drama in which the Volunteers 
played such a distinguished part. At a 
time of great and pressing public peril, they 
sprung to arms and saved their country. 
Having dispelled the fears of foreign inva- 
sion and secured the integrity of Ireland, 
they found within her own system a greater 
enemy. They found trade restricted and 
legislation powerless. They emancipated in- 
dustry and commerce; and they restored a 
constitution. But with their achievements, 
their ambition increased, and concluding 
with reason that a constitution must be a 
nominal blessing, where the Parliament was 
not freely chosen by the people,* they re- 
solved upon employing their powerful or- 
ganization to procure a reform in Parlia- 
ment. How far this was consistent with 
tle-ir original principle — how far they should 
have left to the Parliament itself the re- 
modelling of its internal structure, and ap- 
pealed to its wisdom in their civilian charac- 
ter, it is difficult to say. They had asserted 
at Dungannon — and the proposition had re- 
ceived the sanction of the legislature — that 
a citizen, by learning the use of arms, did 
not forfeit the right of discussing political 
affairs. Yet Grattan, in replying to Lord 
Clare's speech on the Union, seems to have 
insisted that armed men might make decla- 
rations in favor of liberty, but having re- 
covered it, they should retire to cultivate the 



•There were three hundred members: sixty- 
lour were county members, mid about the smut: 
number might be returned with ^reat exertion by 
the people in the cities and towns. The remainder 
were the close borough members, tiie nominees of 
the aristocracy, and invariably the supporters of 
Government. 



blessings of peace.* The Volunteers, how- 
ever, did not imagine that liberty was se- 
cured until the Parliament was free. Nor 
is it easy to understand why, if their decla- 
rations were of value in 1782 to recover a 
constitution, they should not be of equal 
importance in 1783 to reform the legisla- 
ture. 

Previous to the first meeting of the Dub 
liu Convention, provincial assemblies were 
held in Leinster, Minister, and Connaught. 
They passed resolutions similar to those 
adopted at Dungannon — delegates were ap- 
pointed — and the whole nation was prepared 
for the great Congress on which the fate of 
Ireland seemed to depend. 

At length, amidst the hush of public ex- 
pectation, the excited hopes of the nation, 
and the fears of Government, on Monday, 
the 10th .of November, one hundred and 
sixty delegates of the Volunteers of Ireland 
met at the Royal Exchange. They elected 
Lord Charlemout, chairman, and John Tal- 
bot Ashenhurst and Captain Dawson, secre- 
taries, and then adjourned to the Rotunda. 
Their progress was one of triumph. The 
city and county Volunteers lined the streets, 
and received the delegates, who marched 
two and two through their ranks, with drums 
beating and colors flying. Thousands of 
spectators watched with eyes of hopeful ad- 
miration the slow and solemn march of the 
armed representatives to their place of as- 
sembly; and the air was rent with the ac- 
clamations of the people. Vain noises — 
hapless enthusiasm-! In a few weeks, the 
doors that opened to admit the delegates of 
one hundred thousand men, were closed 
upon them with inconsiderate haste; and 
the fate of the constitution they had restored 
was sealed amidst sullen gloom and angry 
discontent. But popular enthusiasm was not 
prophetic, or could only anticipate from a 
glorious pageantry a great result. 

The largest room of the Rotunda was ar- 
ranged for the reception of the delegates. 
Semicircular seats, in the manner of an am- 
phitheatre, were ranged around the chair. 
The appearance of the house was brilliant: 
the orchestra was filled with ladies; and the 
excitemeut of the moment was intense and 

* G rattan's Miscellaneous Woiks, p. 98. 



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HISTOKT OF IRELAND. 



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general. Their first proceeding was to 
affirm the fundamental principle of Dun- 
gannou, that the right of political discussion 
was not lost hy the assumption of arms; 
but the resolution was worded in that spirit 
of exclusion which was the bane aud de- 
struction of the Volunteers. 

It was " Resolved, That the Protestant 
inhabitants of this country are required by 
the statute law to carry arms, aud to learn 
the use of them," etc. 

It seems difficult at this day to account 
for the narrow and perverse policy which 
prevailed in this Convention with regard to 
the Catholics. The delegates forming that 
body had it in their power to lay the foun- 
dations of the newly liberated nation deep in 
the hearts and interests of the whole people, 
and thus defy both the aits and arms of 
England to enslave a united Ireland. They 
perversely threw away this noble opportu- 
nity : their work of regenerating their coun- 
try was but half done; English intrigue was 
soon busy on the large field thus left for its 
operation ; and it cannot be thought won- 
derful if very many of the Catholics after- 
wards became reconciled to the fatal idea 
of a legislative union with England, as af- 
fording a better chance for their emancipa- 
tion than living under the bitter and in- 
tolerant exclusiveness of the Irish Ascend- 
ency. 

Avery shameful incident occurred on one 
of the early days of this Convention meet- 
ing. It was kuown that there were some 
members of it who strongly urged some 
measure of relief to the Catholics, especially 
the restoration of their elective franchise; 
when Sir Boyle Roche, a member of Parlia- 
ment, chiefly known by his good bulls and 
bad jokes, appeared on the floor, and ob- 
tained permission, though not a member of 
the Convention, to make an announcement 
with which he said he had been charged by 
Lord Kenmare, a Catholic nobleman : 
"That noble lord," said Sir Boyle Roche, 
" and others of his creed, disavowed any 
wish of being concerned in the business of 
elections, and fully sensible of the favors al- 
ready bestowed upon them by Parliament 
felt but one desire, to enjoy them in peace, 
without seeking in the present distracted 
state of affairs to raise jealousies, and fur- 



ther embarrass the nation by asking for 
more." * 

This was on the 14th of November. But 
the mean-spirited proceeding of Lord Ken 
mare excited much indignation amongst the 
Catholics then in Dublin. They did not 
indeed hope much from the Convention; 
but at least they would not permit his lord- 
ship to disavow in their name every manly 
aspiration. Accordingly, in the afternoon 
of the same day the princely demagogue, 
the Earl-Bishop of Deny, rose to submit to 
the consideration of the Convention "a 
paper of consequence which referred to a 
class of men who were deserving of every 
privilege in common with their fellow-coun- 
trymen." He moved that the paper should 
be read. It was to this effect: "Nov. 14th, 
1783 — At a meeting of the General Com- 
mittee of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, 
Sir Patrick Bellew, Bart., in the chair, it 
was unanimously Resolved, That the niqgsage 
relating to us delivered this morning to the 
National Convention was totally unknown 
to and unauthorized by us. That we do not 
so widely differ from the rest of mankind 
as, by our own act, to prevent the removal 
of our shackles. That we shall receive 
with gratitude every indulgence that may 
be extended to us by the legislature, and are 
thankful to our benevolent countrymen for 
their generous efforts on our behalf. Re- 
solved, That Sir P. Bellew be requested to 
present the foregoing resolutions to the Earl 
of Bristol as the act of the Roman Cath- 
olics of Ireland, and entreat that his lord- 
ship will be pleased to communicate them to 
the National Convention." There were few 
more remarkable men in Ireland in that age 
of able men, than this singular Bishop of 
Derry. He was a steady fiiend to the Cath- 
olics, and supported every movement in 
their favor, when Charlemout and Flood 
coldly repulsed and resisted every suggestion 
of this kind. One cannot but wish that the 
bold bishop had been commander-in-chief 
of the Volunteers. 

A newly elected Parliament had met a few 
days before this Convention ; and Dublin 
then presented the extraordinary spectacle 
of two deliberative bodies, seated in two 

* Mr. Plowden speaks of this as a " preteuded 
letter of Lord Kenmare." 



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KXIOHTS OF ST. PATRICK. 






houses, within sight of each other, treating 
of the s:in i o questions, and composed in part 
of the same persons; for many members 
"■th of the Lords and Commons were also 
members of the Convention; and they 
passed from one building to the other, as 
debates of importance were to arise in 
either. The year which was drawing to a 
clo-e had been a verv busy and stirring one 
in Ireland. The British ministry was that 
famous " coalition ministry " formed by Lord 
North and Mr. Fox : the Irish Judicature 
bill, one of the series of measures for estab- 
ishing the independence of Ireland, had 
teen passed by the English Parliament.* 
Lord Temple had succeeded the Duke of 
Portland as lord-lieutenant; and in his 
viceroyalty, it was judged advisable to 

* It is the act 23 George III., c. 28, entitled, " An 
Act lor preventing and removing all doubts which 
have arisen, or may arise, concerning the exclusive 
rights of the Parliament and courts of Ireland, in 
matters of legislation and judicature; and for pre- 
venting any writ of error or appeal from any of his 
majesty's courts in that kingdom from being re- 
ceived, heard, and adjudged, ill any of his majesty's 
courts in tlie kingdom of Great Britain." 

Amongst the several acts which received the royal 
assent under llie Duke of Portland's administration, 
was Mr. Eden's act for establishing the national 
bank. This met with >™ie opposition, but the 
measure was carried, and the bank opened the year 
l"li. wing. By this act (21 and 22 Geo. III., c. 16), 
the bank was established by the name of The Gov- 
ernor and Company of the Bank of Ireland. The 
subscribers to it were to pay in £600,000, either in 
Oaah or debentures, at 4 per cent, which were to be 
taken at par, and considered as money. This sum 
was to be the capital stock of the bank, and the de- 
bentures to that amount, when received, were to be 
cancelled by the vice-treasurers. For these an an- 
nuity of £24,000 was to bo paid to the company, 
being equal to the interest payable upon these de- 
bentures ; the stock was to be redeemable at any 
tunc, upon twelve months' notice, after the 1st of 
January, 1794. Ireland obtained likewise an impor- 
tant acquisition by a bill, (( for better securing the 
liberty of the subject," otherwise called the }lah,,ix 
Corpus act, similar to that formerly passed in Eng- 
lund. 

The sacramental test, by which the dissenting 
Protestants were excluded from offices of trust under 
the crown, was also repealed, and the nation was 
gratified by the repeal of the perpetual mutiny bill, 
and by that long-desired act for making the com- 
mission of the judges of that kingdom, to continue 
quamdiu st bent ijt&serhit. An act was also passed 
to render the manner of conforming from tlio Popish 

tO tile Protestant religion more easy and expeditious. 
Another for sparing to his majesty, to bo drawn out 
of this kingdom whenever be should think fit, a 
force not exceeding 50,000 men. Part of the troops 
appointed to be kept therein for its defence. 
21 



amuse the Irish with a bawblc"to draw 
away the public mind," says Mr. Plowdon 
"from speculative questions," especially v e 
form : and accordingly letters patent wet- 
issued creating the order of "Knights of 
St. Patrick;" and the new knights were in- 
stalled with great pomp on the 1 7th of 
March, the festival of the saint. Lord Tem- 
ple's government lasted but a few mouths : 
he was succeeded by Lord Northitigton who 
dissolved the Parliament ; and a general 
election had now resulted in the House of Com- 
mons which was already in session in College 
Green, when the Convention of Volunteers, 
after first meeting in the Eoyal Exchange, 
transferred their meeting to the upper end 
of Sackville Street. The Convention and the 
Parliament stood in a very siugular relation : 
the main object of the one was to reform 
and to purge the other. Certainly Parlia- 
ment greatly needed to be reformed an 
purged ; but when the medicine was offere 
at the sword's point, by a body clearly extra- 
legal and unconstitutional, it was not very 
likely that they would swallow it. The 
House of Commons was not only thoroughly 
vicious in its constitution, being composed 
chiefly of nominees of great proprietors, 
but also systematically corrupted by bribes, 
places, and promises ; for it was now more 
essential to English policy than ever to 
'•secure a parliamentary majority" upon a 
questions. Such a Parliament, of which 
two-thirds were already placemen, pension- 
ers, or recipients of secret-service money, or 
else expected soon to be in one of those 
categories, could not long subsist by the 
side of a dictatorial Convention of arme 
men, which really represented the armed 
force of the nation, and which called upon 
it to come out from the slough of all that 
profitable corruption. One or the other, 
Parliament or Convention, it was plain 
would have to give way. 

When the excitement which followed 
Lord Kenmare's singular disavowal of man- 
hood had subsided, there was not much 
further reference to Catholics or their 
claims; the Convention resolved itself into 
committees, and appointed sub-committees, 
to prepare plans of parliamentary reform, 
for the consideration of the general body. 
"Then was displayed a singular sceue, and 






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162 



HISTOnY OP IRELAND. 



Vet such a scene as any one, who considered 
the almost unvarying disposition of an as- 
sembly of that nature, and the particular 
object for which it was convened, might 
justly have expected. From every quarter 
and from every speculatist, great clerks or 
no clerks at all, was poured in such a mul- 
tiplicity of plans of reform, some of them 
ingenious, some which bespoke an exercised 
and rational mind, but in general so utterly 
impracticable, 'so rugged and so wild in 
their attire, they looked not like the offspring 
of inhabitants of the earth and yet were on 
it,' that language would sink in portraying 
this motley band of incongruous fancies, of 
misshapen theories, valuable only if ineffi- 
cient, or execrable if efficacious." * 

But the plan which after some weeks of 
discussion was eventually adopted, was the 
workmanship of the ablest head in the as- 
sembly. Flood had assumed, because he 
was able to grasp and resolute to maintain, 
a predominating superiority over the Con- 
vention. It was the ascendency of a vigor- 
ous eloquence, a commanding presence, and 
a resistless will. With him in all his views, 
and beyond him in many, was the Bishop 
of Deny. The plan of reform which these 
two men approvedf was adopted, aud Flood 
was selected to introduce a bill founded on 
its principles and suggestions, into Parlia- 
ment. They imagined that they could ter- 
rify the legislature, and they much miscal- 
culated the power of the Volunteers. That 
power was already shaken ; they had flung 
awav the sympathies of the people ; they 
had by their conduct defined themselves as 
an armed oligarchy, whose limited notions 
of freedom extended no farther than their 
own privileges and claims; they were abhor- 
red and feared by Government and its par- 
liamentary retainers ; they were not trusted 
by the great body of the nation. It was 



* Hank's Life of Charlcmnnt. Ilardy was one of 
Lord Cluirlemont's coterie, and looked at men mid 
things through the medium of Marino. His maiden 
speech was made in support of Flood's plan of re- 
forni, brought up from the Convention. It should 
not lie forgotten that liar ly — though poor, lie was 
incorruptible — scorned the targe offers which were 
made to him at the Union. He was a patriot not to 
bo purchased, when corruption was most munifi- 
cent. 

t The bishop would have included the Catholics. 



under unfortunate auspices like these, in the 
midst of bitter hostility and more dangerous 
indifference, that Flood, leaving the Rotun- 
da, proceeded on the 29th of December to 
the House of Commons with a bill, every 
provision of which was aimed at the parlia- 
mentary existence of two-thirds of the 
House. He had requested the delegates not 
to adjourn till its fate was ascertained. Rut 
fatigue and disappointment rendered compli- 
ance impossible. 

Flood's plan embraced many of the prin- 
ciples which have since become incorporated 
with the British constitution — the destruc- 
tion of borough influence, and the creation 
of a sound county franchise.* There was 
nothing revolutionary — nothing of that spirit 
to which modern usages give the name of 
radical, in its principles and details. It was 
only defective in its grand omission. The 
Catholics obtained no boon, and acquired no 
liberty by its provisions, and to its fate in 
the legislature they were naturally indifferent. 
We have objected to Grattan that he did not 
go on with the popular movement — it may 
with equal justice be alleged against Lord 
Charlemont and Flood, that by their reli- 
gious intolerance they impaired the strength 
of popular opinion and marred the efficacy 
of all their previous proceedings. 

The debate consequent on Flood's motion 
for leave to bring in his Reform Bill, was 
bitter and stormy. The whole array of 
placemen, pensioners, and nominees were iu 
arms against the bill — they could not dis- 

* Scheme of Reform. — "That every Protestant 
freeholder or leaseholder, possessing a freehold or 
leasehold for a certain term of years of forty-shil- 
lings value, resident in any city or borough, should 
be entitled to vote at the election of a member for 
tin- same. 

" That decayed boroughs should lie entitled to ro- 
fcurn representatives by an extension of franchi.se to 
the neighboring parishes. That suffrages of the 
electors should be taken by the sheriff or his depu- 
ties, on the same day, at the respective places of 
election. That pensioners of the crown receiving 
then- pensions during pleasure, should be incapaci- 
tated from silting in Parliament. That every mem- 
ber of Parliament accepting a pension for life, or any 
place under the crown, should vacate his seat. That 
each member should subscribe an oath that he had 
neither directly nor indirectly given any pecuniary 
or other consideration with a view of obtaining that 
suffrage of an election. Finally, that the duration 
of Parliament should not exceed the ter.tn of three 




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guise their rage and amazement — but vented 
tlieii' wrath against the Volunteers in furious 
terms. And Xelverton, who combined an 
unmeasured regard for self-interest with a 
cautious and measured love of liberty, anil 
who had been a Volunteer, denounced the 
idea of a bill introduced into Parliament at 
the point of the bayonet. 

" If this, as it is notorious it does, origin- 
ates from an armed body of men, I reject it. 
Shall we sit here to be dictated to at the 
point of the bayonet? I honor the Volun- 
teers; they have eminently served their 
country; but when they turn into a debat- 
ing society, to reform the Parliament, and 
regulate the nation ; when, with the rude 
point of the bayonet, they would probe the 
wounds of the constitution, that require the 
most skilful hand and delicate instrument; 
it reduces the question to this : Is the Con- 
vention or the Parliament of Ireland to de- 
liberate on the affairs of the nation ? What 
have we lately seen ? even during the sit- 
ting of Parliament, and in the metropolis of 
the kingdom, armed men lining the streets 
for armed meu going in fastidious show to 
that pantheon of divinities, the Rotunda; 
and there sitting in all the parade, and in 
the mockery of Parliament! Shall we sub- 
mit to this ? 

" I ask every man who regards that free 
constitution established by the blood of our 
fathers, is such an infringement upon it to 
be suffered ? If it is, and one step more is 
advanced, it will be too late to retreat. If 
you have slept, it is high time to awake!" 

This was the logic of an attorney -general, 
who never deals a harder blow to liberty 
than when he professes himself her most 
obedient servant. But this transparent 
hypocrisy was rudely dealt with by Flood: 

'• 1 have not introduced the Volunteers, 
but if they are aspersed, I will defend their 
character against atl the world. By whom 
were the commerce and the constitution of 
this country recovered ? — By the Volunteers! 

"Why did not the right honorable gen- 
tlemen make a declaration against them 
when they lined our streets — when Purliu- 
mt'id passed through the ranks of those 
virtuous armed men to demand the rights 
of an insulted nation ? Are they different 
men at this day, or is the right honorable 



gentleman different ? He was then one of 
their body; he is now their accuser! He, 
who saw the streets lined — who rejoiced — 
who partook in their glory, is now their ac- 
cuser ! Are they less wise, less brave, less 
ardent in their country's cause, or has their 
admirable conduct made him their enemy ? 
May they not say, we have not changed, but 
you have changed. The right honorable 
gentleman cannot bear to hear of Volun- 
teers; but I will ask him, and I will have a 

STARLING TAUGHT TO HOLLO IN HIS EAR 

Who gave you the free trade ? who got you 
the free constitution ? who made you a na- 
tion ? — The Volun leers ! * 

" If they were the men you now describe 
them, why did you accept of their service, 
why did you not then accuse them ? If 
they were so dangerous why did you pass 
through their ranks with your Speaker at 
your head to demand a constitution — why 
did you not then fear the ills you now ap- 
prehend ?" 

Grattan supported the bill. He said he 
loved to blend the idea of Parliament and 
the Volunteers. They had concurred in es 
tablishing the constitution in the last Parlia- 
ment; he hoped that they would do it in 
the present. But altogether it must be said 
that his support was feeble — it wanted 
heart, it wauted the fire, the inspiration, the 
genius which carried the Declaration of 
Bights with triumph through that ineffably 
corrupt assembly. And yet reform was the 
only security for his own work — it would 
have rendered the constitution immortal, 
and erected an enduring memorial of his 
glory. f 

* Declaration of the Volunteer army of Ulster, 
"That tlic dignified conduct of the army lately re- 
stored to the imperial crown of Ireland its original 
splendor — to nobility, its ancient privileges — and to 
the nation at large, it ^ inherent rights as a sovereign 
independent state." Such was the assumed power 
of the Volunteers, in 1782. The Parliament was 
considered then almost anti-national. 

t " It was propo~r.l by Government to meet this 
question in the most decided manner, and to hnu_' 
t<> issue the contest between the Government nnd 
this motley assembly usurping its rights. This idea 
met with very considerable support. A great hearti- 
ness showed itself among the principal men of con- 
B6,quenCQ and fortune, mid a decided spirit of oppo- 
sition to the unreasonable encroachments appeared 
with every man attached to the Administration. 
The idea stated was to oppose the leave to bring in it 
bill for the reform of Parliament iu the nr.>Lstai.'e 



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HISTORY <>K IRELAND. 



Bni if G rattan lacked his ancient fire, the 
opposition whioh was given l>v the vile 
brood of Paotion was not deficient in spirit ; 
it wab furious and fierce. The ooarsesl in- 
vectives and the vnlgarest ribaldry were 
heaped upon the Volunteers — the question 
of Parliamentary Reform was lost sight of 
iu the rancorous malignity of the hour, and 
the debate became a chaos of vituperation, 
misrepresentation, and personality. At 
leugth the question was put, and Flood's 
motion was lust. The numbers were, for the 
motion 77, against it 157. After the result 
had been ascertained, it was thought fit by 
the attorney-general (Velverton) to move, 
"That it. lias now become indispensably ne- 
cessary t<> declare that the Bouse will main- 
tain its just rights and privileges against all 
eucroachments whatsoever.'' This was a 
declaration of war, less against Reform, than 
against the Volunteers. The gauntlet was 
thrown down to them — did they dare to 
take it Up 1 

For awhile the Convention awaited a mes- 
sage from the Commons — but no message 
of triumph came to crown their hopes. 
The scene was embarrassing — lassitude had 
succeeded excitement — silence orept slowly 
on the noisy anticipations of victory. At 
last, adjournment was suggested — the dra- 
matic effect was lost, the dramatic spirit bad 
passed away. The Convention broke up, to 
await, without the theatric pomp of full as- 
sembly, the details of discomfiture, insult, 
and defeat. 



on tho gronnd of tlm petition originating in nn as- 
sembly unconstitutional and illegal, and meant to 
awe and oontrol the legislature. This bold mode of 
treating it woe certainly most proper; at the same 
timo it was aubjeot to the defections ot those, who 
lnul been instructed on this Idea of reform, and 
those who were still anxious to retain a small degree 
of popularity amongst tho Volunteers. To have put 
it with a resolution would have given us at least 
fourteen votes. Qrattan, having pledged himBelf to 
the idea of reform of Parliament, aould not see the 
distinction betweeu the refusal ot* leave on the 
ground of its having some from an exceptionable 
body, ami the absolute denial of receiving any plan 
of reform, lie voted against us. and spoke ; but hu 

t. h evidently ehtyoed thathe meant us no harm, 

mid on the question of the resolution to support 
Parliament he voted with us. The resolutions are 
gone to the Lords, who will concur in them, Bxoopt, 
it ig paid, Lord Mountmorrls, Lord Aid borough, and 
Lord Chnrlemont." l.eiter of the Lord-Lioutenont 
to Clmrlea James Pox, Both Nov 178S. 




The interval was Well used by those wdio 
secretly trembled at the issue of a direct 
collision between Government and the Vol- 
unteers, or who had not the boldness to 
guide the storm which they had bad the te- 
merity to raise. Rumors there were of secret 
conclaves where eowardlv counsels took tho 
place of manly foresight and sagacious 
boldness — of discussions with closed doors, 
where the men who had led the national 
army in tho whole campaign of freedom, 

canvassed the propriety of sacrificing to 
their own fears, that body, whose virtue and 

renown had conferred on t.heiii a reflected 
glory;* whilst some writers have represent- 
ed the adjournment of the Convention, and 
the extinction of the Volunteers, or as it 
was called by ('rattan, "their retirement to 
cultivate the blessings of peace," as the just 
and natural issue to their useful and brilliant 
career. f As well might it be said that the 
Union was the just and natural rcsirtt of the 
constitution of 1 782. And they who aban- 
doned the Volunteers, and allowed their or- 
ganization to crumble and decline, are an- 
swerable to their country for the conse- 
quences of that fatal measure of political 
tergiversation. A large meeting of "par- 
ticular friends" assembled at Lord Charlo- 
mont's on the Sunday. J It was unani- 
mously agreed that the public peace — which 
did not appear in any particular danger at 
the time — was the first object to be consid- 
ered. It is to be regretted that Hardy is 
not more explicit on the subject of this 
meeting. It would have been fortunate had 

he informed us who were the parties con- 
cerned in this transaction; for it might, 
have furnished a key to the subsequent con- 
duct of many men, whose proceedings were 
considered inexplicable at the time. The 

result of their deliberations was important. 

The Volunteers were to receive their rebuff 
quietly; they were to separate in peace and 
good will to all men ; meeklv to digest the 
contumelies of the Government retainers; 

and following the, advice of some of theii 
officers, to hang up their arms in the Teni- 



* Harrington's Rise ami Full of tho Irish Notion, 
0. 19, p. ."-77. 

t (ilattau's Life by Henry (Iraltan, c. 5. 

1 llaixlj'u Life of Cliurleinont, vol. ii., p. 109. 



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j>lo of Liberty. The advice was good, if the 
temple had been built. 

< fn Monday tlio 1st of December, the 
Convention met. Captain Moore, one of the 
delegates, was about to comment on tlie re- 
ception of their Reform Bill by Parliament, 
when Lord Charlemont called him t" order. 
Upon which, in a very dignified way, Henry 
Flood detailed the insulting reception of 
their bill by tlie legislature ; and well aware 
of the temper of some of the most influen- 
tial men in tlie Convention, lie counselled 
moderation. But what other policy than 
submission was on their cards? Tbcv hail 
put themselves in antagonism to Parliament 
• — they bad ben treated with contempt and 
di liance — their plan bad not been even dis- 
cussed, but contumeliously rejected because 
it was the suggestion of men with anus in 
their bands — arms which they dared not use. 
There were only two courses open — war or 
submission. They adopted the latter course, 
not without some rebellious pride, and a 
flash of tl Id spirit that bad burned so 

'brightly at I • ungannon. 

Looking back over these events, one can- 
not resist the conclusion that if the Conven- 
tion bad generously and at once thrown 
open the door of the Constitution to the 
Catholics, Lord Charlemont might at this 
juncture have marched down to that den of 
corruption in College (been, elcaivd it out, 
locked the door, and thereafter dictated bis 
Reform Bill by way of general orders: but 
Charlemont was not the man to strike such 
a blow ; and besides, be and the Convention 
bad alienated, or, at least, left in a state of 
indifference, the great body of the nation 
which would else have borne tbem trium- 
phantly to the goal of perfect and perma- 
nent freedom. 

The Convention adjourned, to meet next 

day. Mr. Flood moved a tame address to 

the House, declaring that seeking parlia- 
mentary reform " was not to be imputed to 

any spirit of innovation in them.'' They 

adjourned again; but next morning Lord 

'barle nt repaired Bomewhal earlier than 

usual to the Rotunda, with several of bis 
friends, and, after some formal resolutions, 
pronounced the Convention dissolved. 
"From this time," says Dr. Madden, "the 
power of the Volunteers was broken. I 



Government resolved to let the institution 
die a natural death ; at least, to aim no blow 
at it in public : but when it is known that 
the Hon. Col. Robert Stewart (father of 
Lord Castlereagh) was not only a member | <y r i$& 
of the Convention — a delegate from the 
County Down — but chairman of a subcom- 
mittee, and that lie was the intimate friend 
of Lord Charlemont, the nature of the hos- 
tility that Government put in practice 
against the institution will be easily under- 
stood. While tbe. Volunteers were parad- 
ing before Lord Charlemont, or manifesting 
their patriotism in declarations of resistance 
to the Parliament, peiti.lv was stalking in 
their camp, and it rested not till it bad 
trampled on the ashes of their institution. 

Tbe Volunteers through the country re- 
ceived the accounts of their delegates with 
indignant, amazement, They beat to arms 
— they met — and resolved. But the bind-. 
ing principle was relaxed; doubt, suspicion, 
and alarm pervaded the ranks that bad been 
so firmly knit; their resolutions, though 
still warmed with tbe spirit of fiery elo- 
quence, were but sounding words, unheeded 
by a government which bad planted too se- 
curely the seeds of disunion, to fear the 
threats of men without leaders, without 
mutual confidence, without reliance on 
themselves. The Bishop of Deny became 
their idol; but it was beyond bis power to 
restore them to their commanding position. 
Flood bad gone to England, either fired with 
new ambition, or in despair of effecting bis 

great objects at home. The bishop was a 
bad adviser, too bold and unguarded, and 
the Government amazed at an extraordinary 

reply which be gave to an address of the 

Rill of bights' Battalion, a northern corps, 
seriously canvassed tbe propriety of bis ar- 
rest. His reply concluded with a memor- 
able political aphorism, "Tyranny is not 
government, and allegiance is due only to 

pro!, ction." But he was not prosecuted, nor 
ai rested. R would have been a rash, it was 
a useless step. The natural progress of 
events effected what a measure of severity 
would probably have retarded, or rendered 

impossible — the destruction of tie' Volun- 
teers. Division of opinion gained ground 

amongst them, yet they con tin I their ro- 

they published their proecedi 




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they passed their resolutions. But, month 
by month, ami year by year, their numbers 
diminished, their military gatherings became 
less splendid, their exposition of political 
opinion was less regarded by the nation, or 
feared by the Government. 

The Reform bill presented by the Con- 
vention having failed, Flood, after his return 
from England, determined to test the sincer- 
ity of the Parliament in the alleged cause 
of its rejection. The legislature declared 
that they had spurned the bill because it 
emanated from a military body. In March, 
1784, he introduced another measure of par- 
liamentary reform, backed by numerous pe- 
titions from the counties. The bill was 
read a second time, but was rejected on the 
motion for its committal, by a majority of 
seventy-four, Grattan gave a cold support. 
It became now clear, that the opposition 
was given to reform, not because it was the 
demand of a military body, but because the 
principle was odious to a corrupt Parliament. 
A meeting of the representatives of thirty- 
one corps took place at Belfast, to make 
preparations for a review, and they adopted 
a resolution that they would not associate 
with any regiment at the ensuing demon- 
stration, which should continue under the 
command of officers who opposed parlia- 
mentary reform.* However natural was 
tleir indignation at the coolness of some, 
and the hostility of other professing Patliots 
to the great measure of constitutional 
change, the effect of this resolution was un- 
fortunate. It yielded a plausible excuse to 
many of the officers to secede from the 
Volunteer body — it worked out wonderfully 
the policy of division which Government 
was in every way pursuing — it defined the 
distinctions which existed in the Volunteer 
associations, and widened the fatal breach. 

We may here anticipate a little in order 
to close the story of the Volunteers. The 
rejection of the Reform bill was followed by 
an attempt to get up a national congress by 
Flood, Napper Tandy, and others. They ad- 
dressed requisitions to the sheriffs of the 
counties, calling on them to summon their 
bailiwicks for the purpose of electing repre- 
sentatives. Some few complied with the 



* Historical Collections relative to Belfast, p. 200. * Grattan's Speeches, vol. i., p. 212. 




requisition — most of them refused. The 
attorney-general (Fitzgibbon) threatened to 
proceed by attachment against those who 
had obeyed the mandate, and by a mixture 
of personal daring and ability, succeeded 
in preventing Mr. Reilly, the sheriff of Dub- 
lin, from taking the chair of an intended 
electoral meeting. Delegates were, how- 
ever, selected in some quarters, and in < >c.to- 
ber, a tew individuals assembled in William 
Street, to hold the congress. The debate 
was with closed doors; the Bishop of Deny 
was not present; Flood attended, and de- 
tailed his plan of reform, in which the 
Catholics were not included. The omission 
gave offence to the Congress, and Flood, in- 
dignant at the want of support, retired. 
After three days' sitting, the Congress ad- 
journed. It vanished as if it were the mel- 
ancholy ghost of the National Convention. 

These proceedings were alluded to in the 
speech which opened the session, Jaimaiy, 

1785. They were characterized as "lawless 
outrages, and unconstitutional proceedings." 
The address in reply applied the same terms 
to the transactions in connection with the 
National Congress ; and this drew from 
Grattan a memorable speech, and one which 
with reference to the Volunteers is historic. 
It marks the transition point when the old 
Volunteers ceased, and a new body com- 
posed of a different class of men, ami ruled 
by politicians with very different views, com- 
menced a career which terminated only in 
the establishment of the United Irishmen. 
Grattan, in the debate on the address, after 
defending the reform parly and principles 
generally, from the attacks contained in the 
viceroy's speech, said,* " I would now wish 
to draw the atteution of the House to the 
alarming measure of drilling the lowest 
classes of the populace, by which a stain 
had been put on the character of the Volun- 
teers. The old, the original Volunteers had 
become respectable, because they represented 
the property of the nation ; but attempts 
had been made to arm the poverty of the 
kingdom. They had originally been the 
armed properly — were they to become the 
armed beggary? 1 ' To the Congress — to the 
parties who had presented petitions for re- 



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form he addressed indignant reproof. They 
bad, he said, been guilty of the wildest in- 
discretion; they had gone much too far, 
and, if they went on, they would overturn 
the laws of their country. 

Ii was .-in mi fortunate period for the in- 
terests of Irish liberty, which Qrattau sc- 
lected, thus to dissever the ties between the 
Volunteers and him. They had begun i,, 
perceive that without the co-operatfori of the 
Catholics, it would be unreasonable to ex- 
1 ' f " obtain a reformed Parliament, inde- 
pendent of England. The men of the 
Ulster Plantation were the first to recognize 
and act upon this obvious truth. They car- 
ried their toleration so far as to march to 
the chape], and to attend mass. Had prop- 
er advantage been taken of these disposi- 
tions of the people, the result would have 
been the acquisition of a measure of parlia- 
mentary reform, which would have insured 
the stability of the settlement of 1782. 
I '.hi they were left without guides, when 
most a ruling mind was required; nor is it 
surprising that ulterior views began to influ- 
ence the anient temperament, and to excite 
the angry passions of a disappointed people. 
But these considerations belong to the his- 
tory of a later period, when the Volunteers 
had merged into that great and wonderful 
confederacy, which, within a few years, 
threatened the stability of the English do- 
minion in Ireland. 

The regular army had been increased to 
fifteen thousand men, with the approbation 
of the most distinguished founders of the 
constitution of 1782— the next act of hos- 
tility was one in which Gardiner, who had 
been an active officer in the Volunteers, 
took the leading part. On the 14th of 
February, 1785, he moved that £20,000 be 
granted to his majesty for the purpose of 
clothing the militia. This was intended to 
be a fatal blow. It was aimed by a treach- 
erous hand. The motion was supported by 
Langrishe, Denis Daly, Arthur Wolfe, and 
Grattan. Fitzgibbou assailed the Volun- 
teers with official bitterness. He reiterated 
the charges of Grattan, that they had ad- 
mitted into their ranks a low description of 
men — their constitution was changed — they 
bad degenerated into practices mimical to 
the peace of the country. They were, how- 



ever, not left undefended. Curran, Hardy, 
and Newcnham stepped forward to their vin- 
dication. These men pointed out the bene- 
fits of the institution— the Volunteers in 
time of war had protected the country, and 
preserved internal quiet— no militia was 
then needed— why was it required in peace! 
The proposition was a censure on the Volun- 
teers. 

Grattan replied :—" the Volunteers had 
no right whatsoever to be displeased at the 
establishment of a militia; and if they had 
expressed displeasure, the dictate of armed 
men ought to be disregarded by Parliament. 
"The right honorable member had intro- 
duced the resolution upon the most consti- 
tutional ground. To establish a militia— he 
could not see how that affected the Volun- 
teers; and it would bo a hard case, indeed, 
if members of Parliament should be afraid 
to urge such measures as they deemed prop- ' 
er, for fear of giving offence to the Volun- 
teers. The situation of the House would be 
truly unfortunate if the name of the Volun- 
teers could intimidate it. I am ready to 
allow that the great and honorable body of 
men— the primitive Volunteers, deserved 
much of their country ; but I am free to 
say, that they who now assume the name 
have much degenerated. It is said that they 
rescued the constitution, that they forced 
Parliament to assert its rights, and therefore 
Parliament, should surrender the constitution 
into their hands. But it is a mistake to say 
they forced Parliament : they stood at the 
back of Parliament, and supported its au- 
thority; and when they thus acted with 
Parliament, they acted to their own glory; 
but when they attempted to dictate, they 
became nothing. When Parliament repelled 
the mandate of the Convention, they went 
back, and they acted with propriety; ami it 
will ever happen so when Parliament has 
spirit to assert its own authority. 

"Gentlemen are mistaken if they imagine 
that the Volunteers arc; the same as they 
formerly were, when they committed them- 
selves in support of the stale, and tie- exclu- 
sive authority of the Parliament of Ireland, 
at the Dungannon meeting. The resolutions 
published of late hold forth a very different 
language. 

" Gentlemen talk of ingratitude. I can- 



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not Bee how voting :i militia for the defence 
of the country is ingratitude to the Volun- 
teers. The House has been very far from 
ungrateful to them. While they acted 
iviih Parliament, Parliament thanked and 
applauded them; hut in attempting to act 
against Parliament, they list their conse- 
quence. Ungrateful ! Where is the in- 
stance! It cannot be meant, that because 
the House rejected the mandate which vile 
incendiaries had urged the Convention to 
issue, because, when such a wound was 
threatened to the constitution, the House 
declared that it was necessary to maintain 
the authority of Parliament, that therefore 
the House was ungrateful ! " 

The Volunteers lingered some years after 
this, 'l'luy held annual reviews — they pass- 
ed addresses and resolutions — but, hencefor- 
ward, their proceedings were without effect, 
The details of their decay do not belong to 
the history of the Volunteers of 1782. 
That body practically expired with the Con- 
vention of Dublin. Their old leaders fell 
away — the men of wealth abandoned them, 
and new men — men, not without generous 
qualities and high ambition, but with peril 
oils and revolutionary views — succeeded to 
the control. And when, at length, the Vol- 
unteers having come into direct collision with 
the tegular army, and wisely declined the 
contest, the Government issued its mandate, 

that every assemblage of the body should 
be dispersed by force, even the phantom of 
the army of Ireland had passed away from 
the scene forever.* 



CHAPTER XXII. 

178-1— 178C. 

Improvement of tlio oountry — Political position 
anomalous — Rutland, viceroy — Petitions for Par- 
liamentary Reform — Fl I's motion — Rejected — 

Grattan's loll to regulate the revenue— Protective 
dutiea demanded— Nutional Congress Dissen- 
sions as to rights of Catholics— Charlemont'a intol- 
erance Orde's Commercial Propositions— New 
propositions of Mr. Pitt— Burke and Sheridan- 
Commercial propositions defeated Mr. Conolly— 
The national debt General corruption — Court. 
majorities Patriots defeated— Ireland after five 
J riu, of independence. 

1ki;i.am> was now in many respects an in- 
dependent nation. Enjoying for the first 

• A tew country corps had fixed upon holding u 
review ut Doali, in the county of Antrim. The 



time in her history an unrestricted trade, a 
sovereign judiciary, the writ of Habeas Cor- 
pus, and ;i Parliament acknowledged to he 
tin 1 sovereign legislature free from the dic- 
tation of an English privy council, the coun- 
try did certainly begin almost immediately 
to make a rapid advance in material prosper- 
ity. Many absentees returned and spent 
their incomes at home: the revival of other 
branches of industry retrieved in some de- 
gree' the unwholesome competition for farms, 
which had left the unfortunate and friendless 
peasantry at the absolute mercy of their 
landlords. Besides all this, the very proud 
feeling of national independence seems to 
have kindled a sort of vital energy through- 
out the farthest extremities of the land. 
On the whole, although there was still 
much distress among the poor, and appeals 
to Parliament for their relief, there was soon 
visible a dawn of prosperity in Ireland. 

Yet the political situation was evidently 
anomalous and insecure. Ireland had not 

like England a responsible body of cabinet- 
ministers accountable to her own 1 'arliament, 

The lord-lieutenant and Irish secretary 
ruled as before; and although thev were 
appointed, it was said, by the King of Ire- 
land, they really held their offices and re- 
ceived their instructions from the ministers 
of England ; .and their whole care was ex- 
pected to he, and was, in tact, to ti.nintain bv 
every possible means the paramount as- 
cendency of that more powerful kingdom. 
This could only be accomplished by the 
creation of more and more places, the still 
greater extension of the pension list, and 
more direct and shameless bribery. In 
short we shall soon see that organized cor- 
ruption developed itself during the era of 
" independence" with more deadly power 
than ever before, until it swelled at last to 
that deluge of corruption, that perfect par- 
oxysm of plunder, which bore down every- 
thing before it at the era of the " Union." 

Lord Not thington, on a change of minis- 
try in England, resigned his vicerovahv on 

the 7th of January, L784-; and on the 24th 
cf February was succeeded by the I 'like of 

army tnorohed to the spot to disperse them; hut 
the \ olnnieers. avoided assembling, and thus ^avo 
up the ghost. — Dr. MaeNitvCi Piicuqf Irish tit*. 
tory, p. 58. 



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Kutl mil. Just before this change, tin; rev- 
enue of Ireland being again, as usual, inad- 
equate i" tlir expenditure, £300,0(10 was 
Ordered to be borrowed to meet the dc- 
ficiency. 

Ou the 26th of February, Parliament 
met Mr, Gardiner moved the address to 
the Duke o£ Rutland; and then there came 
pouring into the House thirteen petitions 
for a "Reform in Parliament." It was on 
this measure the people's minds were now 
chiefly bent. They were irritated and dis- 
appointed at the manner in which the 
House of Commons had flung out the Re- 
form bill introduced by Mr. Flood in the 
name of the Volunteer Convention. They 
Lve'un to perceive that with a Parliament BO 
constituted Ireland could not really lo Lsid 
to control her own destinies : and they did 
not yet sufficiently comprehend that for 
this precise reason England would always 
steadily oppose all reform — and would be 
able to oppose it with success because the 
very corruption of Parliament which was 
nn injury and scandal to Ireland was the 
great arm and agent of British domination 
here. 

It was now on the 13th of March, that 
Mr. Rood made his renewed motion for a 
parliamentary reform ; not now as a mem- 
ber of the dictatorial \ olunteer Convention, 
but as an individual member. A few sen- 
tences of his speech may be given to show 
the notoriety of the rotten borough system; 
and how audaciously it was defended as a 
righl of property. He admitted, it would 
be thought by certain gentlemen injurious 
to their private interest, it' the constitution 
were restored to its original security; but 
they must also admit, that it was contrary 
to every principle of right and justice, that 
individuals should be permitted to send into 
thai house, two, four, or six members of 
Parliament, to make a traffic of venal bor- 
oughs, BS if they were household utensils. 

It seemed a point agreed upon in England, 
that a parliamentary reform was necessary; 
he should mention, he said, the opinion 
given by Lord Chatham, upon whose pos- 
thumous fame the present administration so 
firmly stood defended by the nation, though 

thai great and illustrious man had I ii neg- 
lected for ten years by the public, and so 



alge a portion of his valuable life was Mil', 
lend to be lost, to the community. YA h I 
were his sentiments on that important mu- 
ter? His words most strongly enforced it 
necessity; in his answer to the address of 
the city of London, in which he Baid, that a 
reform in Parliament was absolutely neces- 
sary, in onler to infuse fresh vigor into iho 
Constitution, and that rotten boroughs ought 
to be stricken off. 

This measure, opening the franchise to 
Protestant freeholders, was by several mem- 
bers opposed as being oppressive to the 
Catholics. Sir Boyle Roche, the very man 
who had but lately hurried to the Conven- 
tion to carry Lord Kenmare's slavish self- 
denying message, refusing all electoral rights 
for the Catholics — this Sir Boyle, only anx- 
ious to defeat the reform by any means, used 
this argument against it: — 

Sir Boyle Roche said, the design of the 
bill was to transfer the franchise of clectidn 
from the few to the many; or, in other 
words, to deprive the present possessors of 
the patronage of boroughs, and give it; to 
another set of men; while they were en- 
deavoring to gratify one set of men, they 
should not act as tyrants to another. This 
bill would be a prescriptive act against the 
Roman Catholics, who would be all tuned 
out of their farms to make room for forty- 
shilling freeholders. There was an animated 

debate; but its issue could not be one mo- 
ment doubtful at the Castle. At four 
o'clock on Sunday morning (he division 
took place: ayes, 85 ; noes, 15D. It was 
clear that the Government had still its 
steady working majority in that corrupt as- 
sembly, on all questions which were not left 
open questions, and that there was no meas- 
ure so little likely to be left an open question 
as parliamentary reform. 

Two other subjects of great national im- 
portance were brought before Parliament in 
this session; a bill for regulation of the rev- 
enue by Mr. Grattan, and a bill to lay pro- 
tective duties on the importation of manu- 
factured goods. This latter measure seems 
to have been greatly needed; and the anx- 
iety of the public for its success is a still 
further proof of the real meaning which in 
the Volunteering times was attached to the 
cry '-Free trade, or else ," that is to 



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say, freedom for the legislature of Ireland to 
regulate, protect, tax, admit, or prohibit .'ill 
branches of lush trade for Ireland's own 
benefit 

hi view of ill" continual rejection of all 
projects of reform, it is no wonder that 

u'a miiiils turnod away from Parliament ; 

and thai plana of a revolutionary character 
began to be agitated. Such was the idea 
of a National Congress. The sheriffs of 
Dublin were requested to convene a prepar- 
atory meeting: they did so, for the 7th of 
June, 1784: but as this project eventuated 
in nothing important, we might omit all 
menti< f it, were it not that the resolu- 
tions at this meeting, while denouncing the 
venality of Parliament introduced into their 
resolutions and their addresses to the king 
very strong expressions of their desire to 
emancipate the Catholics. In the resolu- 
tions we rend: "We call upon you there- 
fore, and thus conjure you, that in ihis im- 
portant work \ <>u join with us as fellow-sub- 
jeuts, countrymen, and friends, as men em- 
barked in the geueral cause, to remove a 
general calamity! and for this we propose, 
thai five persona be elected from each coun- 
ty, city, an.l great town in this kingdom, to 
meet in Nationnl Congress at Borne conve- 
nient place ill this cily, on Monday, the 25th 
da} of October next, there tO deliberate, 

digest, and determine on Buch measures, as 
inav seem to them most conducive to re- 
establish the constitution on a pure and 
permanent basis, and secure to the inhabit- 
ants of this kingdom, peace, liberty, and 
Bafoty. 

■• And while we thus contend, as far as in 
us lies, for our constitutional rights and 
privilege. 9 , we reoommend to your consider- 
ation the state of our Buffering fellow-subjects, 
tli.' Komaii Catholics of this kingdom, whose 
emancipation from the restraints, under 
which they still labor, we consider not only 
as equitable, but essentially conductive to 
the general union and prosperity of the 
kingdom." 

And in the add less to the king, they s |\ : 

'We farther entreat your majesty's permis- 
sion to eondeinn that remnant of the penal 
code of laws, which still oppresses our Io- 
nian Catholic fellow-subjects; laws which 
loud to prohibit education and liberality, 




restrain certain privileges, and proscribe in- 
dustry, love of liberty, and patriotism." 

The very introduction of these liberal am 
tolerant ideas into the preliminary proceed- 
ings frightened off the leading men of the 
old Volunteers. 

In an address presented by t ln> Ulstei 
corps to their general, the Earl of Chnile- 
inont, after some strong expressions of their 
detestation of aristocratic tyranny, they 

hinted at the necessity of calling in the aid 
of the Catholics, as the most just as well as 

effectual means of opposing it with .success. 

In answer to this address, the Earl of I'll n lc 
mont, lamented that, for the first time, he 

felt himself obliged to differ from them in 
sentiment lie was free from every illiberal 

prejudice against the Catholics, and full of 
goodwill towards that very respectable 
body, but be could not refrain from the 
most ardent entreaties, that they Would de- 
sist from a pursuit, that would fatally clog 
and impede the pi osccul ion of their favorite 
purpose. 

As this nobleman was highly and de- 
servedly respected, his opinion was eagerly 
embraced, both by the timid, whose appre- 
hensions were alarmed at the hoi, I extent of 
the project, ami by a great, number whose 
prejudices against the Catholics appear to 
have been suspended from convenieucy or 
fashion though never conquered by princi- 
ple. In the month of October, the thanks 
of the corporation of the city of Dublin 
were voted him for his conduct on that oc- 
casion. 

The meeting of a National Congress was 
a measure of too alarming a nature, not to 

attract the most serious attention of Gov- 
ern nt ; and it appears to have been their 

resolution to take the most, vigorous slops 

for preventing it if possible. A feu daya 
previous to that which was fixed for the 
election of delegates for the ciiy of Dublin, 
the attorney-general addressed a letter to the 
sheriffs, expressing his verv great bui prise at 

having read a summons signed by them call- 
ing a meeting for the purpose in (pleslion. 

lie observed, that by this proceeding, they 
had been gu by of a most outrageous breach 

of their duty; and that if they proceeded, 
they would be responsible to the laws of 
their COintry, and he should hold himself 



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bounden to prosecute them in the Courl of 
King's Bench, for a conduct, Which he con 
sidered bo highh criminal, thai be could not 
overlook it. These threats succeeded so far 
rb to intimidate the sheriffs from attending 
the meeting in their official capacity ; but 
the i ting was nevertheless bolden, dele- 
gates were chosen; and in reference for the 
Bttorney's letter, several Btrong resolutions 
were agreed 10, relative t<> the right of as- 
k<-i 1 1 1 >l i ii lC themselves for the redress of griov- 
anues. Government having once set their 
faces against tin; election and assembling of 
delegates, from denouncing threats, they 

l>r eded to punishment i, 

Mr. Riley, high sheriff for tlm county of 
Dublin, in consequence of his having called 
i" iiber, and presided at an assembly of 
freeholders, who met on the 10th of August, 
1781, for the purpose of choosing and in- 
structing their delegates, was the first object 
of ministerial prosecution. The attorney- 
general proceeded against him by attach- 
ment from the Court of King's Bench. The 
assembly, and the resolutions they came to 

on that occasion, signed by Mr. Riley, in bis 
character of sheriff for tbe county, were 
both declared to be illegal, and Mr. Riley 

was sentence, 1 by the court to pay a fine of 

fi\c marks (j£3 6s. 8d.), and to be imprisoned 
one week. 

This mode of legal process, except for the 
purpose of bringing persons before tin- 
court, to receive tbe sentence of such courl 
for contempt of, and disobedience to it> 
oi li is and directions, haa so seldom been 
n orted to, that even the legality of the 
process itself, on anj odor ground, had re- 
mained a matter of general doubt and un- 
let tainty. 

In the present case it m<-t with much less 
opposition than migbt have been expected. 
Clamors without doors, and debates within, 
on the subject, there certainly were, but 
both too feeble and ill-concerted to promise 
any success. The new division of the Vol 
onteers into parties, took off tbe general at- 
■ n to this attack upon the use of juries, 
which, in any other moment, would not 
b it e l» en to tami Ij tolerated. ' M' such 
import is ir, when overstrong measures are 
to be attempted, to prepare the public for 
the reception of them by internal disunion 



-I alarm. Government did not confine their 
prosecutions t<> Mr. Riley. Having once 
adopted a mode of proceeding, which so ef- 
fectual!) answered the end, for which ihev 
designed it, informations were moved for, and 
attachments granted against the different 
magistrates, who called the meetings, and 
signed the respective resolutions of the free- 
holders in the counties of Roscommon and 
Leitrim, At, the same time, tin- press too 
Came under tbe lash of tbe attorney general: 

and the printers and publishers of such 
newspapers, as had inserted the obnoxious 
resolutions, suffered with tbe magistrates, 
who bad signed them. 

Notwithstanding these violent measures 
which administration were pursuing, the 
National Congress met, pursuant to its ap- 
pointment, on the 25th day of October. 

lint as it was tar from being complete in point, 
of number, and several of its most respect- 
able members chose to absent themselves, 
they adjourned, after having passed a num- 
ber of resolutions to the same purport with 
those that had been agreed to at the pre- 
vious meeting; and exhorted in the mos 
earnest manner the communities, which bad 
not sent representatives : "if they respected 
their own consistency, if they wished for the 
success of a parliamentary reform, and as 
they tendered the perpetual liberty and 
prosperity of their country, not to let pass 
that opportunity of effecting tbe grent and 
necessary confirmation of the constitution." 
Tbe divisions of the Volunteers were en- 
couraged b\ Government; and for thai pur- 
pose discord and turbulence were rather 
countenanced than checked in mauy coun- 
ties, particularly upon the delicate and im- 
portant expedient of admitting the Cat holies 
to the elective franchise, a question, which it 
was artfully attempted to connect with tbe 
now declining cause of parliamentary re- 
form. Through a long scries of years Gov- 
ernment bad never wanted force to quell in- 
ternal commotion-; ami it seemed to be 
now dreaded lest a union of Irishmen, 
should extinguish tbe old means of creating 
dissension. The de-ire of disuniting the 
Volunteers begat inattention to the griev- 
ances of the discontented and distressed 
peasantry of the south : that wretched peo- 
ple once more assumed the style- of White- 




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/loy.s'/ and for some time committed their 
depredations with impunity, particularly 
against Kilkenny; until a stop was put to 
them by the vigorous efforts of the Rev. 
Dr. Troy, then the Roman Catholic bishop 
nt' Ossory, and the clergy of his diocese; 
for which successful exertions be received 
the most satisfactory acknowledgments from 
Government. 

As the unanimity of the Volunteers di- 
minished, their spirit and exertions abated : 

s ething, however, was to be attempted 

before the meeting of the Parliament. On 
the 2d of January, 1785, the second meet- 
ing of the delegates was had at Dublin, at 
which were present the representatives of 
twenty-seven counties, and of most of the 
cities and considerable towns of the king- 
dom, amounting in the whole to more than 
200 persons. Their proceedings appear to 
have been of the same nature as those be- 
fore adopted, with this only difference, thai 

in the proposed application to the House of 

C mons, it was agreed to confine them- 

Si Ives to the most general terms, and to 
leave the mode of redress as free and open 
as possible to the consideration of Parlia- 
ment. 

The British Parliament sat to the 25th 
of August, 178 1, and met again on the 25th 
of January, 1785 : and from his majesty's 
speech it appears, that "their first concern 
was the settlement of all differences with 
Ireland. Amongst the objects which now 
require consideration, I must particularly 
recommend to your earnest attention the 
adjustments of such points in the commercial 
intercourse between Great Britaiu and Ire- 
land as are not yet, finally arranged : the 
system which will unite both kingdoms the 
most closely on principles of reciprocal ad- 
vantage, will, I am persuaded, best insure 
tie 1 general prosperity of my dominions." 

The Parliament of Ireland met on the 
20th of January, 1785, when the lord- 
lieutenant, addressed them in a speech recom- 
mending to their attention the regulation 
of the trade and commerce between the two 
islands. This was the prelude to Mr. (tide's 
famous "Commercial Propositions" tor a 
treaty of commerce between England and 
Ireland. This was a favorite measure of 
Mr. Pitt's, and be had set his heart upon it. 



The terms of the proposed commercial set' 
tlemeiit had been previouslv negotiated be- 
tween Mr. Orde, Secretary for Ireland, and 
certain Irish commissioners for that purpose: 
and on the 7th of February Mr. Orde laid 
the project, before the House of Commons 
in the form of eleven resolutions. In this 
original form the Commercial Propositions 
were not very open to objection : for, 
although most favorable on the whole to 
England, they looked fair and just. The 
only one which sounded alarming was the 
eleventh and last, which was in these words: 
"11th. Resolved, That for the better pro- 
tection of trade, whatever sum the gross 
hereditary revenue of this kingdom (after 
deducting all drawbacks, repayments, or 
bounties, granted in the nature of draw- 
backs,) shall produce, over and above the 
sum of £050,000 in each year of peace, 
wherein the annual revenues shall be equal 
to the annual expenses, and iuVuh year of 
war, without regard to such equality, should 
be appropriated towards the support of the 
naval force, of the empire, in such manner 
as the Parliament of this kingdom shall di- 
rect." 

This excited some opposition in the 
House, Mr. Brownlow indignantly exclaim- 
ing against the idea of their becoming a 
tributary nation. Mr. Grattan supported 
the resolutions; and after some debate they 
were all agreed to by both Houses. On the 
22d of the same month the eleven Resolu- 
tions, as transmitted from Ireland, were read 
m a Committee of the British House of 
Commons j and Mr. Pitt spoke most earnest- 
ly in favor of their passage, and of a defini- 
tive treaty or law founded upon them. 
There was some opposition and delay. The 
commercial public of Engl ind took the 
alarm : petitions poured in, the first of lliem 
from Liverpool : Lancashire sent a petition 
signed by eighty thousand persons: sixty- 
four petitions in all were presented, all 
against the measure, which was represented 
as a concession to Irish commerce, therefore 
ruinous to England. At length, on the 12th 
of May, 1785, Mr. Pitt brought forward, in 
consequence or under pretext of the new 
light thrown on the subject by the examina- 
tions, petitions and reports, a new series of 
resolutions, twenty iu number. The princi- 



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pal additions to the new scheme were to 
provide, 1st, That whatever navigation 
laws the British Parliament should there- 
after think tit to enact for the preservation 
of her marine, the same should he passed 
by the legislature of Ireland, -'illy, Against 
the importing into Ireland, and from thence 
iuto Great Britain, of any other West India 
merchandises than such as were tlie produce 
of our own colonies; and Sdly, That Ire- 
land .should debar itself from trading with 
any of the countries beyond the Cape of 
Good Ilope to the Straits of Magellan, so 
long as it should he thought necessary to con- 
tinue the charter of the English East India 
Company. 

In short this new scheme of Mr. Pitt was 
plainly intended as a mode of repealing and 
annulling the free trade of the Volunteers. 
The Volunteers were by this time disunited, 
disbanded, and disorganized, and the cannon 
of Napper Tandy had gone back to the 
foundry. The new series of resolutions gave 
occasion to eager debates in the British 
Eouse of Commons. It is with regret that 
one finds Mr. Burke not only supporting the 
propositions but supporting them on the ex- 
press ground that they went to re-establish 
the supremacy of England over Ireland. 
Be said : ''To consult the interests of Eng- 
land ami Ireland, to unite and consolidate 
them into one, was a task he would under- 
take, as that by which he could best dis- 
charge the duties he owed to both. To Ire- 
Ian. 1, independence of legislature had been 
given ; she was now a co-oidinate, though 
less | owerful state ; but pre-eminence and 
dignity were due to England; it was she 
alone that must bear the weight and burden 
of the empire; she alone must pour out the 
Ocean of wealth necessary for the defence of 
t : Ireland, and other parts, might empty 
their little urns to swell the tide : they 
might wield their little puny tridents ; but 
the great trident that was to move the 
world, must he grasped by England alone, 
and dearly it cost her to hold it. Indepen- 
dence of legislature had been granted to 
Ireland; but do other independence could 
Great Britain give her, without reversing 
the order and decree of nature: Inland 

could nol be separated IV Englandj she 

could not exist without her; she must ever 





remain under the protection of England, her 
guardian angel." 

There was another Irishman in the Eng- 
lish House of Commons, who did not see 
the matter altogether in this light. Richard 
Brinslev Sheridan, speaking of Mr. Orile, 
the English Secretary for Ireland, with his 
insidious propositions, said : — "Ireland newly 
escaped from harsh trammels and severe dis- 
cipline, was treated like a high-mettled horse, 
hard to catch ; and the Irish Secretary was 
sent back to the field to soothe and coax 
him, with a sieve of provender in the one 
hand and a bridle in the other." When the 
propositions, as altered, had passed the Com- 
mons, and were brought into the House of 
Lords, it was curious to see the question 
treated, not as a matter of commerce, but 
as a project for a future union; which in 
fact it was. Lord Lansdowne treated " the 
idea of a union as a thing impracticable. 
High-minded and jealous as were the people 
of Ireland, we must first learn whether they 
will conseut to give up their distinct empire, 
their Parliament, and all the honors which 
belong to them." After debate, however, 
the resolutions passed the Lords by a great 
majority. Mr. Pitt then brought in a bill, 
founded upon them, which was carried, and 
was followed up by an address to his ma- 
jesty, voted by both Houses of Parliament, 
wherein they acquainted him with what 
they had done, and that it remained for the 
Parliament of Ireland to judge and decide 
thereupon. On the 12th of August Mr. 
Secretary Orde moved the House lor leave 
to bring in a bill, which was a mere tran- 
script of that moved by the English minis- 
ter. The debates ou this occasion, and more 
especially on the side of opposition, were 
long and animated. After a vehement de- 
hate, which lasted eighteen hours, the 
House divided at nine in the morning, upon 
the motion of Mr. Orde to bring iu the bill. 
Ayes, 12*7 ; noes, 108. Such a division, upon 
a preliminary stage, was equivalent to a de- 
feat ; and on the Monday following (15th 
of August) Mr. Orde moved the first reading 
of the bill, anil that it should be printed, 
declaring at the same time that he did not 
intend to make any further progress in the 
business dining the present session. He had 
completed his duty respecting that measure. 



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In short, the bill was adjourned, and finally 
st. On the same loth of August Mr. 
Flood moved a resolution: — "Resolved, 
That we hold ourselves bound not to enter 
into engagement to give up the sole and ex- 
clusive right of the Parliament of Ireland, 
in all cases whatsoever, as well externally as 
commercially and internally." The bill was 
withdrawn: Mr. Flood withdrew his motion; 
and from that hour Mr. Pitt determined to 
lay his plans for the final extinguishment of 
Irish nationality and its total absorption into 
that of Great Britain ; in other words, for 

hi 111 ~M 1 ^ ue "Union." 

lAlllfc/ll When the Duke of Rutland again met 

the Parliament in January, 1785, his speech 
intimated that there was a strong desire on 
the p-irt of Government to revive the ques- 
tion of the Commercial Propositions: but 
there now began to be a considerable organ- 
ized opposition to the Castle — an opposition 
which had afterwards to be "broken down" 
by the usual and well-understood methods. 

Mr. Conolly and some other gentlemen of 
great landed property in the country, who 
had been much in the habit of supporting 
Government, now appeared to have taken a 
decided part in the opposition to the Duke 
of Rutland's administration. On the same 
day the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir 
John Parnell) stated that the debt of the 
nation was £3.044,107; on which Mr. 
Conolly observed, that the expenses of Gov- 
ernment every year increased : that the 
minister came regularly to that Ilonse to 
complain of the deficiency in the revenue, 
and demanded a loan, which was granted on 
his promise of future economy : at last the 
revenue was raised by new taxes to equal 
the expense, and still the expense had in- 
creased ; he (as also Mr. Grattan) insisted 
upon the necessity of making a stand 
against the growth of expense, or else their 
constitution and commerce were at an end. 
;;Ci H ' Accordingly, on the 9th of February, Mr. 

Conolly moved the following resolutions : 
1st, That the House did in the last session 
grant certain new taxes, estimated at £140,- 
000 per annum, for the purpose of putting 
an end to the accumulation of debt. 2d, 
That should the said taxes be continued it 
was absolutely necessary that the expenses 
of the nation should be confined to her an- 



nual income. After a warm and long de- 
bate, there appeared upon a division 73 for 
Mr. Conolly's resolutions, and 14<J against 
them. This was extremely discouraging, 
and even provoking, to the people out of 
doors who had those taxes to pay : espe 
cially as every one knew that those who in 
Parliament voted against all retrenchment 
and economy were themselves continually 
swelling the public expenditure by soliciting 
pensions or by complaisantly voting to one 
another immense sums of the people's 
money. 

However, the Patriots, in the same ses- 
sion, returned to the charge — this time 
against the intolerable pension list. 

Mr. Forbes led the van on the attack, and 
on the filh of March moved the House, 
after a very animated speech, that the pres- 
ent application and amount of pensions on 
the civil establishment, were a grievance to 
the nation, and demanded redress. The 
motion produced a very interesting debate; 
but it shared the same fate as the bill he 
afterwards introduced to limit the amount 
of pensions, which was lost by a majority of 
134 against 78. This bill was most stren- 
uously opposed by Sir Hercules Langrishe, 
Mr. Mason, Mr. George Ponsonby, the at- 
torney-general, and the most leading men 
011 the treasury bench, as a direct and in 
decent invasion of the royal prerogative, 
The attorney-general asserted, that the 
principle of the bill went to the most dan- 
gerous extent of any bill that had ever 
come before Parliament ; it went to rob the 
crown of its responsibility in the disposal 
of the public money, and to convey it to that 
House, and even to the House of Peers. 
He then begged leave to remind the mem- 
bers of what happened after the passing of 
their favorite vote of 1757. The members 
of that House caballed together, forming 
themselves into little parties, and voting to 
each otln-r hundreds of thousands. And as 
no Government could go on without the aid 
of their leaders, it cost that nation more to 
break through that puisne aristocracy, which 
had made a property of Parliament, than 
what it would by the pension list for many 
years. On the side of the Patriots, all the 
old arguments were urged with redoubled 
force against the pension list. Mr. Grattan 



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gave great offence b} the strong and harsh 
assertion, with which lie closed his speech 
on Mr. Forbes's motion, viz.: "If he should 
vote thai pensions were not a grievance, he 
ihould vote an impudent, an insolent, und a 
public lie." 

Mr. Curran took a brilliant part in this 
debate. Alluding to the various classes of 
foreign and domestic knaves who were the 
objects of the royal bounty, he said:— 
"This polyglot of wealth, this museum of 
curiosities, the pensiou list, embraces every 
link in the human chain ; every description of 
men, women, and children, from the exalted 
excellence of a Hawke or Rodney, to the 
debased situation of the lady who humbleth 
herself that she may be exalted. But the 
lessons it inculcates form its greatest perfec- 
tion; it teaches that sloth and vice mav 
eat that bread, which virtue and honesty 
may starve for after they had earned it. It 
teaches the i.lle and dissolute to look up for 
that support, which they are too proud to 
stoop to earn. It directs the miuds of men 
to an entire reliance ou the 1 tiling power of 
the state, who feeds the ravens of the royal 
aviary, that cry continually for food. It 
teaches them to imitate those saints on the 
pension list, that arc like the lilies of the 
field, they toil not, neither do they spin, and 
yet are arrayed like Solomon in all his 
glory. In fine, it teaches a lesson, which 
indeed they might have learned from Epic- 
tetua, that it is sometimes good not to be 
ov.r-viituous: it shows, that in proportion 
as our distn sses increase, the munificence of 
the crown increases also; in proportion as 
our clothes are rent, the royal mantle is ex- 
tended over us." 

The remaining subject of difference be- 
twecn the ministry and the Patriots in that 
session, was upon the police bill, which had 
been tor a considerable time a favorite ob- 
ject with Government to carry, in order to 
Strengthen their interest in the city of Dub- 
lin, which, from the days of Dr. Lucas, they 
lad felt declining. It was conceived by the 
opposition, that if the bill were carried lor 
the city of Dublin, it would in the next ses- 
sion be extended to every part of the king- 
dom : and it was also generally considered, 
that the report of popular risings and Po- 
pish conspiracies against the Protestant As- 



cendency, had been industriously exagger- 
ated for the purpose of intimidating the 
Parliament into the adoption of that strong 
measure * of government. 

Mr. Conolly took a leading part in oppos- 
ing the police bill, which he observed, un- 
der the specious pretence of giving police, 
went to take away constitution. He was 
still positive, that he was well-founded in 
his opinion ; that the conduct of the admin- 
istration was inimical to the constitution. 
The temperance of the Volunteers since the 
noble duke's administration, deserved their 
grateful approbation. When they were 
misguided, and adopted measures, which he 
conceived improper, he was not backward in 
avowing himself against their proceedings; 
but when he reflected, that the moment the 
Volunteers were told their conduct was dis- 
agreeable, to Parliament, they retired to the 
country without a murmur, such conduct- 
secured his admiration, and made hire 
tenacious of their liberties; nor could their 
arms be placed in better hauds than where 
the}' were. 

There were several heated debates upon 



Ife 



* Sir Edward Crofton, in opposing this bill, said : 
"I have spoken of Mr. O'Connor in a former debate; 
and I am firmly persuaded that, as to that gentleman, 
matters have been extremely exaggerated and mis- 
represented. I know it has beeu mentioned as an 
aftair that required the interference of Government ; 
and that camps, cannon, and fortifications, were 
erected. It was also rumored, that the Soman 
Catholics were in open rebellion ; this was an insid- 
ions, infamous, and false report, calculated to cast 
an undeserved reflection on a body of men remark- 
able for their loyalty to their sovereign, and their 
known attachment to the constitution; it was an 
illiberal and an infamous attack ou a people distin- 
guished for their peaceable demeanor, and was in- 
tended but to serve the purposes of this still more 
infamous bill. 

" However great my knowledge may have been of 
the loyalty of the Koman Catholics of this country 
yet I must confess, on this occasion, I was made a 
dupe to report : for from the gentleman, who had 
declared the county of Roscommon to be in a state 
of rebellion, I could scarcely believe but Govern- 
ment had authority for saying so; I confess, there- 
fore, 1 felt for my property: and it was natural I 
should make every possible inquiry; I did so, and 
found there was no rebellion in the country; ami 
also found the trifling disturbances, which had been 
so exaggerated, were only the effects of some whis- 
key, to which t e country people had been treated, 
and which every gentleman knows operates on the 
lower order of people, as oil of rhodium does on rats ; 
and what was very extraordinary, there waa not a 
broken head on the occasion. " 



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this bill: it was treated by opposition as a 
most unconstitutional job, a mere bill of pat- 
ronage for ministerial purposes; although it 
must bu allowed, that the secretary offered 
to alter whatever should be found objection- 
able in the committee, ami some of the 
noxious clauses were withdrawn. Several 
petitions weie presented against the bill, but 
received with ill grace. Amongst other 
petitions, one was presented from the free- 
holders of the county of Dublin, by Sir 
Edward Newenham, which the attorney- 
general moved to have rejected, as an in- 
sult to the House ; and it was rejected by 
118 against Sir Edward Newenham and Col- 
on.-] Sharman. The attorney-general boast- 
ed of his indulgence in not moving a ceu- 
Bure against the petitioners : but should not 
S3 again be so gentle, if the offence were re- 
peated. This was the most important bill 
passed during the session. It was the ori- 
gin and nucleus of that immense standing 
armv of police and constabulary which is 
absolutely uuder the control of the British 
Government, .and has since proved the most 
efficient part of the garrison by which that 
Government holds military occupation of 
Ireland. 

Government succeeded, during the session, 
in all the measures it insisted upon : so that on 
proroguing Parliament on the 18th of May, 
the viceroy was able gravely to pay them 
the usual compliment upon the salutary 
laws enacted in that session, and particularly 
the introduction of a system of police, as 
honorable proofs of their wisdom, modera- 
tion, and prudence, lie moreover assured 
them, that his majesty beheld with the high- 
est satisfaction the zeal and loyalty of the 
people of Ireland : and that he had his ma- 
jesty's express commands, to assure them of 
the most cordial returns of his royal favor 
and parental affection. 

It is painful to be obliged to admit that 
at this period ( 1 "7S7) live years of nominal 
independence had actually reduced Ireland 
to a condition of more helpless prostration 
nt the feet of England than she bad been be- 
fore : that the policy <>f resuming one by 
one the liberties yielded for a moment to the 
demand of the Volunteers was either in ope- 
ration or in preparation. Under Mr. Pitt's 
proposed commercial arrangements, Free 



Trade Would no longer exist. The repeal of 
the perpetual Mutiny Bill would very sooh 
matter little, when Government woidd have 
a stauding army of police to overawe I he 
" Lucasiaus" and reformers of Dublin; and 
which was certain to be established also in 
the provinces. The power of the Parliament 
was now unlimited as to originating its own 
laws; but for this very reason it had to be 
taken possession of in advance by the actual 
purchase of a commanding majority for the 
crown ; so that the independent Parliament 
should still be, as described by Swift, always 
firm in its vocation, for the Court against 
the Nation. Indeed the melancholy neces- 
sity of keeping in pay a majority of Parlia- 
ment is deduced by Lord Clare from the 
very fact of that Parliament's political inde- 
pendence. The Government was now, ho 
said, at the mercy of that Parliament, and 
therefore had to propitiate it, or Government 
could not soon. His argument concludes 
in favor of a " union" with England, as a 
cure for all evils. " Such a connection" [as 
the present], said be, " is formed not for mil 
tual strength and security, but for mutua. 
debility. " It is a connection of distinct 
minds and distinct interests, generating na- 
tional discontent and jealousy, and perpetu- 
ating faction and misgovernment in the 
inferior country. The first obvious disad- 
vantage to Ireland is, that in every depart- 
ment of the state, every other consideration 
must yield to parliamentary power ; let the 
misconduct of any public officer be what it 
may, if he is supported by a powerful parlia- 
mentary interest, he is too strong for the 
king's representative. A majority of the 
Parliament of Great Britain will defeat the 
minister of the day ; but a majority of the 
Parliament of Ireland against the king's 
Government, goes directly to separate this 
kingdom from the British Crown. If it 
continues, separation or war is the inevitable 
issue; and therefore it is, that the general 
executive of the empire, as far as is essential 
to retain Inland as a member of it, is com- 
pletely at the mercy of the Irish Parliament ; 
and it is vain to expect, so long as man con- 
tinues to be a creature of passion and inter- 
est, that he will not avail himself of the 
critical and difficult situation, in which the 
executive Government of this kiugdom must 



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FIVK YEAKS OF IXDEPEXDKNCE. 



■ remain, under iis present constitution, I Conolly made some very severe observations : 






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'to demand the favors of the Crown, not as 
tlir reward of loyalty and service, but as the 
stipulated price, to be paid in advance, for 
the discharge of a public duty. Every un- 
principled and noisy adventurer, wlio can 
achieve the ineaus of putting himself f. >r- 
ward, commences his political career on an 
avowed speculation of profit and loss : and if 
he fail to negotiate Ins political job, will en- 
deavor to extort it by faction and sedition, 
and with unblushing effrontery to fasten his 
own corruption on the king's ministers. — 
English influence is the inexhaustible theme 
for popular irritation and distrust of every 
factious and discontented man, who fails in 
the struggle to make himself the necessary 
instrument of it. Am I then justified in 
staling, that our present connection with 
(treat Britain, is in iis nature formed for mu- 
tual debility ; that it must continue to gene- 
rate national discontent and jealousy, and 
perpetuate faction and misgovern ment in 
Ireland!"* 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

1787-1789. 
Alarms and rumors of disturbances — Got up by 
Government — Act against illegal oomhinations — 
Mr. Gruttan ou Tithes — Failure of his efforts- 
Death of Duke of Rutland -Marquis of Bucking- 
ham, Viceroy — Independence of Mr. Curran— Mr. 
Forbes nnil the Pension List — Failure of his 
motion — Triumph of corruption — Troubles in Ar- 
magh County — " Peep-of-Duy Boya" — " Defend- 
ers" — Insanity of tho King — The Begency. 

When Parliament met, according to the 
last adjournment on the 18th of January 
1787, the lord-lieutenant particularly applied 
to them for their assistance in the effectual 
vindication of the laws, aud the protection 
of society. On this part of his address Mr. 

•This famous speech is only citc.l in this place to 
show how very coolly a Lord Chancellor of Ireland 

C) 1 explain and avow the existence, the necessity 

and the whole mechanism of the corrupt manage- 
ment of the Irish Parliament. As an argument for 
u union, his speech may have its value, but it 
is much better as an argument for total sep- 
aration. Those who thought, with his Lord- 
ship thai England must torn* hoio rule over Ireland 
naturally became unionists : those who thought 
thai Ireland should rule herself, and that if all her 
people formed one united nation aho could both 
govern and protect herself, beoamestill more logical- 
ly united Irtilimen. 

23 



distinctly, indeed, charging the Governmen 
with having invented, or at least grossly ex 
aggerated, the rumors of disturbances tit th 
south -'to intimidate the Protestants of that 
kingdom, and to furnish an immediate pretext 
for the unconstitutional police-lull :" — and 
"that the first, thing that, could be called a 
disturbance induced hiin to think Govern- 
ment had a hand in it." This involves a 
charge against the Government so atrocious 
and revolting — calumniating the forlorn and 
friendless Catholics of Minister to produce 
an alarm of threatened insurrection and thus 
be the more readily armed with a great police 
force, that it would be difficult to believe it, 
if we did not know, from subsequent events, 
that this kind of procedure is familiar to the 
British Government in Ireland, and forms 
one of its thief agencies. There were seve- 
ral statements and counter-statements as to 
the existence and extent of these alleged 
riots. Mr. Curran who then, and always, 
took the part of the oppressed, said : "Is it 
any wonder, that the wretches whom wo- 
ful and long experience has taught to 
doubt, and with justice to doubt, the atten- 
tion and relief of the legislature, wretches 
that have the utmost difficulty to keep life 
and soul together, and who must inevitably 
perish, if the hand of assistance were not 
stretched out to them, should appear in tu- 
mult? No, sir, it is not. Unbound to the 
sovereign by any proof of his affection, un- 
bound to Government by any instance of its 
protection, unbound to the country, or to the 
soil, by being destitute of any property in it, 
'tis no wonder that the peasantry should he 
ripe for rebellion ar.d revolt: so far from 
matter of surprise, it must naturally have 
been expected. 

"The supineness of the magistrates, and the 
low state of the commissions of the peace 
throughout the kingdom, but particularly in 
the county of Cork, should be rectified. A 
system of vile jobbing was one of the mis- 
fortunes of that country : it extended even 
to commissions of the peace : how else could 
the report of the four and twenty commis- 
sions of the peace, sent down to the county 
of Clare in one post, he accounted for ? Even 
the appointment of sheriffs was notoriously 
in the hands of government; and through 



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jobbing, sheiiffs themselves could not be 
trusted : two sheriffs ran away last year with 
executions in their pockets, and the late high 
sherili" of the county of Dublin had ab- 
sconded." 

There were indeed local disturbances, as 
in the first days of Whitebovism, provoked 
solely by the tithe-devouring clergymen and 
by the intolerable oppressions of the land- 
lords ; but in no way partaking of an insur- 
rectionary organization, nor directed to 
revolutionary euds. Mr. Fitzgibbon, then 
attorney-general, told Parliament some mar- 
vtdlous tales. He blamed the landlords as 
the chief cause of the disturbances ; and 
said "he knew, that the unhappy tenantry 
were ground to powder by relentless land- 
lords. He knew that, far from being able to 
give the clergy their just dues, they had not 
food or raiment for themselves; the land- 
lord grasped the whole, and sorry was he to 
add, that not satisfied with the present extor- 
tion, some landlords had been so base as to 
instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of 
their tithes, not in order to alleviate the dis- 
tresses of the tenantry, but that they might 
add the clergy's share to the cruel rack-rents 
already paid. It would require the utmost 
ability of Parliament to come to the root of 
those' evils." Hk closed by moving a resolu- 
tion — '"That it is the opinion of this com- 
mittee, that sonic further provisions by 
statute are indispensably necessary to pre- 
vent tumultuous risings and assemblies, and 
for the more adequate and effectual punish- 
ment of persons guilty of outrage, riot and 
illegal combination, and of administering 
and taking unlawful oaths." 

A bill for these purposes was soon after 
brought in by Fitzgibbon, and after sharp 
debates, and a vigorous opposition from Mr. 
Conolly and others; was read a second time, 
committed by a very large majority, and 
passed. 

Mr. Grattan who, while he desired to see 
the laws enforced, was yet very sensible of 




the next session of Parliament, that public 
tranquillity has been restored in those parts- 
of the kingdom that have lately been dis- 
turbed, and due obedience paid to the laws, 
this House will take into consideration the 
subject of tithes, and endeavor to form some 
plan for the honorable support of the clergy, 
and the ease of the people." 

Mr. Secretary Orde differed from Mr. 
Grattan, and insisted, that in the existing 
circumstances of the country it was impos- 
sible in any degree to hold out an expec'.a 
tion, that the House would even enter upon 
the subject. Hereupon arose a warm de- 
bate ; and there were not wanting honor- 
able members to affirm that the established 
Church was no burden on the people, and 
that rectors and vicars lather saved money 
to a Catholic parish than otherwise. It. may 
be conceived how Grattan's gall rose when 
he heard such arguments as these. " It has 
been said," he exclaimed, that the exonera- 
tion of potatoes from tithe would be of no 
advantage to the poor. Where had gentle- 
men learned that doctrine? Certainly not in 
the report of Lord Caihampton. Or would 
they say, that taking sixteen shillings an 
acre off potatoes is no benefit to the misera- 
ble man who depends on them as his only 
food ?" 

Mr. Grattan persisted with the motion for 
a committee to inquire whether any just 
cause of complaint existed among the people 
of Munstcr, or of Kilkenny or Carlow on 
account of tithe, or the collection of tithe. 
His speech upon this occasion is considered 
as one of his master pieces, both of reason 
ami eloquence. It produced a great effect 
upon the country ; none whatever upon the 
House. Only forty-nine voted for Grattan's 
motion ; but 121 gave their voice against 
all inquiry. The poor peasantry were left 
at the mercy, as before, of the tithe-priests 
and proctors, and of the grinding landlords; 
and so remain, without improvement, to this 
day. Thev felt that there was no Par- 



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the unendurable oppressions practised on the liainent for them, no law, no protection, no 

leasantrv, brought upon the 13ih of March 

he whole subject of tithes, which he consid- 
ered a disgrace to the Protestant Church as 
well as a grievous burden to the Catholic 
people. He moved the following resolution : 
" That if it appear, at the commencement of 



sympathy ; and wo cannot but agree with 
Mr. Curran that the only wonder would have 
been if they did not occasionally set tire to a 
parson's stackyard, or that they did not cut 
off a tithe-proctor's ears when they met him 
in a convenient place. 








1 v< H U\M.^'V'V.-vi^. r-^w 



DEATH OF THE DI'IiE OF RUTLAND. 



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'I'll.- Duke of Rutland died in October 

1787 : d ifil, it is said, in consequence of his 
excesses and debauchery. He was a good- 
natured and jovial nobleman, and more than 
sustained the hospitable character of Dublin 
Castle. As for public business, he committed 
all that to the management of those around 
him, experienced intriguers who knew bet- 
ter than he how "to do the king's busiuess." 
And as there was but one machinery known 
which was capable of making public busi- 
ness move in Ireland ; and as the viceroy's 
advisers felt it their duty to be liberal at the 
nation's expense, the cost of Government 
rapidly increased during bis vicerovaltv. In 
the very year of his death, for example, the 
pension list was increased by additional 
grants to the amount of £8.730 over what it 
had been the year before. The Duke of 
Rutland was succeeded by the Marquis of 
Buckingham, who met the Parliament for 
the first time on the 17th of January 1788. 
In the address of the Commons in reply to 
his speech, Mr. Parsons objected to one 
clause, which gave unqualified approbation 
to the public course of the late viceroy, and 
seemed therefore to bind the Douse to pur- 
sue the same measures. He remarked on 
the largely increased expenses and the enor- 
mous pension list, and remarked that neither 
ii. the speech from the throne, nor in the 
addn ss, was the word economy to be found. 
II.- moved an amendment, but of course it 
was negatived without a division. It may 
be said, in general, of the administration of 
the Marquis of Buckingham, that it was con- 
ducted mi tlie same principle (or negation 
of principle) and by the same unprincipled 
men as that of the Duke of Rutland. It was 
thought advisable to purchase a few patriots. 
What communications the marquis made to 
his converts cannot now be slated with com- 
mercial exactitude; but he certainly inau- 
gurated his term of office by persuading to 
silence some noisv members of the opposi- 
tion. I'll this occasion it is agreeable to re- 
cord an honorable trait of one of those 
patriots whose memory is dearly cherished 
in Ireland, John Philpot Cnrran. Amongst 
other proselytes, that went over to the new 
viceroy, was Mr. Longfield, who had consid- 
erable parliamentary interest; he and the 
friends he introduced had uniformly opposed 




the late administration : amongst these was 
Mr. Cnrran, who having been brought into 
Parliament by Mr. Longfield, could not 
bend his principles to the pliancy of his 
friend, or take a subordinate part in sup- 
porting an administration, whose intended 
measures were made a secret: he there- 
fore purchased a seat in a vacant borough, 
and offered it to Mr. Longfield for any per- 
son whose principles were at his command. 
Thus did Mr. Cnrran retain his seat and par- 
liamentary independence: and Mr. Long- 
field was enabled to fulfil his engagements 
wilh the minister, for his own and his de- 
pendant's votes in Parliament. 

Early in this first session, Mr. Forbes made 
another effort against the pension list, which 
had become his special subject. He had 
been taunted on a former occasion with 
making his attacks too general, instead of 
denouncing particular examples; and a 
sporting member of the Castle party had 
assured him that the man "who fires at a 
whole covey does not hit a feather." He 
now desired, that a list of the pensions 
granted since the last session of Parliament 
might be read. He then objected to a pen- 
sion of £1000, to James Blown, Esq., late 
prime sergeant, on the principle onlvofits 
being granted to a member of the House 
during pleasure. He remarked, that bv the 
English act for further securing the liberties 
of the subject, it was provided, that after the 
accession of the present family to the throne, 
no pensioner dming pleasure, should sit or 
vote in the House of Commons. The peo- 
ple of Ireland had a right to participate 
with the inhabitants of Great Britain, in all 
the benefits and privileges of that act, and 
the Bill of Rights. He moved, "that this 
pension was a misapplication of the reve- 
nue." He also on the same dav mentioned 
the pension of £G40 to Thomas Higinbotham 
for life, adding, that be was astonished that 
so large a portion of the public monev should 
be disposed of without the knowledge or 
privity of the chancellor of the exchequer; 
and that for such a transaction ail the ser- 
vants of the crown should deny any respon- 
sibility; he then objected to a pension of 
£1200 per annum to Robeit Ashwood, tor 
the life of his son, and also two other pen- 
sions of £300 each, and one of £200 to the 



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HISTORY OF IIIKLAND. 



game person, for lives of his other children, 
lie stated, thai a pension of £2000 per an- 
num bad been grauted in the year 1755, for 
the life of Frederick Robinson; that the 
family of Robinson had lately sold that pen- 
sion to Mr. Ash worth, and had influence 
with Government sufficient to prevail on the 
minister t<> change the lite in the grant, and 
to insert the lives of the young children of 
Mr. Ashworth in the plaoe of Mr. Robinson ; 
that this management was now become a 
frequenl practice; ami that thereby a grant 
of a pension for life operated as a lease for 
lives with a covenant of perpetual renewal. 
lie then moved that the above pension 
" was an improvident, disposition of the rev- 
enue." It is almost needless to add that all 
Mr. Forbes' motions were negatived without 
a division. Nothing, perhaps, can better 
illustrate the shameless character of the uni- 
versal venality than the timid objection 
made by a ministerial member against the 
necessity of doubling pensions to members 
of Parliament. Sir Henry Cavendish, though 
he declared his unqualified devotion to that 
administration, vet remarked, that doubling 
the pensions of members might he avoided, 
"for," said hi', "suppose it appears that 
£400 a year are annexed to the name of a 
member of this House, and that no particular 
cause could be assigned tor the grant, may 
it not !»■ conjectured, that it. was made for 
his service in that House, and if so, an ad- 
ditional pension is unnecessary, for he that has 
£400 a year for his vote, will not refuse vot- 
ing though he were to be refused X Kin a year 
more."— (Par. Debates, vol. viii.) In truth it 
would be irksome and unprofitable to record 
these many unavailing efforts of the patriots 
to restrain the progress of public corruption, 
hut that the revelations made on such occa- 
sions exhibit the whole machinery by which 
Irish government was carried on, or could 
have been carried on for a single week: and 
show that British rule in that country con- 
sisted simply in making the Irish people pay 
large salaries to certain men for representing 

ud betraying them. 

It is just, however, to the honest Irishmen 
in that corrupt assembly to signalizo and 
remember their useless but heroic efforts 

against the deluge of corruption. 

The most violent attack upon the minis- 



ter, during this session of Parliament, was 
made on the 29th of February, when M 
Forbes moved his address to the crown, in 
order, at, least, to leave to posterity, on the 
face of their journals, the grievances under 
which the people labored in the year 17SS. 
lie prefaced his motion by a very interest- 
ing speech founded on facts, to be collected 
from the journals of the House, or from au- 
thentic documents then lying on the table, 
lb' travelled over much of his former argu- 
ments against the prodigality of the late 
administration, which had increased the 
pension list by £2G,000. lie took that op- 
portunity of giving notice, that he meant 
next session to offer a hill to that House for 
the purpose of creating a responsibility in 
the ministers of Ireland, for the application 
of the revenue of that kingdom. The only 
authority under which the vice treasurer 
then paid any money, was a king's letter, 
countersigned by the commissioner of the 
English treasury. He adverted with marked 

censure, to the addition of £2000 to the 
salary of the secretary in the late adminis- 
tration, ami to the large sums expended 
in the, purchase and embellishment of 
his house in the Phoenix Park, and 
to the present intent of granting a pen- 
sion of £2000 to that very secretary for 
lite : which was establishing a most mis- 

chievous precedent for such grants to every 
future secretary, lie was sorry to hear the 
osi.uisil.b- minister avail himself of the same 
argument winch his predecessors had suc- 
cessfully used for the last ten years in resist- 
ing every attack upon the pension list. He 

then enlarged upon the pernicious conse- 
quences of placing implicit confidence in the 
administration ; and supported his thesis by 
the following historical illustrations. 

From the year 1 TT3 to 1776,- confidence 
in the administration of that day had cost 
this nation £100,000 in new taxes, and 
£440,000 raised by life annuities. In 1778, 
confidence in the administration cost £300,- 
000 in life annuities; a sum granted for the 
purpose of defence, and which produced on 
au alarm of invasion, one troop of horse, and 
half a company of invalids. In 177.) the 
then secretary, for the purpose of opposing 
a measure for relief against the abuses of 
the pension list, lead in this House an ex 




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TROUm.ES IN AEMAGH COUNTY. 



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trad of a letter from the Secretary of State 
in England, expressive of the determination 
of the then English ministry, not to increase 
the pension list; confidence was placed in 
the administration of the day, and it cost the 
country £1:5,000 in new pensions, granted 
by the same secretary. In April, 1782, or. 
tin' arrival of the principal of the new ad- 
ministration, confidence, in the first instance, 
was neither asked nor granted; certain 
measures were proposed by the Commons 
and the people, they were granted, and the 
country was emancipated. In 1785, confi- 
dence in the administration of that day, cost 
Ireland £140,000 new taxes to equalize the 
income and expenditure; but the grant pro- 
duced £1SO,000 excess of expenses. The 
same confidence cost £'20,000 per annum for 
a police establishment, which it had been 
proved at their bar contributed to the viola- 
tion, instead of the preservation of the peace 
of the metropolis. 

The same confidence, he said, cost this 
nation last year £100,000, charged for 
'buildings and gardens in the Phoenix Park: 
in fine they might place nearly two-thirds 
of the national debt to the account of con- 
tinence in the administration of the day. 
lie then moved an address to his majesty 
setting forth the entire abuse of the pen- 
sion system : that on the 1st of January, 
1788, the list of pensions had increased to 
£90,2S9 per annum, exclusive of military 
pensu ns, unci charge* under the head of in- 
cidents on the ciril establishment, ami ad- 
ditional salaries to sinecure officers — both of 
which were substantially pensions; and that 
this made an amount much greater than the 
pensiou list of England. It was in vain : 
the bribed majority listened to Mr, Forbes 
with a complacent smile; and again his mo- 
tion fell without a division. 

After another attempt of Mr. Grattan to 

get a inn. tee on tithes, Parliament was 

prorogued unexpectedly on the 14th of 
April, to the surprise ami irritation of the 

| pie. The natural quickness of their sen- 

salions was accelerated by disappointment, 
when ihev found, that all that was done rel- 
ative to tithes was, to provide lor the clergy 
what some of them had lost by retention 
of the tithes in the two preceding years, 
and to secure to them forever a tithe of 




hemp of 5s. per acre. The failure in every 
popular attempt of the Patriots, went but a 
little way to soothe the ruffled minds of the 
distressed peasantry in the provinces, or of 
the middling ami higher orders in the me- 
tropolis .and larger towns. Notwithstanding 
the increase of peace officers under the 
police bill, it was sarcastically observed, that 
his excellency had the peace and tranquillity 
of the country deeply tit heart, for that, 
upon the slightest appearance of interrup- 
tion, he was sure to call in the aid of the 
military. 

The attention of the public began at this 
moment to be turned away from the futile 
parliamentary contests to scenes which were 
taking place in the northern county of Ar- 
magh. The Catholics, once almost extirpated 
from that and some neighboring counties, 
had again increased and multiplied there. 
This had been caused in a great measure by- 
the large emigration of Protestants to 
America, leaving extensive regions nearly 
dispeopled. Many Catholics with their 
families, who had been starving on the bare 
mountains of Connaught and Donegal began 
to venture back to the pleasant valleys where 
their fathers had dwelt, and offered to be- 
come tenants to deserted farms. Landlords 
accepted these tenants, for want of Protest- 
ants, and they were followed by others. 
Protestant farmers were thus exposed to 
competition, to the manifest injury of the 
Protestant interest; and much ill-feeling, 
and some violent collisions had been the 
consequence. At length, in 1784, the Prot- 
estants formed themselves in Armagh Coun- 
ty, into a secret association calling itself 
Peep-of-Day Boys, in allusion to their cus- 
tom of repairing at that hour to the houses 
of the Catholics, dragging them out of bed 
and otherwise maltreating them. Even the 
furious Protestant partisan, Sir Richard 
Musgrave, gives this account of the banditti 
in question : — "They visited the houses of 
their antagonists at a very early hour in the 
morning to search for arms; and it is 
most certain that in doing so they often 
committed the most wanton outrages — in- 
sulting their persons and breaking their fur- 
niture," etc. Of course human nature could 
uot endure this treatment, and the Cath- 
olics of Armagh formed a couuter-associa- 



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HISTOTIY OF IRELAND 




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tion, which thev called by a name quite as 
descriptive as the other, " The Defenders." 
Many encounters soon took place, and some- 
times in considerable numbers: but as the 
Catholics were then greatly a minority of 
the population of the county, were very 
poor, and could scarcely procure any arms — 
which, besides, it was against the law for 
them to possess — it is not wonderful if the 
advantage rested generally, though not al- 
ways, with the Protestant aggressors. 

Either for the purpose or under the pre- 
tence of checking the spirit of turbulence 
and outrage, in the year recourse again 
was had to the raising of some Volunteer 
corps, by way of strengthening, as it was 
said, the arm of the civil magistrate. It 
was not in the nature of things, that these 
Volunteer corps, into which they refused to 
admit any Catholic, should not be more ob- 
noxious to the Defenders, than to the Peep- 
of-Dav Boys: for all hough they should not 
have shown favor or affection to any de- 
scription of men disturbing the public tran- 
quillity, yet it was the first part of their duty 
to disarm the Defenders (being Papists), 
and in their arms had they for some time 
found their only safety and defence against 
their antagonists. Some occasional conflicts 
happened both between the Defenders and 
Peep-of-Dav Boys, and between the De- 
fenders and the Volunteers. As a corps of 
Volunteers in going to church at Armagh 
passed by a Catholic chapel, a quarrel arose 
with some of the congregation, and stones 
were thrown at the Volunteers. After ser- 
vice, instead of avoiding the repetition of in- 
sult by taking another route, the Volun- 
teers procured arms, returned to the spot, 
and a conflict ensued, in which they killed 
some of the Catholic congregation. In 
consequence of these rencounters, and the 
Defenders procuring and retaining what fire- 
arms they could, the Earl of Char lemon t, 
governor of the county, and the grand jury, 
published a manifesto against all Papists 
who should assemble in arms, and also 
against any person who should attempt to 
disarm them without legal authority. In 
addition to these efforts, some of the Peep- 
of-Day Boys sought also to disarm their an- 
tagonists by means of the law : they accord- 
ingly indicted some of the Defenders at the 



summer assizes of 1788; but Baron Hamil- 
ton quashed the indictments, and dismissed 
both parties with an impressive exhortation 
to live in peace and brotherly love. The 
Defenders about this time were charged 
with openly sending challenges both to the 
Peep-of-Dav Boys and the Volunteers to 
meet them in the field ; the fact was, that 
the Defendets certainly did look upon them 
both as one common enemy combined to 
defeat and oppress them: whilst, therefore, 
this open hostility between the two parties 
subsisted and rankled under the daily fester- 
ing sore of religious acrimony, the Defend- 
ers, who knew themselves armed against 
law, though in self defence against the Peep- 
of-Day Boys, became the more anxious to 
bring their antagonists to an open trial of 
strength, rather than remain victims to the 
repeated outrages of their domiciliary visits, 
or other attempts to disarm them. Thus a 
private squabble between peasants gradually 
swelled into a village brawl, and ended in 
the religions war of a whole district. 

These Protestant Peep-of-Pay Boys were 
called also "Protestant Boys," and in some 
districts "Wreckers." The association of 
these plundering banditti afterwards de- 
veloped itself into the too-famous organiza- 
tion of "Orangemen," which in our own 
day has counted among its accomplices an 
uncle of Queen Victoria, has made riot< in 
Canada, and has wrecked Catholic churches 
and burned convents in the United States. 

King George the Third, who never had 
much mind, this year lost the little he had, 
and was pronounced insane by the court 
physicians. Then at once arose the question 
of the regency. The Prince of Wales was 
then twenty -six years of age ; and was as- 
sociated politically and socially with Whigs; 
an association by no means creditable to 
them. But though not creditable, it might 
be useful to his friends, if he were now to 
be recognized regent, with full powers of 
royalty. On the other band Mr. Pitt and 
the Tories saw constitutional objections. 
Mr. Fox opposed the motion of Mr. Pitt for 
an examination of constitutional precedents, 
inasmuch as the minister knew there were 
no precedents applicable to the case; and 
contended that the heir apparent, being of 
lull age, could and ought to exercise all tbo 



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INSANITY OF THE KING THE I:EGEXCT 



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functions of royalty by his own inherent 
right: Mr. Pitt replied that during the 
sovereign's natural life, the heir apparent 
was no more entitled to the regency than 
any other subject in the kingdom; and thai 
it was'Miitle less than treason " to affirm 
the contrary. Mr. Burke supported the 
Whig view of the subject; that is, main- 
tained the right of the prince to regency 
with full powers. The administration, how- 
ever, was quite sure of a majority in both 
Houses; and this availed more than all the 
constitutional arguments in the world. 

The whole question could have but little 
interest for the Irish nation; because who- 
ever should be king or regent in England, 
the course of British government in this 
country would have continued precisely the 
same, so far as any real interest of the peo- 
ple was concerned : but there were un- 
happily Whigs taod Tories iu Ireland also; 
and on this occasion, as ever since, the Irish 
parties attached themselves to their respect- 
ive party connections in England. It was 
known also that the powerful interests of the 
houses of Leiusler, Shannon, and Tyrone, 
the Fitzgeralds, Boyles, and Beresfords were 
Whigs; being, not unnaturally, attached to 
the party which had supported in England 
the claim of Ireland to legislative indepen- 
dence. Some statesmen, therefore, very 
soon saw the probability of a collision be- 
tween the two Parliaments upon the regen- 
cy. Indiscreet anticipations of such a dif- 
ference had already been expressed in de- 
bate. Lord Loughborough, for example, 
who took the lead of opposition in the 
Peers, amongst other arguments in support 
of the prince's inherent right, strongly 
urged the incoiiveniency and mischief, which 
might arise from the contrary doctrine, 
when it should come to be acted upon by 
the independent kingdom of Ireland. Was 
it remembered, said his lordship, that a 
neighboring kingdom stood connected with 
us, and acknowledged allegiance to the 
British crown. If once the rule of regular 
succession were departed from by the two 
Houses, bow were they sure, that the neigh- 
boring kingdom would acknowledge the re- 
gent, whom the two Houses would take 
upon themselves to elect. The probability 
was, that the neighboring kingdom would 



depart, in consequence of our departure, 
from the rule of hereditary succession, and 
choose a regent of their own, which must 
lead to endless confusion and embarrass- 
ment. 

But in answer to this part of Lord Lough- 
borough's speech, Lord Chancellor Thurlow 
lamented, that any remarks should have 
fallen from the noble and learned Lord re- 
specting Ireland, because he considered 
them as not unlikely, Spargere voces in. 
vulyum ambiyuas ! Such vague and loose 
suggestions could answer no useful purpose, 
but might produce very mischievous conse- 
quences, lie declared, that he had every 
reliance on the known loyalty, good sense, 
and affection of that country, and felt, no 
anxiety on the danger of Ireland's acting 
improperly. 

In tact, -after long and violent debates in 
the English Lords and Commons, Mr. Pitt's ' 
measure of a limited regency was carried in 
England. The limitations were indeed verv 
great : as the regent's power was not to ex- 
tend to " the granting of any office in rever- 
sion, or to granting for any other term than 
during his majesty's pleasure, any pension or 
any office whatever, except such as must by 
law be granted for life, or dining good be- 
havior ; nor to the granting of any rank or 
dignity of the peerage." While the debates 
in England were pending, peremptory in- 
structions were received by the viceroy, 
Lord Buckingham, to procure (with " unlim- 
ited discretion" as to the means)* from the 
Irish Parliament a formal recognition, that 
whomsoever Great Britain should appoint 
as regent, should, ipso facto, be received in 
Ireland with all the restrictions and limita- 
tions imposed upon the regent in Great 
Britain ; with peremptory orders to convene 
the Parliament the instant his excellency 
could answer for a majority for carrying 
such recognition. Unusual exertions to gain 
over the members to that point were used 
by all the means, which the Castle influence, 
aided at that time by the British treasury, 
could command. Threats also were circu- 
lated, and generally credited (not rashly, as 

* This statement concerning " unlimited discre- 
tion" is made on Ihe authority of Mr. I*lo\vden, a 
very careful and conscientious inquirer. Besides, if 
the fact hud never been affirmed, it would be iu it- 
self too probable to admit of much doubt. 



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experience afterwards proved) that whoever 
possessing place or pension, should vote 
against the minister, would forfeit, or be 
deprived. Yet it. was BOOH apparent that 
the canvass of the Castle would fail of suc- 
cess on this important and perilous occasion. 
The Marquis of Buckingham had grown ex- 
tremely unpopular amongst the leaders of 
Irish politics; and it was universally believed 
that his government was going to be of very 
short duration. In short it was previously 
known, that Government would be left in a 
minority on the question : they therefore 
deferred the evil day as long as possible, and 
convened the Parliament only on the 5th 
of February, after the whole plan had been 
settled, and submitted to by the prince in 
England. On an emergency so pressing, the 
lord-lieutenant, who at no time had been 
popular, now found himself importuned ami 
harassed beyond bearing: the death of Sir 
William Montgomery and Lord Clifden, who 
held lucrative places under Government, 
brought upon him a greedy swarm of appli- 
cants who imposed their extortionate de- 
mands with an arrogance in proportion to 
the value now known to be set upon a siugle 
vote at the Castle, The truth seems to be 
that this lord-lieutenant, with all his " un- 
limited discretion" had not places and pen- 
sions and money sufficient to insure the 
needful majorities. If the Castle majority 
deserted the viceroy, then, it was not on 
account of any fault on Ins part, but rather 
on account of his one virtue — which they 
could never forgive — economy of the public 
money. In a debate which arose in the 
House, while this regency question was still 
awaiting decision, and in which the adminis- 
tration of the Marquis of Buckingham was 
made the subject of severe comment, Mr. 
Corry admitted a large increase of salary in 
his appointment (surveyor of the ordnance), 
but could at the same time show some savings 
to tin' public in his department, which would 
fully justify whatever alteration had been 
made: the intention of the alteration was to 
place the management in the hands of men, 
who might be supposed above the little arts 
of plunder and peculation, which had before 
disgraced the department much to the pub- 
lic loss. He had ever opposed the extension 
of pensions, aud opposition to that practice 



was one of the conditions on which he had 
accepted of office : but he could not see that 
the Marquis of Buckingham deserved cen 
sure because a bill to limit pensions had 
been opposed in his administration, The 
majority of the House stood pledged to op- 
pose the bill : but the marquis had not 
added a pension to the lint. This was not 
indeed altogether correct; as he had agreed 
to a pension of £2000 in favor of Mr. Orde, 
of the "Commercial Propositions." Mr. 
Grattan, in the same debate, said, "The ex- 
penses of tin* Marquis of Buckingham were 
accompanied with the most extraordinary 
professions of economy, and censures on the 
conduct of the administration that imme- 
diately preceded him; he had exclaimed 
against the pensions of the Duke of Rutland, 
a man accessible undoubtedly to applications, 
but the most disinterested man on earth, and 
one whose noble nature demanded some, but 
received no indulgence from the rigist prin- 
ciples or professions of the Marquis of Buck- 
ingham. He exclaimed against his pensions, 
and he confirmed them: he resisted motion) 
made to disallow some of them ; and Ik 
finally agreed to a pension for Mr. Orde, the 
secretary of the Duke of Portland's admin- 
istration, whose extravagance was at once the 
object of his invective and his bounty : he 
resisted his pension, if report says true ; and 
having shown that it was against his con- 
science, In' submitted. Mr. Orde can never 
forgive the marquis the charges made 
against the man he thought proper to re- 
ward : the public will never forgive the pen- 
sion given to a man the marquis thought 
proper to condemn." What was even worse 
than this, and what the Castle statesmen of 
that day could still less forgive, it appears, 
from the same speech of Mr. Grattan, that 
" while the Marquis of Buckingham was pro- 
fessing a disinterested regard for the pros- 
perity of Ireland, he disposed of the best 
reversion in Ireland to his own family J the 
only family in the world that could not with 
decency receive it, as he was the only man in 
i he world who could not with decency dis- 
pose of it to them." 

After this it will not appear wonderful 
that the high and mighty aristocratic houses 
of Ireland, with all their train and influence, 
abandoned the Castle in this important crisia 



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THE REGENCY. 



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Mi. Grattan, of course, and most of the 
Patriot minority, would Imve voted with the 
English Whigs .-it any rate. It is just to 
_ .mil that many of the Irish Whigs would 
have done the same, independently cf all 
considerations of interest and patronage'; 
but wjii-n to these powerful parties was 
the crowd of political merchants add 
vote-sellers who could not hope to be paid, 
or to be paid enough, it is not strange that 
the "king's business" was not efficiently 
done. 

The 11th of Februaiy, 1789, was the 
great day of contest upon the Regency of 
Inland : Mr. Grattan and Mr. Fitzgibbon 
took the lead on the opposite sides : the 
House being iu committee on the state of 
the nation, after some preliminary conversa- 
tion, in which the plan of the Castle was 
candidly avowed by Mr. Fitzherbert, Mr. 
Grattan said, that the right honorable gen- 
tleman had stated the plan of the Castle to 
be limitation and a bill. He proposed to 
name for the regency of that realm, His 
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales; in 
that they perfectly agreed, and only followed 
the most decided wishes of the people of 
Ireland ; they wer< clear, and had been so 
from the first, that His Royal Highness the 
Prince of Wales ought, and must be the 
regent ; but they were also clear, that he 
should be invested with the full regal power; 
plenitude of royal power. The limitations, 
which a certain member proposed to impose, 
were suggested with a view to preserve a 
servile imitation of the proceedings of anoth- 
er country, not in the choice of a regent, 
which was a common concern, but in the 
particular provisions and limitations, which 
were not a common concern, but in the 
particular circumstances of the different 
countries. The bill, or instrument which he 
called a bill, was suggested on an opinion, 
that, an Irish act of Parliament might pass 
without a king in a situation to give the 
loyal assent, and without a regent appoint- 
ed by the Irish Houses of Parliament to 
supply his place. The idea of limitation, 
he conceived to be an attack on the neces- 
sarv power of < iovcrnment ; the idea of bis 
bill was an attack Oil the King of Ireland. 
They had heard the Castle dissent ing from 
their HUsreestion. It remained for them to 
24 



lake the business out of llieir hand-, and 
confide the custody of the great and impor 
taut matter to men more constitutional and 
respectable. The Lords and Commons of 
Ireland, and not the Castle, should take the 
leading part in this great duty. The conn- 
trv gentlemen, who procured the constitu- 
tion, should nominate the regent. He 
should submit to them the proceedings they 
intended in the discharge of that great and 
necessary duty. Mr. Grattan contended that 
the proper course was not a bill, but an ad- 
dress, citing the authority of the address to 
the Prince of Orange on the abdication of 
King James. 

Mr. Conolly then rose and said, that on 
that melancholy occasion, which every gen- 
tleman in and out of office lamented, aud 
none more sincerely than he did, it had 
fallen to the lot of the two Houses to put 
into the kingly office a substitute for their 
beloved .sovereign ; and there seemed to be 
but one mind, which was to make that sub- 
stitute the illustrious person who bad, of all 
others, the greatest interest in preserving the 
prerogative of the crown, aud the constitu- 
tion of the realm. 

He entirely coincided in the plan Mr. 
Grattan had proposed, because he was con- 
vinced it was consouaut to the constitution, 
and such as his royal highness, to whom 
he should then move an address, must neces- 
sarilv approve. He hoped they would be 
unanimous on the occasion. He therefore 
moved the following resolution : 

"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this 
committee, that a humble address be pre- 
sented to his royal highness to take upon 
himself the government of this realm, during 
the continuation of his majesty's present in- 
disposition, and no longer, and tinder the 
style and title of Prince Regent of Ireland, 
in the name of his majesty to exercise and 
administer, according to the laws and con- 
stitution of this kingdom, all regal powers, 
jurisdiction, and prerogatives to the crown 
and government thereof belonging." 

The motion was seconded by Mr. George 
Ponsonby. 

Several of the former friends of the Castle 
supported the address, when Mr. Fitzgibbon 
(who was still attorney-general, afterwards 
Earl of Clare) rose to oppose it. He made 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



tliis question, us he made every question, an 
occasion lo inculcate the idea of a legisla- 
tive union, which was even then It is great 
political ann, and continued to be so until lie 
attained it. 

He maintained, that the crown of Ireland 
and the crown of England were inseparably 
and indissolubly united ; and that the Irish 
Parliament was perfectly and totally inde- 
pendent of the British Parliament. 

The first position was their security; the 
second was their freedom ; and when gen- 
tlemen talked any other language than that, 
they either tended to the separation of the 
crowns, or to the subjugation of their Parlia- 
ment; they invaded either their security or 
their liberty ; in fact, the only security of 
their, liberty was their connection with Great 
Britain, and gentlemen who risked breaking 
the connection, must make up their minds 
to a union. God forbid he should ever see 
that day ; but if ever the day on which a 
separation should be attempted, should come, 
he should not hesitate to embrace a union 
rather than a separation. 

Under the Duke of Portland's government 
the grievances of Ireland were stated to be : 

The alarming usurpation of the British 
Parliament ; 

A perpetual mutiny bill ; 

And the powers assumed by the privy 
council. 

These grievances were redressed, and in 
redressing them they passed a law repealing 
part of Poynings'. By their new law they 
enacted, that all bills, which should pass the 
two Houses in Ireland, should be Certified 
into England, and returned under the great 
seal of England, without any addition, dimi- 
nution, or alteration whatsoever, should pass 
into law, and no other. By this I hey made 
the great seal of England essentially and in- 
dispensably necessary on the passing of laws 
in Ireland: they could pass no act without 
first certifying it into England, and having 
it returned under the great seal in that 
kingdom, insomuch that were the King of 
England and Ireland to come in person, and 
to reside In Ireland, ho could not pass a bill 
without its being first certified to his regent, 
in England, who must return it under the 
seal of that kingdom before bis majestv 
could eveu in person assent to it. That if 




the House should by force of an address, 
upon the instant, and without any commu- 
nication with England, invest a regent with 
powers undefined, when the moment of re- 
flection came, it would startle the boldest 
adventurers in England; and then he 
reminded gentlemen of the language lliev 
held with England in the day they asserted 
their freedom: "Perpetual connection; com- 
mon fortune; we will rise or fall with Eng- 
land; we will share her liberty, and we will 
share her fate." Did gentlemen recollect 
the arguments used in England to justify- the 
fourth proposition of the commercial treaty? 
Ireland, said they, having a Parliament of 
her own, may think fit to carry on a com- 
merce, and regulate her trade by laws differ- 
ent from, perhaps contradictory to, the laws 
of Great Britain. How well founded that 
observation was, they would prove, if they 
seized the first opportunity that offered of 
differing from Great Britain on a great im- 
perial question ; certainly if it be the scheme 
to differ on all imperial questions, and if that 
bp abetted by men of great authority, they 
meant to drive them to a union, and the 
method they took was certainly more effect- 
ual to sweep away opposition, than if all the 
sluices of corruption were opened together 
and deluged the country's representatives: 
for it was certain nothing less than tiie idler- 
native of separation could ever force a union. 
Suppose the prince did not accept tlw 
regency in England ; suppose their address 
should reach him before he was actually 
invested with royal powers in England, in 
what situation would you put him 1 They 
would call on him, in defiance of two acts 
of Parliament, which made the crowns in- 
separable, to dethrone the king his father. 
They would call upon him to do an act now, 
at which hereafter his nature would revolt. 
They were false friends of the Prince of 
Wales, who should advise him to receive an 
address, that might give him cause to curse 
the hand which presented it. He knew 
that liberties indecent in the extreme had 
been taken with the name of that august 
personage, lie knew it had been whispered, 
that every man who should vote against the 
address, would be considered as voting 
against him and treating him with disre- 
spect ; but if any man had had the guilt 



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(Hid folly to poison his mind with such nn 
insinuation, he trusted to his good sense to 
distinguish his friends; he would trust to 
his good sense to determine, whether they 
were li is friends who wished to guard the 
imperiti] rights of the British crown, or they 
who would st:ike them upon the momentary 
and impellent triumph of an English party. 
What matter to the prince, whether lie re- 
ceived royal authority by bill or by address? 
A\ as there a man who would presume to 
libel him, and to assert, that the success of 
that measure would be a triumph to him ? 

There was a feature in the proceeding 
whieh, independent of every other objection 
to it, did in his mind make it highly repre- 
hensible, and that was, that he considered it 
as a formal appeal from the Parliament of 



■Jiq England to that of Ireland. Respecting the 



parties who made that appeal he should say 
nothing : but although there might be much 
dignity on their part in receiving the appeal, 
he could not see any strong symptoms of 
wisdom in it ; because by so doing he should 
conceive we must inevitably sow the seeds 
of jealousy and disunion between the Parlia- 
ments of the two countries; and though he 
did not by any means desire of the Parlia- 
ment of that country implicitly to follow the 
Parliament of England, he should suppose 
it rather a wise maxim for Ireland always to 
concur with the Parliament of Great Britain, 
unless for very strong reasons indeed they 
were obliged to differ from it. If it were to 
be a point of Irish dignity to differ with the 
Parliament of England to show their inde- 
pendence, he very much feared that sober 
men in that country, who had estates to lose, 
would soon become sick of independence. 
The fact was, that constituted as it was, the 
Government of that country, never could go 
on, unless they followed Great Britain im- 
plicitly in all regulations of imperial policy. 
The independence of their Parliament was 
their freedom ; their dependence on the 
crown of England was their security for 

that t'r lom ; and gentlemen, who professed 

themselves, that night, advocates for the in- 
dependence of the Irish crown, were advo- 
cates for its separation from England, 

They should agree with England in three 
pOilltS: one king, one law, one religion. 
They should keep these great objects stead- 



ily in view, and act like wise men: it' they 
made the Prince of Wales their regent, and 
granted him the plenitude of power, in God's 
name let it be done by bill ; otherwise he saw 
such danger, that he deprecated the measure 
proposed. He called upon the country gen- 
tlemen of Ireland ; that that was not a time 
to think of every twopenny grievance, every 
paltry disappointment sustained at the- Castle 
of Dublin ; if any man had been aggrieved 
by the viceroy, and chose to compose a 
philippic on the occasion, let him give it on 
the debate of a turnpike bill, where it would 
not be so disgraceful to the man who uttered 
it, and to those who would not listen to him, 
as it would be on the present occasion. 

On the 17th the address was agreed upon 
by both IIouscs. Its principal clause was 
in these words : — 

" Wc therefore beg leave humblv to re- 
quest, that your royal highness will be 
pleased to take upon you the government of 
this realm during the continuation of his 
majesty's present indisposition, and no long- 
er; and under the style and title of Prince 
Regent of Ireland, rn the name and on be- 
half his majesty, to exercise and administer, 
according to the laws and constitution of 
this kingdom, all regal powers, jurisdiction, 
and prerogatives to the crown and govern- 
ment thereof belonging.'' 

Ou the 19th boih Houses waited on the 
lord-lieutenant, requesting him to transmit 
it to the prince. He refused to do so. On 
the day following Mr. Grat'an moved in the 
House "that his excellency the lord-Iienten- 
aut having thought proper to decline to trans- 
mit to His Royal Highness George Prince of 
Wales, the address of both Houses of Parlia- 
ment, a competent number of members be 
appointed by this House, to present the said 
address to his royal highness," 

This was carried by a large majority; was 
sent up to the Lords, who concurred, and 
named the Duke of Leinster and the Earl of 
Charlemont to accompany the members of 
the other House who should be appointed 
to join them in presenting the addtess. 

Mr. Grattan then moved, "that it be Re- 
solved, That his excellency the lord-lieuten- 
ant's answer to both Houses of Parliament, 
requesting him to transmit their address to 
His Roval Highness the Priuce of Wales is 



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niSTORY OF IRELAND. 



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ill advised, contains an unwarrantable and 
unconstitutional censure on the proceedings 
of l>oth Houses of Parliament, and attempts 
to question the undoubted lights and priv- 
ileges of the Lords spiritual and temporal 
and Commons of Ireland." 

On the 25th of February the committee 
of the two Houses of Parliament, having 
arrived in London, proceeded to Carlton 
House and presented the address. They "ere 
most graciously received : but two clays 
before, the king had recovered from his 
malady. It was thus unnecessary for the 
prince cither to accept or reject the offer 
made to him by the Irish Parliament. He 
congratulated them on the happy change 
in bis majesty's health, and assured them 
of the "gratitude and affection to the loyal 
and generous people of Ireland which he 
felt indelibly imprinted on his heart." This 
dangerous dispute was thus ended for that 
time. Its dangers were twofold. First, the 
prince might have refused the regency 
with limited powers — in that case the Eng- 
lish Parliament would certainly have made 
the queen regent : and the prince might 
have accepted the Irish regency with un- 
limited powers: there would then have been 
two regents, and two separate kingdoms. 
Secondly, the prince might have accepted 
the regency precisely on the terms ottered 
him in each country : he would then have 
been a regent with limited powers in Eng- 
land, and with full royal prerogative in Ire- 
land ; unable to create a peer in England, 
but with power to swamp the House with 
new peerages in Ireland; unable to reward 
his friends with certain grants, pensions, and 
oiliees in England, but able to quarter them 
all upon the revenue of Ireland. The peril 
of such a condition of things was fully ap- 
preciated both by Mr. Pitt, and by his able 
coadjutor in Ireland, Mr. Fitzgibbon. They 
drew from it an argument for the total an- 
nihilation of Ireland by a legislative union. 
Others who watched events with equal 
attention, found in it a still sounder argu- 
ment for total separation. 




CHAPTER XXIV. 

1780. 
Unpopularity of Buckingham— Formation of .in Irish 
character — Efforts of Patriot* in Parliament — All 
in vain — Purchasing votes — Corruption — Whig 
Club— Lord Clare on Whig Club — Buckingham 
haves Ireland — Pension List— Peep-of-Dliy Boys 
and Defenders — Westmoreland, Viceroy — Unavail- 
ing efforts against corruption — Material prosperity 
— King William's Birthday — French Revolution. 

Ireland may possibly have had worsfa 
viceroys than the Marquis of Buckingham ; 
hut scarcely one so intensely unpopular, lie 
was parsimonious and extravagant — that is, 
he saved pennies, and squandered thousands 
of pounds; yet did not squander them on 
the right persons. He talked economy and 
practised the most reckless profusion, yet in 
an underhand, indirect manner which made 
him no friends and many enemies. In 
manner he was extremely reserve.^ whelhcr 
from pride or from a natural coldness of 
disposition. In short, he was in every way 
unsuited to the Irish temperament : for 
there had lately been formed gradually a 
marked Irish character, even amongst the 
Protestant colonists before the era of In- 
dependence, and still more notably since 
that time. Gentlemen born in this conn- 
try, and all whose interests and associa- 
tions were here, no longer called themselves 
Englishmen born in Ireland, as Swift had 
done. The same powerful assimilating in- 
fluence which had formerly made the Nor- 
man settlers, Gerald ines and I >e Blirghs 
"more Irish than the Iiish" after two or 
three generations, had now also acted more 
or less upon the very Cromwellians and 
Williamites ; and there was recognizable in 
the whole character and bearing even of 
the Protestants a certain dash of that gen- 
erosity, levity, impetuosity, and recklessness 
which have marked the Celtic raee since 
the beginning. They were capable of the 
most outrageous depravity and of the beh- 
est honor and rectitude; of the most ins... 
lent, ostentatious venality and corruption, 
as well as of the noblest, proudest independ- 
ence. The formation of this modern com- 
posite Irish character is of course attribu- 
table, to the gradual amalgamation of the 
privileged Protestant colonists with the con- 



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verted Irish, who had from time to time 
conformed to the established church, to save 
their estates, or to possess themselves of 
the property of Don-conformiug neighbors. 
This was a large and increasing element in 
the Protestant colony ever since the time of 
Elizabeth; and of such families came the 
Cumins, Dalvs, Dovles, Conollys, as well as 
the higher names O'Neil, O'Brien, Burke, 
Roche, Fitzpatrick. The ancestors of these 
families, in abandoning their Catholic faith, 
could not let out all their Celtic blood, and 
that blood permeated the whole mass of the 
population, ami often broke out and showed 
its origin, even in men partly of English 
descent, or at least of English names. Grat- 
tan, for example, in the character of bis in- 
tellect and temperament, was as purely 
Celtic as Curran himself. In truth it had 
become very difficult to determine the eth- 
nological distinction between the inhabitants 
of this island ; and surnames had long ceas- 
ed to be a safe guide : because ever since 
the "Statutes of Kilkenny" in the 15th 
century, thousands of Irish families, espe- 
cially of those residing near or in the Eng- 
lish Pale Kad changed their names in obe- 
dience to those statutes, that they might 
have the benefit of the English law in their 
dealings with the people of the Pale. They 
had assumed surnames, as prescribed by the 
statute, either from some trade or calling, 
as Miller, Taylor, Smith, — or from some 
place, as Trim, Shine, Galway, — or from some 
color, as Gray, Green, White, Brown. 
Gradually their original clan-names were 
lost; and it soon became their interest to 
keep up no tradition even of their Irish de- 
scent. Of one of the families in this cate- 
gory, undoubtedly came Oliver Goldsmith, 
whose intensely Irish nature is a much surer 
guide to his origin than the trade-surname 
of Goldsmith adopted under the statute. 

It has been said that surnames were no 
sure guide to origin : but in one direction 
surnames were, and are, nearly infallible : 
— a Celtic surname is a sure indication of 
Celtic blood, because nobody ever had any 
interest in assuming or retaining such a 
patronymic, all the interests and temptations 
being the other way. But an English sur- 
name is no indication at all of English de- 
scent, because for several centuries — first 



under the Statutes of Kilkenny, afterwards 
under the more grievous pressure of the 
Penal Code, all possible worldly induce- 
ments were held out to Irishmen to take 
English names and forget their own.* 

From so large a mingling of the Celtic ele- 
ment even in the exclusive Protestant colony 
had resulted the very marked Irish charac- 
ter which was noticed, though not, with 
complacency, by English writers of that 
period : — and to this character the cold, dry, 
and narrow Marquis of Buckingham was 
altogether abhorrent. During the agitation 
of the regency question, he had succeeded 
in creating two new offices of great emolu- 
ment : one by the separation of the excise 
and revenue board, which provided a place 
for a Beresford ; another by appointing an 
additional commissioner to the Stamp-office. 
"About this time also," as Mr. Plowden says 
maliciously, " his excellency found it neces- ■ 
sary to restore to the officers in barracks 
their wonted allowance of firing, which in 
a former fit of subaltern economy he had 
stopped from them. This pitiful stoppage 
had been laid on to the great discontent of 
the army, and being very ungraciously re- 
moved the alleviation was received without 
gratitude." Mr. Grattan, in a debate on this 
administration, says: — 

'• His great objection to the Marquis of 
Buckingham, was not merely that he had 
been a jobber, but a jobber in a mask ! his 
objection was not merely, that his admin- 
istration had been expensive, but that his 
expenses were accompanied with hypocrisy : 
it was the affectation of economy, attended 
with a great deal of good, comfortable, sub- 
stantial jobbing for himself and his friends. 
That led to another measure of the Marquis 
of Buckingham, which was the least cere- 
monious, and the most sordid and scandalous 
act of self interest, attended with the sac- 
rifice of all public decorum; he meant the 
disposal of the reversion of the place of the 
chief remembrancer to his brother, one of 

* It would he » curious study to trace the history 
of Irish family names. For the first three centuries 
after the Norman invasion under Henry II., the 
movement was quite in an opposite direction : and 
Do Burghs became Mm Williams, De Bermingluims 
.\hie Feoruis, the Fitzurscs, Mao Mnhons; and Nor- 
man burons became chiefs of chms, forgot both 
French and English, rode without stirrups, and kept 
the upper lip unshaven. 






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the best, if not llie very best office in the 
kingdom, given in reversion to an absentee, 
with a great patronage and a compensation 
annexed. That most sordid and shameless 
act was committed exactly about the time 
when the kingdom was charged with greal 
pensions tor ike bringing home, as it was 
termed, absentee employments. That bring- 
ing home absentee employments was a 
monstrous job ; the kingdom paid the value 
of the employment, and perhaps more; she 
paid the value of the tax also. The pension- 
er so paid was then suffered to sell both to 
a resident, who was free from the tax : he 
was then permitted to substitute new and 
voung lives in the place of his own, and 
then permitted to make a new account 
against the country, and to receive a further 
compensation, which he was suffered in the 
same manner to dispose of." 

It was undoubtedly, in part, owing to the 
excessive unpopularity of this viceroy that 
the short remainder of his government was 
so little satisfactory to himself and his em- 
ployers in London; and that the Patriots 
were aide to gain some trifling advantages; 
not indeed to such an extent as to accom- 
plish a single reform or abate a single abuse, 
but at least to shake the regular venal par- 
liamentary majorities and alarm the Govern- 
ment. As the late gloomy prospect of a 
change in the Irish administration had 
driven many gentlemen to the opposition 
benches, Mr. Grattan was willing to avail 
himself of the earliest fruits of their con- 
version ; accordingly, on the third of March, 
1789. he offered to the House a resolution 
which he thought absolutely necessary, 
from a transaction which had lately taken 
place. He thought it necessary to call the 
attention of the House to certain principles, 
which the gentlemen, witli whom he had 
generally the honor to coincide, considered as 
the indispensable condition, without which 
no government could expect their support, and 
which tin- present Government had resisted. 

The first was a reform of the police: at 
present the institution could only be consid- 
ered as a scheme of patronage to the Castle, 
and corruption to the city ; a scheme which 
had failed to answer the end of preserving 
public peace, but had fully succeeded in ex- 
tending; the influence of the Castle. 



Another principle much desired, was to 
restrain the abuse of pensions by a bill simi- 
lar to that of Great Britain. That principle, 
he said, Lord Buckingham had resisted, and 
his resistance to it was one great cause of 
his opposing his Government. To this he 
would add another principle, the restraining 
revenue officers from voting at elections : 
this, he observed, was a principle of the 
British Parliament, and it was certainly more 
necessary in Ireland, from what had lately 
taken place, where, by a certain union of 
family interests, counties had become bor- 
oughs, and those boroughs had become 
private property. 

But the principle to which he begged to 
call the immediate attention of the House 
was, that of preventing the great offices of 
the state from being given to absentees: 
that was a principle admitted by all to be 
founded in national right, purchased by 
liberal compensation, and every departure 
from it must be considered as a slight to the 
nobility ami gentry of Ireland, who certainly 
were Letter entitled to the places of honor 
and trust in their own country, than any 
absentee could possibly be ; but besides the 
slight shown to the nobility and gentry of 
Ireland, by bestowing places of honor, of 
profit, and of trust on absentees, the draft 
of money from this country, the institution 
of deputies (a second establishment unne- 
cessary, were the principal* to reside), the 
double influence arising from this raised 
the abuse into an enormous grievance. Mr. 
Grattan concluded with a motion to con- 
demn this last practice. 

A very warm debate ensued, in which 
Mr. Corry and some other gentlemen ad- 
mitted the principle of the resolution, al- 
though they opposed its passing, because it 
was a censure on the Marquis of Bucking- 
ham. To get rid of the question, an ad- 
journment was moved and carried by a ma- 
jority of llo against 10G. Thus early had 
the old majority began to fall into their for- 
mer ranks. Still the superiority of votes 
bore no proportion to 200 and upwards, of 
which the former full majorities consisted. 
Mr. Grattan, accordingly, on the following 
day (4th of March) moved for leave to bring 
in a bill for the better securing the freedom 
of election for members to serve in Pailia- 



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ment, /»// disabling certain officers employed 
in the collection or management of his ma- 
jesty's revenue from giving their votes at 
such election. 

I!ut none of the measures proposed by 
Mr. Grattan could be carried in that House. 
In fact the deserting members of the ma- 
jority were soon whipped back into their 
ranks: for on the 14th of March the lord- 
lieuteuant made a speech to both Houses, 
officially informing them of the full recovery 
of the king. It was immediately apparent 
that Mr. I'itt was again supreme ; and it 
was even intimated very plainly that the 
members of either House who had concurred 
in the address to the prince, or who had 
voted for a censure on the conduct of the 
marquis, should be made to repent of their 
votes. 

The House having by this time been 
nearly marshalled into their former ranks, 
Mr. Grattan thought it useless to divide 
them on the second reading of the place bill, 
on the 30th of April ; it was negatived 
without a division. The only subject par- 
ticularly interesting to the history of Ireland, 
which came before. Parliament during the 
remainder of that session, was the subject 
of tithes: Mr. Grattan having presented to 
the House, according to order, a bill to ap- 
point commissioners for the purpose of in- 
quiring into the state of tithes in the differ- 
ent provinces of that kingdom, and to re- 
port a plan for ascertaining the same: he 
followed up his motion with a very elaborate, 
instructive, and eloquent speech upon this 
important national object. The House ad- 
journed from the 8;h to the 2.3th of May, 
.hi which day the lord-lieutenant prorogued 
the Parliament, and made a speech of a gen- 
eral nature, without a word of reference to 
any of the extraordinary circumstances of 
the M-ssion. 

The administration, alarmed by the late 
symptoms of disaffection, and bv the rc- 
newed combination of the powerful aristo- 
cratic houses, as exhibited in the proceed- 
ings on that regeney question, now set itself 
deliberately to purchase back votes in de- 
tail, and agaii to check the Irish oligarchi- 
cal influence. It ha: been already men- 
ti '1. in tli" account of Lord Townshend's 



pense to the nation, broke up an aristocracy 
which before his time had monopolized the 
whole power of the Commons and regularly 
bargained for terms with every new represent- 
ative for managing the House of Commons. 
Mr. Fitzgibbon (and no man knew better) 
now admitted, that this manoeuvre cost the 
nation upwards of half a million : that is, 
that he had paid or granted so much to 
purchase that majority in Parliament, by 
which he governed to the end of his admin- 
istration. 

Mr. Grattan, some years afterwards, com- 
menting on this declaration of Fitzgibbon's 
and the astonishing scene of corruption 
which followed it, broke out in this fierce 
language : — " Half a million, or more, was 
expended some years ago to break an opposi- 
tion; the same, or a greater su?n may be ne- 
cessary noip: so said the principal servant 
of the crown. The House heard him : I 
heard him : he said it standing on his leo-s 
to an astonished and an indignant nation ; 
and he said it in the most extensive sense of 
bribery and corruption. The threat was 
proceeded on ; the peerage was sold ; the 
caitiffs of corruption were everywhere ; in 
the lobby, in the street, on the steps, and at 
the door of every parliamentary leader, 
whose thresholds were worn by the mem- 
bers of the then administration, offering titles 
to some, amnesty to others, and corruption 
to all." 

Indeed no bounds were now set, either to 
the corruption or to the proscription. The 
Government kept no measures with its 
enemies, and had nothing to refuse to its 
friends. Mr. Fitzgibbon, the attorney-gen- 
eral, and real governor of the country, was 
a man as audacious, as resolute, and neatly 
as eloquent as Grattan himself. It is im- 
possible to deny to the man, on this and 
on subsequent occasions, a certain tribute of 
admiration for his potent will and fiery man- 
hood, and all the credit which may be sup- 
posed due to a bold, out-spoken, insolent 
defiance and disdain of every sentiment of 
public, conscience. Under his advice and 
superintendence, market-overt was held for 
votes and influence; prices of boroughs, and 
of patts of boroughs, of votes, titles, and 
peerages were brought to a regular tariff. 







administration, that he, at a very heavy ex- 1 Not a peerage, not an honor, nor a place 




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IIISTOKY OF IRELAND. 



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nor pension was disposed of but expressly 
for engagements of support in Parliament. 
Ami every little office or emolument that 
could be resumed by Government was 
granted upon a new bargain for future ser- 
vices. But this was not enough : proscrip- 
tion of enemies was to go band in hand 
with reward of service. It mattered not, 
that iu response to the atrocious threat of 
punishing those who had opposed the Gov- 
ernment, the famous "Round Robin " was 
signed by the leading peers and most illus- 
trious commoners of Irelaud, denouncing 
this attempt at intimidation and coercion. 
It was signed by the Duke of Leiuster, the 
Archbishop of Tuam, and eighteen peers, as 
well as by Grattan, Conolly, Curran, the 
1 'onsonbys, O'Neill, Charles Francis Sheridan, 
Langrishe, Ogle, Daly, and many others; 
and declared that any such proscription was 
an attack on the independence of Parlia- 
ment, and was in itself sufficient ground for 
relentless opposition against any govern- 
ment. The bold attorney -general was not 
to be intimidated by this — the Duke of 
Leiuster himself, who held an office of high 
rank, was forthwith dismissed : Mr. Fitzher- 
bert, Mr. George Ponsonby, the Earl of 
Shannon, and a dozen other high officials, 
who had supported the regeuey of the 
Prince of Wales were unceremoniously 
treated in like manner. At the same time 
the offices were given, or rather sold to 
others, for past or future service ; anil Fitz- 
gibbon himself, who had indeed earned, and 
who was yet to earn, all the favors which 
the British Government can heap on one 
111:111, was made Lord Chancellor. Good 
working majorities were now secure, and 
'"the king's business" was to be done in 
future without fail and with a high hand. 

It seems very strange now, that Mr. Grat- 
tan and his friends should not have per- 
ceived the utter failure and futility of their 
great and famous achievement of '82 for 
any practical purpose in checking the deadly 
domination of England. It is strange that 
he in particular, who had always avowed 
himself in favor of full emancipation to the 
Catholics, did not at last come to the con- 
clusion that the only hope of the country 
lay, not in Parliament, but in preparation for 
armed resistance by a united nation. In 




short, the wonder is, that it was not Grattan 
himself who invented the association of 
United Irishmen. He, with his powerfu 
political following could have given to tha 
organization a consistency and a power such 
as it never possessed, and might have made 
of Ninety-eight a greater Eighty-two. But 
in fact he shunned all extra-parliamentary 
action, and denounced the United Irish to 
the last. He was so proud of the achieve- 
ment of Eighty-two that he never could be 
brought to see its imperfection. Besides, 
there grows up in members of Parliament, 
after some years' habit of working in that 
body, a kind of superstitious reverence for 
it; an unwillingness to acknowledge any 
political vitality out-of-doors, and a morbid 
idea that the eyes of the universe are upon 
that House, or at least ought to be. Here 
he stood, after eight years of " indepen- 
dence," confronting an independent Parlia- 
ment, of whom one hundred and fou» Were 
bribed as placemen or pensioners, and about 
a hundred and twenty more owned by pro- 
prietors of boroughs, vainly fulminating hi 
indignant protests against corruption — al 
his efforts to reform auy abuse whatever, 
totally defeated — his Volunteers well got rid 
of, and succeeded by a militia under imme- 
diate control of the crown, and a police 
force in the metropolis to make sure that no 
popular demonstrations should ever again 
attempt to overawe that "independent Par- 
liament;" and yet he could not think of ad- 
mitting the only rational conclusion —that 
the uuited people should be organized to 
take the government out of hands so incom- 
petent or so vile. 

But although the Patriotic party did not 
go the length of revolutionary projects, they 
felt the necessity of combining and organiz- 
ing their parliamentary forces. The " Round 
Robin" was the parent of the " Whig Club." 
The leaders of opposition had found it ad- 
visable, in order to consolidate their force 
into a common centre of uniou, to establish a 
new political society under the denomina- 
tion of the Whig Club; an institution highly 
obnoxious to the Castle: they adopted tie 
same principles, were clad in the same uni- 
form of blue ami buff, and professedly acted 
in concert with the Whig Club of England. 
At the head of this club were the Duke of 






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Leinst-r, tin- Earl of Charlemont, Mr. 
Condlly, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Forbes, both the 
Messieurs Ponsonby, Mr. Curran, and a 
number of leading members of opposition 
in both Honses. It was a rendezvous and 
round of cabinet dinners fur the opposition. 
Here were planned and arranged all the 
measures for attack on the ministry. Each 
member had his measure or his question in 
turn ; the plans of debate and mancnuvre 
were preconcerted, and to each was assigned 
that share in the attack which he was most 
competent to perform. This club, aided by 
some popular newspapers, announced its 
days of dining, proclaimed its sentiments in 
the shape of resolutions, and enforced them 
in the press by articles and paragraphs. 
Some men afterwards well known as United 
Irishmen, became members of the Whig 
Club; especially Archibald Hamilton Rowan 
a gentleman of property in the county of 
Down, and James Napper Tandy, the Vol- 
unteer Artillery commander, who was ad- 
mitted by acclamation. Fitzgibbon (Earl 
of Clare), in his celebrated speech for the 
Union — which is the most valuable historic 
document concerning the events of his day 
(on the side of plunder, corruption, and Eng- 
lish domination) — thus, with vindictive sar- 
casm, speaks of the buff-and-blue club: — 
"The better to effectuate the great national 
objects of a limitation of the pensiou list, an 
exclusion of pensioners from the House of 
Commons, a restriction of placemen, who 
should sit there, and a responsibility for the 
receipt and issue of the public treasury, a 
Whig Club was announced in a manifesto, 
signed and countersigned, charging the Brit- 
ish Government with a deliberate and sys- 
tematic intention of sapping the liberties 
and subverting the Parliament of Ireland. 
All persons of congenial character and sen- 
timent were invited to range under the 
Whig banner, for the establishment and 
protection of the Irish constitution, on the 

i lei of the Revolution of 1688 ; and under 

this banner was ranged such a motley col- 
lection of congenial characters, as never be- 
fore wen 1 assembled for the reformation of 
the state. Mr. Napper Tandy was received 
by acclamation, as a statesman too impor- 
t-ait and illustrious to be committed to the 
hazard of a ballot. Mr. Hamilton Rowan 
2.5 



also repaired to the Whig banner. Unfor- 
tunately, the political career of these gen 
tletnen has been arrested ; Mr. Tandy's l> 
an attainder of felony, and an attainder of 
treason ; Mr. Hamilton Rowan's by an at- 
tainder of treason. The Whig secretarv, it" 
he does not stand in the same predicament, 
is now a prisoner at the mercy of the crown, 
on his own admission of his treason ; arid it' 
I do not mistake, the whole society of Irish 
Whigs have been admitted, ad eumlem, by 
their Whig brethren of England. In the 
fury of political resentment, some noblemen 
and gentlemen of the first rank in this 
country stooped to associate with the refuse 
of the community-, men whose principles 
they held in abhorrence, and whose manners 
and deportment must always have excited 
their disgust." 

There was public thanksgiving in the 
churches of Dublin for the king's recovery : 
and in the Catholic chapel of Francis Street 
a solemn high mass was performed " with a 
new grand Te Denm composed on the occa- 
sion by Giordani. The Catholics were still 
unrecognized by the law, as citizens or mem- 
bers of civil society, and existed only ' by 
connivance ;' but some Catholic writers 
tell us with complacency, as a happy in- 
stance of the increasing liberality of the 
times, that several of the first Protestant 
nobility and gentry assisted at this mass. 
Plowden says, ' So illustrious an assemblage 
had never met in a Catholic place of 
worship in that kingdom since the Reforma- 
tion. Besides the principal part of their 
own nobility and gentry, there were pres- 
ent on the occasion the Duke of Leinster, 
the Earls and Countesses of Belvedere, 
Arran, and Portarlington, Countesses of Car- 
hampton and Ely, Lords Tyrone, Valentia, 
and Delvin, Mr. D. La Touche and family, 
Mr. Grattan, Major Doyle, Mrs. Jeffries, Mrs. 
Trant, and several other persons of the first 
distinction.' " 

In the month of June of this year the 
Marquis of Buckingham went to Cork, 
stayed for a day at the villa of Mr. Lee at 
Black Rock, and from thence quietly em- 
barked for England. He never returned ; 
and it was observed by Mr. O'Neill in the 
House of Commons "that if he had not 
taken 



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IIISTOHY OF IRELAND. 



kingdom, lie would have been greeted on 
his retreat in a very different manner from 
what he had been on his arrival." Of the 
course of this bad viceroy's government we 
find no better summary than that given by 
Mr. Grattan in a speech delivered while Lord 
Buckingham still sat in Dublin Castle. 

"This was the man; you remember his 
entry into the capital, trampling on the 
hearse of the Duke of Rutland, and seated 
in a triumphal car, drawn by public credu- 
lity ; on one side fallacious hope, and on the 
other many-mouthed profession : a figure 
with two faces, one turned to the treasury, 
and the other presented to the people ; and 
with a double tongue, speaking contradictory 
languages. 

"This minister alights; justice looks up 
to him with empty hopes, and peculation 
faints with idle alarms; he finds the city a 
prey to an unconstitutional police — he con- 
tinues it; he finds the country overburdened 
with a shameful pension list — he increases 
it ; he finds the House of Commons swarm- 
ing with placemen — he multiplies them; he 
finds the salary of the secretary increased to 
prevent a pension — he grants a pension ; he 
finds the kingdom drained by absentee em- 
ployments, and by compensations to buy 
them home — he gives the best reversion in 
the country to an absentee, his brother; 
he finds the Government at different times 
had disgraced itself by creating sinecures 
to gratify corrupt affection — he makes two 
commissioners of the rolls, and gives one of 
them to another brother; he finds the second 
council to the commissioners put down be- 
cause useless — he revives it; he finds the 
boards of accounts and stamps annexed by 
public compact — he divides them ; he finds 
tiie boards of customs and excise united by 
public compact — he divides them; he finds 
three resolutions, declaring that, seven com- 
missioners are sufficient — he makes nine ; he 
finds the country has suffered by some pecu- 
lations in the ordnance — he increases the 
salaries of offices, and gives the places to 
members of Parliament." 

Before dismissing the Marquis of Bucking- 
ham and his viceroyaltv, it is right to add 
that during his government the pension 
list, already enormous, was increased by 
new pensions to the amount of X' 13,000 a 




year.* It was a good argument, morally, 
for reform, but a still better argument, 
materially and practically, against reform. 
Parliamentary patriots might have seen that 
they were moving in a vicious circle : the 
more irresistible, logical, and argumenta- 
tive were their assaults on the citadel of 
corruption, the more impregnable became 
that citadel, by means of the very corrup- 
tion itself: and it must be admitted that 
although the Marquis of Buckingham ab- 
sconded, like any defaulting bank officer 
from Ireland, he left British policy in full, 
successful, and triumphant operation. 

On the 30th of June, 1789, Filzgibbon, 
the new lord chancellor, and Mr. Foster 
the Speaker of the House, were sworn in 
lords-justices. The Marquis of Buckingham 
resigned, and was succeeded by the Earl of 
Westmoreland. 

In the last year of the Buckingham ad- 

« 

* Tliis being mere matter of account. Bays Mr. 
Grattan, 1 extract it from the papers laid before 
Parliament. Appendix to the 13th vol. Jonrn. Com., 
p. 271. 

A list of all Pensions placed on the dull Establish- 
ment during the period of the Marquis of Bucking- 
ham's Administration, with an account of the total 
Amount thereof. 

Fitzherbert Richards, Esq £40n 

James Caven lish, Esq ISO 

Harriet Cavendish 150 

Lionel, Lord Viscount Strangford. . . . 400 

Robert Thornton, Esq Sun 

Right Honorable Thomas Orde 1700 

Duke of Gloucester 4000 

Georgiaa, Viscountess Boyne 500 

Lady Catherine Marlay . 300 

Honorable Rose Browne. .... . 800 

Walter Taylor 800 

Francis d'lvernois Son 

David Jebb, Esq 300 

Lady Catherine Toole 200 

Thomas Coughlan, additional 200 

William, Viscount Chetwynd, additional. . 200 
Charles, Viscount Rauelagh, and Sarah, Vis- 
countess Ranelagb, his wife, and sur- 
vivor 400 

Lucia Agar, Viscountess Clifden, and Emily 
Anne Agar her daughter, and sur- 
vivor 300 

Sir Henry Mannix, Bart 500 

Sir Richard Johnstone, Bart., and William 

Johnstone, Esq., his son, and survivor 800 

Sarah llcruon 70 

Elizabeth Hernon 70 

Henry Loftus, Esq 800 

Diana Loftus 300 

William Colville, Esq 600 

£13,040 



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ministration, the violent feuds of the Peep- 
of-Day-Boya and Defenders had taken al- 
most tin' proportions of a small civil war. 
Mni v of the Protestant landlords in Armagh 
and Tyrone Counties diligently fomented 
and embittered these disputes, " with the 
diabolical purpose," says Mr. Plowden, "of 
breaking up the union of the Protestants 
and Catholics, which had been effected by 
serving together as Volunteers, and was one 
of the effects of that system, which the 
Government appeared most to dread. Re- 
p 'its were industriously set afloat, and 
greedily credited by most Protestants of the 
county of Armagh, who long had been pre- 
eminent amongst their brethren for their 
zealous antipathy to Popery, that if Cath- 
olics, who had obtained arms, and learned 
the use of them during the war, were per- 
mitted to retain them, they would soon be 
used in erecting Popery on the ruins of the 
Protestant religion. The Defenders had long 
and frequently complained, that all that 
efforts to procure legal redress against the 
outrages committed upon them by the Peep- 
of-Day Buys were unavailing : that their 
oppressors appeared to be rather counte- 
nanced, than checked by the civil power; 
and that the necessity of the case had driven 
them into counter-combinations to defend 
their lives and properties against these un- 
controlled marauders. Whilst these petty, 
but fatal internal hostilities were confined 
chiefly to the county of Armagh, it appears 
that the Defenders had generally remained 
passive according to their first institution 
and appellation : and that thev only became 
aggressors, when they afterwards were eom- 
pelled to emigrate from their country. 
Their hostility was now at its height; Gov- 
ernment sent down two troops to quell 
them, bat above fifty on both sides had been 
killed in an affray before the horse arrived. 
Tranquillity lasted whilst the troops remain- 
ed. But it was impossible that a large 
assemblage of men, void of education, pru- 
dence, or control, should long remain together 
without mischief." 

The "Defenders," that is the luckless 
Catholics of those northern counties, strag- 
gling only to live by their labor; surround- 
ed by a larger population of insolent and 
ferocious Protestant farmers, remained al- 






ways, as their name imports, strictly on the 
defensive. They never were mad enough to 
became "aggressors" at all : and Mr. Plow- 
den, in the passage just cited, falls into the 
not unusual error of Catholic writers, who 
are so determined to be impartial that thev 
lean to the party which they abhor. It is 
right to understand once for all — and we 
shall have but too many occasions of illus- 
trating the fact — that in all the violent and 
bloody contentions which have taken place 
between the Catholics and Protestants of 
Ulster from that day to the present, with- 
out any exception, the Protestants have been 
the wanton aggressors. It was with the 
utmost difficulty that Catholics could procure 
arms; but they knew that their Protestant 
neighbors were all armed. They knew 
also that if there were to be any examina- 
tion into the facts before justices of the 
peace, or at the assizes, they were sure to 
meet a bitter, contemptuous hostility on the 
bench and in the jury-box; and witnesses 
ready to swear that a Popish funeral was a 
military parade, and a faction-fight an in- 
surrection. Therefore it was not in the 
nature of things that such an oppressed race 
should voluntarily seek a collision, or should 
resort to violence save in the utmost extrem- 
ity of almost despairing resistance. It is 
true also, that from the very origin of 
Peep-of-Day Boys (who afterwards ripen- 
ed into Orangemen), down to the present 
moment (1867), many of the greatest pro- 
prietors in Ulster, peers and commoners, 
have carefully stimulated the ferocity of the 
ignorant Protestant yeomanry by their own 
insolent behavior towards the opp^esse 
people, ami especially by inculcating and 
enlarging upon all the dreadful details of 
that bloody fable, the "Popish Massacre - ' 
of 1041. Sir John Temple's horrible romance 
was a fifth gospel to the "Ascendency " of 
the Noith ; and was often enlarged upon 
(like the other four) by clergymen in their 
pulpits, to show that it is the favorite 
enjoyment of Papists to rip up Protestant 
women with knives; to murder the mothers 
and then to put the infants to their de:i 
mother's breast, and say : "Suck, English 
bastard/" — to delude men out of houses bv 
oilers of quarter, and then to cut their 
throats, and so on. Indeed when the cod- 



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HISTOKY OF IKEI.AND. 



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scientiotls Dr. Curry published his examina- 
tion of the histories of that pretended mas- 
sacre, his friends feared for his life: it was 
held proof positive, in his day, of a design 
to " bring in the Pretender," if one pre- 
sumed to deny or doubt the terrible drown- 
ing of Protestants at Portadown bridge — or 
to question the fact of their ghosts appear- 
ing in the river at night, breast-high in the 
water, ami shrieking "Revenge! ReaengeP' 
From sneh historic literature as this were 
derived the opinions formed of Catholics by 
Peep-of-Day Boys, and by their worthy 
successors the Orangemen. The baleful 
seeds of hatred and iniquity sown thus in 
the minds of benighted Protestants, by those 
who ought to have taught them better, fell 
in congenial soil, and grew, flourished, and 
ripened, as we shall soon have to narrate, 
in a harvest of bloody fruit. 

The Earl of Westmoreland's administra- 
tion was precisely like that of his prede- 
cessors. It was observed in Parliament by 
several of the opposition members " that it 
was but a continuance of the former ad- 
ministration under a less unpopular head." 
Major Doyle said (10 Pari. Deb., p. 233): 
"The same measures were continued by the 
present viceroy, as if some malicious demon 
had shot into him the spirit of bis depaited 
predecessor, and that the Castle of Dublin 
was only the reflected shadows of the Palace 

of Stowe." 

It is truly irksome to follow the unavail- 
ing parliamentary struggles made by a few 
faithful Irishmen in those days; and the 
commemoration of them might well be 
dispensed with but for the pride and pleas- 
ure which we cannot but feel in the knowl- 
edge that even in that dark day there 
were some glorious intellects and noble 
hearts in Ireland, who, environed around 
and almost overwhelmed bv the deluge of 
Bcoundrelism, yet did hold up the standard 
of rectitude and call upon the demoralized 
nation to follow that standard. It was the 
voire of one crying in the wilderness. We 
tiud in the parliamentary debates, during 
the session of 1790, the same sort of 
series of motions for committees, or for 
resolutions, against corruption, against in- 
crease of pensions and the like, with which 
the country was now familiar. It was 



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familiar also with the uniform defeat of all 
those efforts. Mr. Curraii, for example, 
moved, "That a humble address should be 
presented to his majesty, praying that he 
would order to be laid before that House 
the particulars of the causes, consideration, 
and representations, in consequence of which 
the boards of stamps and accounts had been 
divided, with an increase of salary to the 
officers ; also, that he would be graciously 
pleased to communicate to that House the 
names of the persons who recommended 
that measure." 

In his speech in support of this motion, 
Curran assailed the purchased majority with 
some of that biting and devouring sarcasm 
which the court so much dreaded, and 
which — had Curran been purchasable — ■ 
would have insured him the highest pi ice. 

"He brought forward that motion," he 
said, "not as a question of finance, not as a 
question of regulation, but as a penal in- 
quiry, and the people would now see, 
whether they were to hope for help within 
these walls." He rose in an assembly of 
three hundred persons, one hundred of 
whom had places or pensions; in an assem- 
bly, one-third of whom had their cars sealed 
against the complaints of the people, and 
their eyes intently turned to their own in- 
terest; he rose before the whisperers of the 
treasury, the bargainers and the runners of 
the Castle : he addressed an audience, before 
whom was holden forth the doctrine, that 
the crown ought to use its influence on the 
members of that House. 

He rose to try when the sluices of cor- 
ruption had been let loose upon them, 
whether there were any means left to stem 
that torrent. 

The debate broke out into great intem- 
perance on both sides : the division upon 
the motion was 81 iu support, and 141 
against it. 

Mr. Cumin's doubt "whether there was 
hope for help within those walls," was 
plainly ripening into a certainty, that there 
was none. 

In the same way we find the indefatigable 
Mr. Forbes again trying his place bill and 
pension bill. This time he moved for an 
address to the king, setting forth the shabby 
details which he had long busied himself in 



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UNAVAILING EFFORTS AOAINsT i'nu.,1 PTION 



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bringing to light: — how there was an im- 
mense increase in the pension lis', of pen- 
\<Sr\fl '"" s granted to members of thflt Souse, at 

the pleasure of the crown. How "an addi- 
tion of .i':jOO per annum, lias been lately 
granted to the salary of the custom roar of 
Kinsale, to commence from the '29th of Sep- 
tember, 17S0; ami a further addition of 
£200 payable on a contingency, both for 
tin- life of the present possessor: an office 
which lias been for years considered as use- 
less and obsolete, to which no duty whatso- 
ever is annexed, nor any attendance required. 
That an addition of £400 per annum has 
been lately granted to the salary of comp- 
troller of tlie pipe, though £.53 10.s\ lias for 
years been considered as an adequate com- 
pensation for the discharge of the duties of 
That office. That an addition of £150 per 
annum has also been lately granted to the 
barrack-master of Dublin. That the persons 
to it'limii those additional salaries have been 
granted, are all members of this House." 
And so forth; things which the king and 
Mr. Pitt, his minister, knew very wed; which 
they intended ; in which they meant to 
persevere; anil which they called governing 
t le country. Of course the address to the 
king was negatived by a large majority : 
the "comptroller of the pipe" and the cus- 
tomer of Kinsale were not likely to Vote for 
IE a measure which would deprive their little 

families of bread. Mr. Grattan spoke on 
this motion of Forbes : but perhaps the most 
notable passage in the debate is the short, 
nervous speech of Mr. O'Neil, which plainly 
showed that he, too, despaired of effecting 
any thing in Parliament, and foresaw anoth- 
er kind of Struggle. Mr. O'Neil said " he 
thought it wholly unnecessary for gentlemen 
on the other side to adduce a single argu- 
ment upon any question, while they had an 
omnipotent number of 140 to support them. 
On the subject of influence, the denial of it, 
lie said, was ridiculous, as there was not a 
1 idy then sitting at tea in Dublin, who, if she 
were told that there were 120 men in that 
Bouse, composed of placemen and pension- 
era, would not be able to say how the ques- 
tion would be decided, as well as the tellers 
on the division. lie said the very first act 
in every session of Parliament, which was 
the bill of supply, went to raise the interest 




for a million and a half of money for minis- 
ters to divide amongst themselves. I do say, 
and I said it prophetically," continued ho, 

"that the people will resist it. The mem- 
bers of this llouse bear but a small propor- 
tion to the people at large. There are 
gentlemen outside these doors, of as good 
education and of as much judgment of the 
relative duties of representation, as any man 
within doors, and matters are evidently 
ripening, and will shortly come to a crisis." 
Mr. O'Neil was right: but he and Mr. 
Grattan, and others who acted with them, 
are never to be forgiven, that they did not 
help matters to come to a crisis, and did not 
preside over and guide that crisis w.hen it 
came. 

The remainder of this shameful Parliament 
is little worthy of commemoration. Mr. 
George Tonsonby moved a resolution against 
places and pensions ; defeated by a large 
majority. Mr. Grattan, filled with the same 
sa;oa indiffnatio which once gnawed the 
heart of Swift, astonished the llouse by a 
speech calling for impeachment of ministers, 
concluding with this motion, "that a select 
committee be appointed to inquire, in the 
most solemn manner, whether the late or 
present administration have entered into any 
corrupt agreement with any person or per- 
sons, to recommend such person or persons 
to his majesty as fit and proper to be by 
him made peers of this realm, in considera- 
tion of such person or persons giving cer- 
tain sums of money to be laid out in pro- 
curing the return of members to serve in 
Parliament, contrary to the rights of the 
people, inconsistent with the independence 
of Parliament, and in violation of the funda- 
mental laws of the land." It was defeated 
by the usual majority; 144 against, and 82 
for the motion. A few days after, Mr. Grat- 
tan was provoked to utter one of his auda- 
cious speeches in the House. It was in one 
of the debates on Mr. Forbes' motion : — 
"Sir, I have been told it was said, that I 
should have been stopped, should have been 
expelled the Commons, should have been 
delivered up to the bar of the Lords for the 
expressions delivered that day. 

" I will repeat what I said on that day : I 
said that his majesty's ministers had sold 
the peerages, for which ofteuce they were 



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impeachable. I said they h id applied the 
inonoy for the purpose of purchasing Beats 

in tlio HousoofC ions for the servants 

or followers of the Castle, for which offence 
I said they wore impeachable. I said thev 
had done this, not in one or two, bul in 
several instances, for which complication of 
offences I Raid his majesty's ministers were 
impeachable, as public malefactors, who had 
conspired ngainsl iho common weal, the in- 
dependence of Parliament, and the fund a 
mental laws of the land ; and I offered, and 
dared them to put this matter in a course 
of inquiry, I added, that [considered them 
us public malefactors, whom we were ready 
to bring to justice. I ropoat those charges 
now, and if any thing more Bovoro were 
on a former occasion expressed, 1 beg to 
I"' reminded of it, and I will again repeal 
it, Why do you not expel mo now? Why 
not Bend me to the bar of the Lords ? Where 
i» your advisor! Going out of the House 1 
shall repent my sentiment's 'hat Ids ma 
justy's ministers are guilty of impeachable 
offences; and advancing to the bar of tho 
llie Lords, 1 shall repeal those sentiments, or 
it' the Tower is to be my habitation, 1 will 
there meditate the impeachment >>f these 
ministers, and return nol to capitulate, but 
to punish. Sir, 1 think I know myself well 
'■ gh to say, thai if called forth to suffer 

in a public cans. 1 , 1 will go further than ni\ 

prosecutors, both in virtue and in danger." 

All similar efforts Tailed ill the sum- man 

in ir; effecting nothing but an occasional 
opportunity of discharging a torrent of in 
dignant invective against the solid phalanx 
of Castle members, equally insensible to in- 
vective, to saivasin, t,, shain.', and to con- 
science ; and the Parliament was prorogued 
on the 5th of April, IT'.'O; the viceroy 
assuring thorn in his speeoh from the throne 
that " hf had great pleasure in signifying 
liia majesty's approbation of the zeal they 
had shown fir the public interest, and the 
dispatch with which they had conoluded 
the national businoss." Three days after 
the 1' irliament was dissoh ed. 

But although the Parliament of tho "in- 
dependent" kingdom of Ireland was in so 
wofully ooi i upl a condition, ) et we find that 
in material prosperity the eountrv continued 
to advance. The population had inoreased 



very rapidly, and it is estimated, for the 

year 1788, at 1,040,000, an in, -lease of n 
million and a half in twenty year-. This 
is a sure sign of general ease and abundance 

of the nOCOSSarioS of life. The revenue was 

also increasing fully in proportion to the in- 
crease of people; and the Catholics, being 

now empowered to hold longer lenses, and 

to take mortgages on money lent, had well 
improved their limited opportunities, and 

were 1> ime in all the towns an opulent and 

influential portion of the people. Yet the 
Catholics, while personally they were respect- 
ed, were as a body both oppressed and in- 
sulted. Of the I'our millions, thev were 
more than three ; vet. this great mass of 

people, the original and rightful owners of 
all the land, were still a proscribed race, 
still under the lull operation of the most 

odious of tho penal laws, excluded from I'ii- 

liamont, from the franohise, from the profes- 
sions, from the corporations, from theories, 
from the magistracy, from all civil and 
military employment. Public ceremonials 
were calculated and devised with the special 
design to humiliate them, and remind them 
of the high national estate from which thev 
had fallen; and even in those proud day's 
of the Volunteering, the anniversaries of I heir 

fatal defeats were regularly celebrated in 
Dnblin l>v the high officers •■!' state with all 
possible civic and military pomp. The 
author of the "Irish Abroad and at Home" 
tells us, from his own reoolleotions : — " King 
William's birthday (the 4th of November) 
was observed with greal eeiemonv. Within 
my own recolleotion, and even till the period 

of the Union, on eaeh till of November, 

the troops composing the garrison of Dublin 
marched from their respootive barracks to 
the Royal Exohange, and there turning to 

the right up to the Castle, and to the I, .ft ( ( > 
the college, lined the streets, Cork Hill, 
I lini' Sti.et, and College Green, on eaeh 
side the w :iv. 

" At the same time tho lord-lieutenant 
would be holding a le\ee; a drawing room 

wound up the observances, at which the 
nobility, the bishops, the members of the 
House of Commons (tho Speaker at their 
head), the judges, the bar, the provost, vice- 
provost^ "and follows of Trinity College, the 

loid mayor, aldermen, and other public 



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functionaries were present. The levue over, 
the lord-lieutenant issued in hi~ Btate-carriage 
.in. I with great pomp from the Caatle, passed 
down the line of streets, and round the 
M.iiur of King William, and then returned 
tn the Castle; followed also in carriages by 
tin' great officers of state, the bishops, the 
Houses of Lords and Commons, and those 
of the gentry who had been present at the 
levee." 

Hut as the Catholics advanced in prosper- 
ity and increased in numbers, this condition 

of inferiority in their own native land be- 
came more and more intolerable to them: 
the complete failure of the constitutional 
"independence" of '82 was creating amongst 
the more rational Protestants a desire of 
uniting themselves with the powerful Cath- 
olic masses; a "Catholic Committee " had 
now been for some years in existence, con- 
nived at bv Cover .-lit, and on the whole 

there was a considerable ferment in the pub- 
be mind at the moment when, on the 14th 
of July, 1780, all Europe rang and shook 
with the downfall of the J'>astile. Within 
three weeks nl'ter, on the memorable 4th of 
August, feudality and privilege were sudden- 
ly struck down and swept, away: in that 
most aristocratic of countries all men be- 
came suddenly equal in one night ; and the 
great French Revolu ion was in full career. 



CHAPTER XXV. 
1700—1*91. 

New election— New peers— Sale of peonages — Motion 
ngain&l Police Bill Continual defeats of Patriots 
In olonoe of tin- Cootie — Progress of French 
Revolution — Horror of French principles — Kurke 
— Divisions amongst Irish Catholics — Wolfe Tone 
General Committee of Catholics To no goes to 
Belfast -Establishes first Unite.! Irish Club - 
Dublin United Irisli Club — Parliamentary Patriots 
avoid them— Progress of Catholic Committee — 
Projool of ii Convention— Troubles in County 
Arm., fh. 

Notwithstanding iho progress which 

had 1 ii made by the people ill political 

knowledge and spirit, stimulated by the 
mighty events then going forward in France, 
yet the influence of the Castle prevented 
any great change in the return of members 
to the new Parliament. The dissolution 



the 8th of April, 1700, and | for a vote of credit for £200,000, to be up. 



100 



the new Parliament was su lotn-d 10 meet 

at. Dublin on the 20th of May, but before 
that time, was further prorogued to the 10th 
of July, when it met for dispatch of business. 
Such of the constituencies as were really 
free to electa of course look care to send to 
Parliament all the most, prominent reform- 
ers. Craitan, Follies, Cm-ran, Ponsonby, 
Lord Henry Fitzgerald, occupied their old 
places on the opposition bench. We find 
among the new members several note. I 
names. A certain young Major Wellesley 
was returned for the borough of Trim, after- 
wards called to high destinies under the 

title of Duke of Wellington. Jonah Bar- 
rington was member forTuam: he bad seen 
the rise, and was destined to chronicle the 

Rise and Fall, of the, Irish nation. Arthur 
O'Connor came as member for Philipstown : 
his name will appear again in this narrative. 
Robert Stewart came as one of the members 
for Down County ; and had an opportunity 
of studying the modes of buying and selling 
in that great mart of votes and influences ; 
opportunities which he improved with the 
zeal of a clerk in a commercial house learn- 
ing his business. Wo shall see that he spent 
the season of his apprenticeship profitably. 
In the mean time, it is interesting to record 
that this gentleman sought his election, and 
was returned, expressly as an avowed re- 
former and patriot; and that on the hust- 
ings at Downpatrick be took the following 
pledge: — "That he would in and out of the 
House, with all bis ability and influence, 
promote the success of a bill for amending 
the representation of the people; a bill for 
preventing pensioners from sitting in Par- 
liament, or such placemen as cannot sit, in 
the British House of Commons ; a bill for 
limiting the numbers of placemen and pen- 
sioncrs and the amount of pensions \ f a bill 
for preventing revenue-officers from voting 
at elections; a bill for rendering the servants 
of the crown in Ireland responsible for the 
expenditure of the public money," etc., — in 
short, all the measures of reform which were 
at that time the ostensible objects of the 
opposition. 

The purpose of convening the Parliament 
was to obtain a vote of credit : accordingly 
the chancellor of the exchequer moved 



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IIISTOIIY 01' IUELAND. 



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plied by the lord-lieutenant towards the 
expense of Government. 

On the 24th of the month his majesty's 
answer to the address of the Commons was 
communicated to the House, which was 
strongly expressive of his satisfaction at their 
determination to support the honor of his 
crown, and the common interest of the 
empire, at that important crisis : the Par- 
liament was then prorogued, and did not 
meet for the dispatch of business till the 
20th of January, 1791. In the autumn, 
Mr. Secretary Hobart went over to England, 
as it was generally presumed, to concert the 
plan of the next parliamentary campaign 
with the British cabinet. It was also ru- 
mored, that the Irish government having in 
the widest plenitude adopted the principles 
and system of Lord Buckingham's adminis- 
tration, the right honorable secretary had 
also much consultation with that nobleman. 
Lord Westmoreland in the mean time was 
not inattentive to the means of acquiring 
popularity, the want of which in his pre- 
decessor he felt very strongly operating upon 
his own government. In a country excur- 
sion for nearly nine months he visited most 
of the nobility through the kingdom : his 
excellency and his ladv on all solemn occa- 
sions appeared clad in Irish manufactures : 
just as in our own day an ameliorative vice- 
roy has sometimes condescended to wear a 
u poplin waistcoat." We are even told that 
Lord Westmoreland further increased his 
popularity by giving permission to represent 
"The Beggar's Opera," which was then a 
favorite of the Dublin people, but the rep- 
resentation of which had been prohibited 
in Lord Buckingham's time. 

The business of this session differed very 
little from that of the last before the dissolu- 
tion. The Patriots appeared rather to have 
lost, than acquired, strength by the new elec- 
tion. Their number did not at any time 
during the course of this session exceed 
fourscore. But their resolution to press all 
the questions which they had brought for- 
ward in the last Parliament, appeared more 
violently determined than ever; insomuch, 
that Mr. George Ponsonby in replying to 
Mr. Cook, assured him, that the hope he 
had expressed of gentlemen on his side of 
the Ilouse not bringing forward those meas- 



ures, which they had done for some ses- 
sions past, was a lost hope, for that nothing 
but the hand of death or success should evei 
induce them to give up their pursuit. Ac 
cordingly Mr. Ponsonby, on the 3d of 
February, moved as usual for a select com- 
mittee to inquire into the pension list. It 
was got rid of by a motion for adjournment. 
Then Mr. Grattan, supported by Mr. Curran, 
renewed the charge upon its practice of 
selling peerages : it was rejected by 135 
against 85. 

Mr. Curran then moved the following res- 
olution, in which he was seconded by Mr. 
Grattan, viz. : "That a committee be ap- 
pointed, consisting of members of both 
Houses of Parliament, who do not hold any 
employment or enjoy any pension under 
the crown, to inquire in the most solemn 
manner, whether the late or present ad- 
ministration have, directly or indirect!)', 
entered into any corrupt agreement with 
any person or persons, to recommend such 
person or persons to his majesty for the 
purpose of being created peers of this king 
dom, in consideration of their paving certait 
sums of money, to be laid out in the pur- 
chase of seats for members to serve in Par- 
liament, contrary to the rights of the people, 
inconsistent with the independence of Par- 
liament, and in direct violation of the funda- 
mental laws of the land." 

The ministerial members on all these oc- 
casions loudly complained of the reiteration 
of the old charges even without new argu- 
ments to support them ; they strongly in- 
sisted that no particular facts were alleged, 
much less proved ; and that general fame, 
surmise, and assertion, were no grounds for 
parliamentary impeachments, or any other 
sulemu proceedings iu that Ilouse. Mr. 
Grattan, before answering the objections 
advanced against the motion, adverted to 
the general dull and empty declamation 
uttered by the advocates of a corrupt gov- 
ernment against the defenders of an injured 
people. 

Four times, had those advocates told them, 
they had brought this grievance forth, as if 
grievances were only to be matter of public 
debate when they were matters of novelty ; 
or as if grievances were trading questions 
for a party or a person to press, to sell, and 



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PROGRESS OF Tlllt FRRXCII REVOLUTION. 



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to abandon ; or as if they came tliithor to 
act farces to please the appetite of the pub- 
lic, ami did not sit there to persevere in the 
redress of grievances, pledged as they were, 
and covenanted to the people on these im- 
portant subjects. 

Under these continual defeats of every 
generous effort to abate a single evil or in- 
justice, it seems to have been some satisfac- 
tion to the members of the opposition to in- 
dulge at least in violent philippics. Mr. 
Grattan, for instance, in making a renewed 
effort against the unconstitutional police 
system : — Ministers had, he said, resorted to 
a place army and a pensioned magistracy: 
the one was to give boldness to corruption 
in Parliament, and the other to give the 
minister's influence patronage in the city. 
Their means were, this police establishment: 
the plan they did not entirely frame : they 
found it. A bill had shown its face in the 
British House of Commons for a moment, 
and had been turned out of the doors im- 
mediately : a scavenger would have found it 
in the streets of London : the groping 
hands of the Irish ministry picked it up, 
and made it the law of the land. 

The motion against the police was nega- 
tived by what Mr. Grattan called the dead 
majority. Next the opposition tried an- 
other favorite measure — to prevent place- 
men and pensioners from having seats in 
Parliament; in other words, that the "dead 
majority" should be turned out-of-doors and 
deprived of their daily bread. This meas- 
ure was supported as usual by Mr. Forbes, 
and of course by the same arguments: 
there was nothing new to say : there was 
the evil visible before them ; or rather the 
104 evils, each with its bribe in its pocket, 
wrung from the earnings of those people 
whose legislature they poisoned. Uut the 
Castle members were utterly disgusted with 
these threadbare topics; they called for 
something new ; and so Mr. Mason had the 
cool audacity to say, that having opposed 
this bill every session for thirty years, he 
would not weary the House with fresh argu- 
ments against it: his decided opinion was, 
that the influence of the crown was barely 
sufficient to preserve the constitution, and to 
prevent it from degenerating into the worst 
of all possible governments, a democracy. 



Indeed, the terror of this democracv, and 
the manifest peril to oligarchical government 
both in England and in Ireland, arisiii:; 
from the thundering French revolution an I 
its reverberations through many millions of 
hearts in the two islands — these were the 
considerations that rendered the supporters 
of Government more sternly resolute to 
maintain every part of their system as it 
stood. Reformers of any abuse began about 
this time to be called "Jacobins," and the 
" Mountain ;" and it was intended for tire 
most ribald abuse, to charge a person with 
advocating the Rights of Man. 

Equally violent and equally unsuccessful 
were the four remaining attacks made by 
the gentlemen of the opposition : viz., Mr. 
Grattan's motion for the encouragement of 
the reclaiming of barren land ; on the. first 
reading of the pension bill ; the second 
reading of the responsibility bill ; and Mr. 
George Ponsonby's motion respecting fiats 
for levying unassessed damages upon the 
parties' affidavits of their own imaginary 
losses. 

We must now turn away for a time from 
these eloquent futilities in Parliament. It 
is difficult now to analyze the strong politi- 
cal passion which seized upon all the public, 
as the mighty drama of French Revolution 
swept upon its way. The year 1791 stimu- 
lated that passion to the greatest height. 
The great theatrical performance of the 
federation of all mankind in the Champ de 
Mars, had taken place on the 14th of July 
of the last year, when the King of France 
had sworn to maintain the constitution. The 
church lands had been sold for the use of 
the public: Mirabeau, the great tribune, 
was dead, and the last hope of conciliation 
between the people and the crown, died 
with him. Then the great coalition of Eu- 
rope against France was formed ; and the 
king attempted his flight beyond the Rhine. 
Every thing betokened both war and invasion 
coming from abroad, and the approaching 
triumph at home of the Jacobin Republi- 
cans, with the usual violence and slaughter 
which attend such immense changes. It 
was impossible to look on at these things 
unmoved. Two fierce parties were at once 
formed in Ireland, the one Republican, tho 
other anti-Gallican. 



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sympathy which Boveral of Hi 
armed corps and othor public bodios oxull 
ingly expressed with the asserton of oivil 

freedom in tbos untries, was obnoxious to 

Government, nnd il became the system of 
tin- Castle to affix ■ marked stigma upon 
every person who countenanced or spoke in 
favor of any measure that bore the sem 
blance of reform or revolution, Even the 
ardor for oommemorating the era of 1688, 
was attempted to bo damped] ill" word 
liberty always carried with it suspicion, 
often reprobation. In proportion to the 
progress of the Frenoh revolution to those 

too i, which al In I outraged humanity, 

wore ■ a efforts in favor of the most don 

stitutional liberty resisted in Parliament, mm 
attempts t" introduoe a system of French 
equality, Suoh whs the general panic, suoli 
the real or n i umotl oxooral ion of evory 

thing that had a tondoncy to dot rnoy, 

thai comparatively few of the higher orders 

through the kingdi 'olainod, or avowed, 

those general Whig principles, which two 
years before thai man wot not doomed loyal, 
» ho did not profess. 

Mr, Burke by his book on the Frenoh 
revolution, pnbl shed in the year t ) BO, had 
wot kod :i great change in tho public mind, nnd 
the few in the nppor walk i of life, » ho did 
not become his proselytes, merely retaining 
their former principles, were astonished to 
liihl ill. ir ranks thinned nnd their standard 
fallen, 

The Catholios also oould not possibly re- 
in. mi insensible to the greal events of the 
time : bill tho offeol prodauod upon them 
« i- i sti ingely oomplox kind, As g m-iei 
onsly oppressed raoe they oould not but 
m mpnthiie « ith the opprei sod peasantry and 
middle classes of Franoo ns ! lu-\ struck off 
link after link of the fond il chain : but on 
the othor hand the Irish Catholics, not like 
the Frenoh, had remained deoply attachod 
to their religion, tho only oonsolation they 
had : and the Frenoh "Civil Constitution" 
for the olergy, and sale of church lands, 
were represented to them as anti religious, 
and dangerous to faith and morals. Pub 
lie itions were circulated upon the conserv- 
ative tendenoieaof tho Catholic religion* to 

* Ono of tho most noted oftliasa piiblloslloua «... 
out oullad "Ths Cuo Stated," i>i Mr. I'lowUou, 



render its followers lo\ si, peaceable, nnd duti- 
ful subjoots. Pastoral instraotions were pub- 
lished by the Catholio bishops in their re- 
spective dioceses, in favor of loyal subordina- 
tion nnd against "Frenoh principles." On 
the othor hand, tho trading Catholios in th« 
towns, nnd such of the country population 
i w sro readers of books, were very generally 
indoctrinated with sentiments of extreme 
liberalism, It was not to be expected, they 
thought, that thty oould be *lcyal " to n 
Oovernmenl w 1 1 i < ■ 1 1 they knew only by its 
oppressions nnd its insults : it was not likely 
that they would be indignant against the 
Fronoh for abolishing tithn, nor for selling 
out in small farms the vast domains of the 
emigrant nobles, On the whole therefore n 
very large proportion of tho Catholics look- 
ed to the proceedings of the Fronoh with 
admiration nnd with hope. As for tho lush 

Dissenters, who were mucl ire nu runs 

than the Protestants of the established 
ohuroh, they were Galilean and republioau 
to a man. 

Considering that the only real enemy of 
Ireland, both then and over since, was the 
English Government, it was very unfortunate 
t li.it the divisions amongst the Catholics 

themselves, nnd the hereditary estrangement 

and aversion between them and the Presby- 
terians, made ii next to impossible to create 
a united lush nation, with one boIo bond, and 
one single aim, the destruction of Briti h 
government in this island. This, however, 
was precisely the greal task undertaken by 
Theobald Wolfe lone, s young Protestant 
lawyer of Dublin; of English dosoent by 
both the lather's side and the mother's, a 
graduate of Trinity College, and who at tho 
lime when he lirst. Bung himself into the 
grand revolutionary scheme <>f associating 
the Catholios to tho body of the nation, was 
not personally acquainted with a single in- 
dividual of that creed, It is nee. Hess to say 
that Tone had been a democrat from the 
very oommencemont -that, is IVom the com- 
mencement of tho Frenoh revolution. In Ins 

narrative of his own life, Tone has given so 

clear an aocount of the dissensions which 
broke up the Catholio Committee, the Cir- 
cumstances which led to his own alliance 
with the Catholic body, an.l the first I'ornia- 

tioi 



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CATIIOI I' QBNKR M. i'om Ml II KB, 



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i! ni:.y li.-i a I"- pi i e I in bia ow d words, 

in a slight u abi idged form : — 

" III. i lonoral ( lommitti f the * 'atholics, 

w hioh, Miiir the year 1792, ha made a dia- 
tinguished foature in ibe politics of Ireland, 
was a bodj composed of their bishops, Lheir 
country gentlemen, and of a certain number 

of robanta and traders, .-ill resident in 

Dublin, bul named by tbe Catholics in the 
different towns corporate to represont them, 
Tbe original object of this institution was to 
obtain tbe ri pi al of a partial and oppressive 
Lax called quarterage! which was levied on 
the Catholics only, and tbe Government, 

which found the < nittee at first a con 

Miii. ni instrument on some occasions, con- 
nived at its existence So degraded was 
the ' 'atholio mind at the poi iod of the 
formation of their committee, about 1770, 
and long after, that they were happy to be 
allowed t<> go up to the Castle with an 
al inable slavish address to each succes- 
sive viceroy, of which, moreover, until the 
accession of the Duke of Portland, in 1782, 
bo Little notice was taken that bis grace wa 
tbe first who condescended to give them an 
answer; and, indeed, for above twenty years, 
tbe sole business of the General Committee 
was to prepare and deliver in those records 
of ili.ii deprosi ion. The effort which an 
honest indignation had called forth at tbe 
time of the Volunteer ( lonvention, in 1 788, 

leei I i" have exhausted their Btrengtb, 

and they sunk back into their primitive 
nullity. Under this appearance of apathy, 
however, a new spbit wus gradually arising 
in ili.- body, owing, principally, to the exer- 

i and the example of one man, John 

lieogb, to whose services his country, and 
more especially the Catholics, are singularly 
indebted, [n fact, tbe downfall of feudal 
i \ ran ii v was acted in little on the theatre 
of the * leneral ( lommittee. The influouce 
of their clergy and of thoir barons » i 
gradually uudormined, and the third 'state, 
the commercial interest, rising in wealth 
and power, was preparing, by degrees, to 
throw "11 the yoke, in the imposing, or, at 
least, the continuing of which the leaders 
ol inc body, I mean tbe prelates and aristoc- 
racy, to lheir disgrace I"- it poken, were 
ira. iv i.. concur. Already bad those leaders, 
act inc in obedience to the orders <>r the 



i Ii ii .-i urn. 'lit which bold i bom in fetl or , 
suffered one or two signal defeats in the 

c ittee, owing principally to the talents 

an.) address of John Keogh ; the partiei 

began to bo defl I, and a sturdy democracy 

of new men, with bolder views and stronger 
talents, soon superseded the timid counsels 
and slavish measures of the ancient aristoc 
racy. Every thing seemed tending to h 

better order of things a ng the Catholics 

and an occasion soon offered to call the 
energy of their new leaders into action. 

"The Dissenters of the North, and more 
especially of tlic town of Belfast, are from 
the genius of their religion and from the 
superior diffusion of political information 
among them, sincere and enlightened Re- 
publicans. They bad ever been foremost in 
the pursuit of parliamentary reform, and I 

have already ntioned the early wisdom 

and \ hi r the tow n of Belfast, in pro- 
posing the emancipation of the ( lal holies so 
far back an the yoar 1788. 

"The I latholics, on their part, were rapid- 
ly advancing in political spirit and informn 
linn. Every month, every day, as the rev 
..Inn. hi in France went prosperously forward, 
added to their courage and their force, and 

tin- hour see I .-it. last arrived, when, nftei 

a dreary opprei ion of about one Ii Ired 

years, they were once more to appear on tbe 
political theatre of their country. They saw 
the brilliant prospect of success which events 
in France opened to their view, and they de- 
termined to avail themselves with prompti 
tude of that opportunity, which never re- 
turns to those wli nit. it. For tins, the 

active members of the General Committee 
resolved I I on foot an immediate appli- 
cation i" Parliament, praying for n repeal 
of the penal law i. Tbe first difficulty they 
had to Minimum, arose in their own bod) ; 
their peers, their gentry (as they affected to 
call ili. -in elvei ), and their prelates, eitln i 
educed or intimidated b) Government, gnvo 
il,.- measure all posi ible opposition ; and, at 
length, after a long contest, in which both 
parties strained every nerve, and produ« d 

the whole of their strength, the quei 

was decided on a division in tbe i miiitee, 

by a majority of at least six I ie, in favor 

of the iutended application. The triumph 
f the young democracy was complete ; 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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but, though the aristocracy was defeated, 

it was not yet entirely broken down. By 
the instigation of Government they had 
the meanness to secede from the General 
Committee, to disavow their acts, and even 
to publish in the papers, that they did not 
wish to embarrass the Government by ad- 
vancing their claims of emancipation. It is 
difficult to conceive such a degree of politi- 
cal degradation; but what will not the 
tyranny of an execrable system produce in 
time? Sixty-eight gentlemen, individually 
of high spirit, were found, who, publicly, 
and in a body, deserted their party, and 
their own just claims, and even sanctioned 
this pitiful desertion by the authority of 
their signatures. Such an effect had the 
operation of the penal laws on the minds of 
the Catholics of Ireland, as proud a race as 
any in all Europe! * 

" The first attempts of the Catholic Com- 
mittee failed totally ; endeavoring to ac- 
commodate all parties, they framed a peti- 
tion so humble that it ventured to ask for 
nothing, and even this petition they could 
not find a single member of the legislature 
to present ; of so little consequence, in the 
year 1790, was the great mass of the Irish 
people! Not disheartened, however, by 
this defeat, they went ou, and in the interval 
between that and the approaching session, 
they were preparing measures for a second 
application. In order to add a greater 
weight and consequence to their intended 
petition, they brought over to Ireland Rich- 

* Mr. Tone's account of the secession of the sixty- 
eight members from the General Committee is not 
sufficiently explanatory. Mr. Plowdcn, an excel- 
lent authority on this point, says that it was caused 
chiefly by dissatisfaction on account of " public nets 
of Communication of Protestants in the North with 
Fiance." hi particular, the people of Belfast had 
unt an address of warm congratulation to the so- 
ciety of " Friends of the Constitution " at Bordeaux ; 
and had received an eloquent reply. Communica- 
tions of this kind, sa\s Plowden, "gave particular 
offence to Government, who manifested great jeal- 
ousy and diffidence towards all persons concerned in 
them," It was to express their horror of co-operat- 
ing in any degree with such men and measures, 
that the men of landed property and the prelates 
seceded. The seeeders shortly after presented to the 
Iord-licutonant a petition or address, which went no 
farther than a general expression of submissivencss 
and respect to Government, "throwing themselves 
and their body on their humanity and wisdom." 
This was called tauntingly tho "Eleemosynary A<1- 
dr=s B ." 



aid Burke, only son of the celebrated Ed- 
mund, and appointed him their agent to 
conduct their application to Parliament. 
This young man came over with consider- 
able advantages, and especially with the 
eclat of his father's name, who, the Cath- 
olics concluded, and very reasonably, would, 
for his sake, if not for theirs, as-ist his son 
with his advice and directions But their 
expectations in the event proved abortive. 
Richard Burke, with a considerable portion 
of talent from nature, and cultivated, as 
may be well supposed, with the utmost 
care by his father, who idolized him, was 
utterly deficient in judgment, in temper, 
and especially in the art of managing par- 
ties. In three or four months' time, during 
which he remained in Ireland, he contrived 
to embroil himself, and, in a certain degree, 
the committee, with all parties in Parlia- 
ment, the opposition as well as the Govern- 
ment, and ended his short and Rirbulent 
career by breaking with the General Com- 
mittee. That body, however, treated him 
respectfully to the last, and, on his depar- 
ture, they sent a deputation to thank him 
for his exertions, and presented him with the 
sum of two thousand guineas. 

"It was pretty much about this time that 
my connection with the Catholic body com- 
menced, in the manner which I am about to 
relate. 

'•Russell* had, on his arrival to join his 
regiment at Belfast, found the people so 
much to his taste, and in return had rendered 
himself so agreeable to them, that he was 
speedily admitted into their confidence, and 
became a member of several of their clubs. 
This was an unusual circumstance, as Brit- 
ish officers, it may well be supposed, were 
no great favorites with the republicans of 
Belfast. The Catholic question was, at this 
period, beginning to attract the public no- 
tice; and the Belfast Volunteers, on some 
public occasion, I know not precisely what, 
wished to come forward with a declaration 
in its favor. For this purpose, Russell, who, 
by this time, was entirely in their confidence, 
wrote to me to draw up and transmit to 
him such a declaration as I thought proper, 
which I accordingly did. A meeting of the 

* Thomas Bussell, Tone's most intimate friend 
and comrade. 



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TONES 1'AMl'IH.KT ON ISKHAT.K OF THE CATHOLICS. 



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c irps was held in consequence, but an oppo- 
sition unexpectedly arising to that part of 
the declarations which alluded directly to 
the Catholic claims, that passage was, for 
the sake of unanimity, withdrawn for the 

pr nt, and the declarations then passed 

unanimously. Russell wrote me an account 
of all this, ami it immediately set me to 
thinking more seriously than 1 had yet done 
upon the state of Ireland. I soon funned 
my th y, and on that theory I have un- 
varyingly acted ever since. 

"To subvert the tyranny of our execrable 
Government, to break the connection with 
England, the never-failing source of all out- 
political evils, and to assert the indepen- 
dence of my coin, trv — these were mv ob- 
jects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, 
to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, 
and to substitute the common name of 
Irishman, in place of the denominations of 
Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter— these 
were my means. To effectuate these great 
objects, I reviewed the three great sects. 
The Protestants I despaired of from the out- 
sl, for obvious reasons. Already in posses- 
sion, by an unjust monopoly, of the whole 
power and patronage of the country, it was 
not to be supposed they would ever concur 
in measures, the certain tendency of which 
must be to lessen their influence as a party, 
how much soever the nation might gain. 
To the Catholics I thought it unnecessary 
to address mvsclf, because, as no change 
could make their political situation worse, I 
reckoned upon their support to a certainty ; 
besides, they had already begun to manifest 
a strong sense of their wrongs and oppres- 
sions: and, finally, I well knew that, how- 
ever it might be disguised or suppressed, 
there existed in the breast of every Irish 
I atholie, an inextirpable abhorrence of the 
English name and power. There remained 
only the Dissenters, whom I knew to be 
patriotic ami enlightened; however, the 

lee, nt events al I'.elta-t had showed me that 
ill prejudice was not yet entirely removed 
from their minds. I sat down accordingly, 
and wrote a pamphlet, addressed to the 
Dissenters, and which I entitled " Aii Argu- 
in nt on behalf of tin- Catholics of In land," 
the object of which was to convince them 
that they and the Catholics had lau one 



S3* 



common interest, and one common enemv : 
that the depression and slavery of Ireland 
was produced and perpetuated by the divi- 
sions existing between them, and that, con- 
sequently, to assert the independence of '^J 
their country, and their own individual liber- 
ties, it was necessary to forget all former 
feuds, to consolidate the entire strength of 
the whole nation, and to form for the future 
but one people. These principles I sup- 
ported by the best arguments which sug- 
gested themselves to me, and particularly 
by demonstrating that the cause of the fail- 
ure of all former efforts, and more especially 
of the Volunteer Convention in 1783, was 
the unjust neglect of the claims of their 
Catholic brethren. This pamphlet, which 
appeared in September, 1791, under the 
signature of a Northern Whig, had a consid- 
erable degree of success. The Catholics 
(with not one of whom I was at the time 
acquainted) were pleased with the efforts of 
a volunteer in their cause, and distributed it 
in all quarters. The people of Belfast, of 
whom I had spoken with the respect and 
admiration I sincerely felt for them, and to 
whom I was also perfectly unknown, printed 
a very large edition, which they dispersed 
through the whole North of Ireland, and I 
have the great satisfaction to believe that 
many of the Dissenters were converted by 
my arguments. It is like vanity to speak of 
my own performances so much ; and the 
fact is, I believe that I am somewhat vain 
on that topic; but, as it was the immediate 
cause of my being made known to the Cath- 
olic body, I may be, perhaps, excused for 
dwelling on a circumstance which I must 
ever look upon, for that reason, as one of the 
most fortunate of my life. As my pamphlet 
spread more and more, my acquaintance 
amongst the Catholics extended accordingly. 
Mv first friend in the body was John Keogh, 
and through him I became acquainted with 
all the leaders, as Richard McCormick, John 
Sweetman, Edward Byrne, Thomas Braug- 
hall, in short, the whole sub-committee, and 
most of the active members of the General 
Committee. It was a kind of fashion this 
winter (1 791 ) among the Catholics to give 
splendid dinners to their political friends, in 
and out of Parliament, and I was always a 



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206 



HISTORY OF IIIEI.AND. 



dinner, given to Richard Burke, on his leav- 
ing Dublin, together with William Todd 
Jciiics, who had distinguished himself l>y a 
most, excellent pamphlet in favor of the 
Catholic cans.', as well as to several enter- 
tainments, given by clubs ami associations. 
I was invited to spend a few days in Belfast, 
in order to assist in framing the first club of 
United Irishmen, and to cultivate a personal 
acquaintance with those men whom, though 
I highly esteemed, I knew as yet but by 
reputation. In consequence, about the be- 
ginning of October, I went down with my 
friend Russell, who had, by this time, quit 
the army, and was in Dublin, on his pri- 
vate affairs. That journey was by far the 
most agreeable and interesting one I had 
ever made: my reception was of the most 
flattering kind, and 1 found the men of 
the most distinguished public virtue in 
the nation, the most estimable in all the 
domestic relations of life: I had the good 
fortune to render myself agreeable to 

them, and a friendship was then formed 
between us which I think it will not be 
easy to shake. It is a kind of injustice to 
name individuals, yet I cannot refuse my- 
self the pleasure of observing how peculiarly 
fortunate I esteem myself in having formed 
connections with Samuel Neilson, Robert 
Simms, William Siiums, William Sinclair, 
Thomas McCabe: I may as well stop here; 
for, in enumerating my most particular 
friends, I find I am, in fact, making out a 
list of the men of Belfast most distinguished 
for their virtue, talent, and patriotism. To 
proceed. We formed our club, of which I 
wrote the declaration, and certainly the for- 
mation of that club commenced a new epoch 
in the politics of Ireland. At length, after 
a stay of about three weeks, which I look 
back upon as perhaps the pleasantest iii inv 
life, Russell and I returned to Dublin, with 
instructions to cultivate the leaders in the 

popular interest, being Protestants, and, if 
possible, to form, in the capital, a club of 
United Irishmen. Neither Russell nor my- 
self was known to one of those leaders ; 
however, we soon contrived to get acquainted 
with James Napper Tandy, who was the 
principal of them, and, through him, with 

several others, so that, in a little time, we suc- 
ceeded, and a club was accordingly formed,. if 



which the Honorable Simon Butler was the 
first chairman, and Tandy the first secretary 
The club adopted the declaration of their 
brethren ..f Belfast, with whom ihev imme- 
diately opened a correspondence. It is but 
justice to an honest man who has been per- 
secuted for his linn adherence to his princi- 
ples, to observe here, that Tandy, in coming 
forward on this occasion, well knew that he 
was putting to the most extreme hazard his 
popularity among the corporations of the 
city of Dublin, with whom lie had enjoy 
the most unbounded influence for near 
twenty years ; and, in fact, in the event, his 
popularity was sacrificed. That did not 
prevent, however, his taking his pari decid- 
edly: he had the firmness to forego the 
gratification of his private feelings for the 
good of his country. The truth is, Tandy 
was a very sincere Republican, and it did not 
require much argument to show him the 
impossibility of attaining a republican any 
means short of the united powers of the 
whole people; he therefore renounced the 
lesser objects for the greater, and gave up 
the certain influence which he possessed (and 
bad well earned) in the city, for the contin- 
gency of that influence which lie might 
have (and well deserves to have) in the na- 
tion. For my own part, T think it right to 
mention, that, at this time, the establishment 
of a republic was not the immediate object 
of mv speculations. My object was to secure 
the independence of my country under any 
form of government, to which 1 was led by 
a hatred of England, so deeply rooted in 
mv nature, that it was rather an inst net 
than a principle. I left to others, better 
qualified lor the inquiry, the investigation 
and merits of the different forms of govern- 
ment, and I contented myself with laboring 
on mv own system, which was luckily in 
petfect coincidence as to its operation will) 
that of those men who viewed the question 
on a broader and juster scale than I did at 
tin' time 1 mention." 

Wolfe Tone was shortly after, on the 
recommendation of John Keogh, appointed 
secretary to the "General Committee" of 
the Catholics, and lone; labored zealously in 
their service. But he was not content with 
mere Catholic agitation. He and his friends 
continued with unabated zeal in the orgrani- 




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PROGRESS OF CATHOLIC COMMITTEE, 



207 




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mtiojg of the United Irish Society, which lie 
ped i" Bee Bwallow up all others. 
<Mi the 30th of December, 1791, the 
United irishmen of Dublin held a special 
Bession, at which they approved of a cir- 
cular Idler which was calculated to en- 
courage Birailar Bocieties; and to it they 
annexed a declaration <>f their political sen- 
timents, and the tesl which they had taken 
.■is a snri.il ami sacri'd compact to bind them 
n closely together. They also, in their 

publications, animadverted severely upon the 

sixty-four addressers. The general disposi- 
tion to republicanism which appeared in the 
publications and whole coin 1 net of these new 
societies, became daily more and more ob- 
noxious to Government: they were chiefly 
composed of Dissenters: yet several leading 
men amongst them were 1 'rot. stunts of the 
established church : it was believed and, 
constantly preached up by the Castle, that 
this new, violent, and affectionate attach- 
ment of the Dissenters for their Roman 
Catholic brethren, proceeded not from any 
sentiment of liberality or toleration, but 
purely to engage the co-operation of the 
great mass of the people the more warmly 
in forwarding the several popular questions 
lately brought before Parliament. 

'I he truth is that the patrician "Patriots" 
of Parliament were quite shy of association 
with the members of the new societies. 
Some of them were alarmed about French 
principles of democracy, which could scarcely 
he expected to be agreeable to a privileged 
class : others thought that the United Irish- 
men and the existing Catholic Committee 
both consisted of low people; and they 
were possessed by that general aversion fell 
by members of Parliament against all extra- 
p irliamentary movements. 

I'loni that time shyness, jealousy, and (lis 
trust subsisted between those new societies 
mi the Whig Glub, though the agents and 
writers for Government attempted to identify 
their views, measures, and principles, as ap- 
pears by the newspapers, and other publica- 
tions of that day. Tone, on bis side, who 
had wholly given up Parliament as a thine/ 
not only useless but noxious to the nation, 
felt the utmost resentment at the members 
of the opposition for any longer keeping up 



and avowed that he respected more the 
Castle members themselves. '"They want," 
said he, "at least one vice, hypocrisy." 

The Catholic General Committee had new 
life infused into it, through the energy of 

KeOgb and the labors of Wolfe Tone. 

"There seems," says Tone in his sanguine 

way ''from this time out, a special Provi- 
dence to have watched over the affairs of 
Ireland, and to have turned to her profit 
and advantage the deepest laid and most, art- 
ful schemes of ler enemies. Every measure 
adopted, and skilfully adopted, to thwart the 
expectations of the Catholics, and to crush 
the rising spirit of union between them and 
the Dissenters, has, without exception, only 
tended to confirm and fortify both, and the 
fact I am about to mention, for one, is a 
striking proof of the truth of this assertion. 
The principal charge in the general outcry 
raised in the House of Commons against the 
General Committee was, ihat they were a 
self-appointed body, not nominated by the 
Catholics of the nation, and, consequently, 
not authorized to speak on their behalf. 
This argument, which, in fact, was the truth, 
was triumphantly dwelt upon by the enemies 
of the Catholics; but, in the end, it would 
have pei haps been more fortunate for their 
wishes, if (hey had not laid such a stress 
upon this circumstance, and drawn the line 
of separation so strongly between the Gen- 
cral Committee and the body at large. For 
the Catholics throughout Ireland, who had 
hitherto been indolent, spectators of the busi- 
ness, seeing their brethren of Dublin, and 
especially the General Committee, insulted 
and abused for their exertions in pursuit of 
that liberty which, if attained, must be a 
common blessing to all, came forward as 
one man from every quarter of the nation, 
with addresses and resolutions, adopting the 
measures of the General Committee as their 
own, declaring that body the only organ 
competent to speak for the Catholics of lie- 
land, and condemning, in terms of the most 
marked disapprobation and contempt, the 
conduct of the sixty-eight apostates, who 
were so triumphantly held up by the hire- 
lings of Government as the respectable part 
of the Catholic community. The question 
was now fairly decided. The aristocracy 



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of parliamentary patriotism, shrunk back in disgrace and obscurity, leav 




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ing the Hold open to the democracy, and that 
body neither wanted talents nor spirit to 
profit by the advantages of their present 
situation. 

" It is to th" sagacity of Myles Kcon, of 
Keonbrook, County Leitrim, that his country 
is indebted for the system on which the 
(ieneral Committee was to be framed anew, 
in a manner that should render it impossible 
to bring il again in doubt whether that body 
were or not the organ of the Catholic will. 
His plan was lo associate to the committee, 
as then constituted, two members from each 
county and great city, actual residents of 
the place which they represented, who were, 

however, only to be summoned upon extra- 
ordinary occasions, leaving the common rou- 
tine of business to the original members, 

who, as I have already related, were all 

residents of Dublin, The committee, as 

thus constituted, would consist of half town 
and half country members; and the elec- 
tions for the latter he proposed should be 
held by means of primary and electoral 

assemblies, held, the first in each parish, the 
second in each county and great town, lie 
likewise proposed, that the town members 
should be held to correspond regularly with 
their country associates, these with their 
immediate electors, and these again with the 

limaiy assemblies. A more simple and, at 

the sa time, more comprehensive organi- 
zation could not be devised. By this means 
the General Committee became the centre 
of a circle embracing the whole nation, and 
pushing its rays instantaneously to the re- 
motest parts of the circumference. The 
plan was laid, in writing, before the General 
Committee In Myles Keon, and, after mature 

discussion, the fust part, relating to the asso- 
ciation and election of the country members, 
was adopted with some slight variation ; the 
latter part, relating to the constant commu- 
nication with the mass of the people, was 
thought, under the circumstances, to be too 
hardy, and was, accordingly, dropped sub 
.' ' I Ito." 

This was a project for a regular conven- 
tion ol delegates, uliich was then a measure 
perfectly legal, as indeed it still is in Eng- 
land. 

<»n the proposal fur this convention there 
was immediate alarm and almost frantic 



rage on the part of the Ascendency: for the 
Catholics were by this time over three mil- 
lions; and the representatives of such a mass 
of people, meeting in Dublin, and backed 
by the active sympathies of the fist-growing 
United Irish Society, were likely to be peril- 
ous to the Government at a moment of such 
high political excitement. Grand juries and 
town corporations passed violent resolutions 
against it, and pledged themselves to resist 
and suppress it. But the committee had 
taken counsel's opinion, and felt quite secure 
On the legal ground. Some of the further 
proceedings may most fitly be given in the 
words of Wolfe Tone's own narrative, with 
which we must then part company, not with- 
out regret: for his "Autobiography" breaks 
oil' here : — * 

"This (1792) was a memorable year in 
Ireland. The publication of the plan for the 
new organizing of the (ieneral Committee 
gave an instant alarm to all the supporters 
of tie British Government, and every effort 

was made to prevent the election of the 

country members ; for it was sufficient!) 

evident that, if the representatives of threi 
millions of oppressed people were once suf- 
fice! to meet, it, would not afterwards be 
safe, or indeed possible, to refuse their just 
demands. Accordingly, at the ensuing as- 
sizes, the grand juries, universally, through- 
out Ireland, published the most furious, I 
may say frantic, resolutions, against the plan 
and its authors, whom they charged witl 
little short of high treason. Government, 
likewise, was too successful in gaining over 
the Catholic clergy, particularly the bishops, 
who gave the measure at first very serious 

oppo rion. 'Che committee, however, was 

not daunted ; and, satisfied of the justice of 

tleir cause, and ol' their own courage, they 
labored, and with success, lo inspire the 
same spirit in the breasts of their brethren 
throughout the nation. For this purpose, 
their first step was an admirable one By 
their order, 1 drew up a state of the case, 
with the plan for the organization of the 
Committee annexed, which was laid before 

Simon Butler and Beresford Burton, two 
lawyers of great eminence, and, what was of 

consequence here, king's counsel, lo know 

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whether the committee had in any respect 
contravened the law of the land, or whether, 
by carrying the proposed plan into execu- 
tion, the parties concerned would Bubject 
themselves to pain or penalty. The answers 
of both the lawyers were completely in our 
favor, and we instantly printed them in the 
pipers, and dispersed them in handbills, 
letters, and all possible shapes. This blow 
was decisive as to the legality of (lie meas- 
ure. For the bishops, whoso opposition 
gave us great trouble, four or five different 
missions were undertaken by different mem- 
bers of the sub-committee, into the prov- 
inces, at their own expense, in order to hold 

conferei s with them, in which, with much 

difficulty, they succeeded so far as to Becure 
the cooperation of some, and the neutrality 
of the rest of the prelates. On these mis- 
sions the most active members went John 
Keogh and Thomas Braughall, neither of 
whom spared purse nor person where the 
interests of the Catholic body were concern- 
ed.. I accompanied Mr. Braughall in his 
visit to Connaught, where, he went to meet 
the gentry of that province at the great fair 
of Ballinasloe. As it was late in the even- 
ing when we left town, the postillion who 
drove us, having given warning, I am satis- 
lied, to some footpads, the carriage was 
Stopped by lour or five fellows at the gate 
of Phoenix Park. We had two cases of 
pistols in the carriage, and we agreed not to 
be robbed. Braughall, who was at this 
time about sixty-five years of age, and lame 
from a fall off his horse some years before, 
was as cool ,-Liid intrepid as man could be. 
lie took the command, and by his orders I 
let down all the glasses, and called out to 
the fellows to come on, if they were so in- 
clined, for that we were ready; Braughall 
desiring at the same time not to fire, till I 
could touch the scoundrels. This rather em- 
barrassed them, and they did not venture to 
approach the carriage, but held a council 
of war at the horse's heads. I then present- 
ed one of my pistols at the postillion, swear- 
ing horribly that I would put him instantly 
to death if he did not drive over them, ami 
I made him feel the muzzle of the pistol 

Hgainst the Lack of his head ; the fellows 

on this took to their heels and ran off, and 

we proceeded on our journey without further 

27 



interruption. When we arrived at the inn, 
Braughall, whose goodness of heart is equal 
to his courage, and no man is braver, begni 
by abusing the postillion for his treachery 

and en. led by giving him hall' a crown. I 

wanted to break the rascal's bones, but he 

would not suffer me, and this was the end 

of our adventure. 

"All parties were now fully employed 
preparing tor the ensuing session of Par- 
liament. The Government, through the 
organ of the corporations and grand juries, 

opened a heavy lire upon us of manifestoes 
and resolutions. At first we were like 
young soldiers, a little stunned with the 
noise, but after a few rounds we began to 
look about us, and seeiug nobody drop with 
all this furious cannonade, we took courage 
and determined to return the lire. In con- 
sequence, wherever there was a meetiug of 
the Protestant Ascendency, which was the 
title assumed by that party (and a very 
impudent one it was), we took care it 
should be followed by a meeting of the 
Catholics, who spoke as loud, and louder 
than their adversaries, and, as we had the 
right clearly on our side, we found no great 
difficulty in silencing the enemy on this 
quarter. The Catholics likewise took care, 
at the same time that they branded their 
enemies, to mark their gratitude to their 
friends, who were daily increasing, and es- 
pecially to the people of Belfast, between 
whom and the Catholics the union was now 
completely established. Among the various 
attacks made on us this summer, the most 
remarkable for their virulence, were those 
of the grand jury of Louth, headed by the 
Speaker of the House of Commons; of 
Limerick, at which the Lord Chancellor 
assisted ; and of the corporation of the city 
of Dublin ; which last published a most 
furious manifesto, threatening us, iii so many 
words with a resistance by force. In con- 
sequence, a meeting was held of the Cath- 
olics of Dublin at large, which was attended 
by several thousands, where the manifesto 
of the corporation was read and most ably 
commented upon by John Keogh, Dr. Ryan, 

l>r. McNeven, and several others, and a 

counter-manifesto being proposed, which 
was written by my friend Emmet, and in- 
comparably well done, it was carried 



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niSl'OIIY (IP IRELAND 



itnonsly, and published in all the papers, 
together with the speeches above mention- 
ed; and both speeches and the manifesto 
had such an infinite superiority over those 
of the corporation, which wore also publish- 
ed and diligently circulated by the Govern- 
ment, that it put an end, effectually, to this 
warfare of resolutions. 

"The people of Belfast were not idle on 
their part; they spared neither pains nor 
expense to propagate the new doctrine of 
the union of Irishmen, through the whole 
North of Ireland, and they had the satisfac- 
tion to see their proselytes rapidly extend- 
ing in all directions. In order more effec- 
tually to spread their principles, twelve of 
the mosl active and intelligent among them 
subscribed .U'.'-'><) each, in order to set on 
foot a paper, whose object should he to give 
a fair statement of all that passed in France, 
whither every One turned their eyes; to in- 
culcate the necessity of union amongst 
Irishmen of" all religious persuasions; to 

support tin' emancipation of the Catholics; 
and, finally, as the necessary, though not 
avowed, consequence of all this, to erect 
Ill-land into a republic, independent of Eng- 
land. This paper, which they called, very 
appositely, the Northern Star, was conduct- 
ed by my friend Samuel Neilson, who 
was unanimously chosen editor, and it could 
not be delivered into abler hands. It is, in 
truth, a most incomparable paper, and it 
rose, instantly, on its appearance, with a 
most rapid ainl extensive sale. The Cath- 
olics own-where through Ireland (I mean 
the leading Catholics) were, of course, sub- 
scribers, and the Northern Star was one 
great means of effectually accomplishing the 
union of the two great sects, by the simple 
process of making their mutual sentiments 
better known to each other. 

"It was determined by the people of Bel- 
fast to commemorate this year the anniver- 
sary of the taking of the Bastile with great 
ceremony. For this purpose they planned 
a review of the Volunteers of the town and 
neighborhood, to be followed by a grand 
procession, with emblematical devices, etc. 
They also determined to avail themselves of 
this opportunity to bring forward the Cath- 
olic question in force, and, in consequence, 
they resolved to publish two addresses, ouc 




to the people of France, and one to the peo- 
ple of Ireland. They gave instructions to 
Dr. Brennan to prepare the former, and the 
latter fell to my lot. Brennan executed his 
task admirably, and I made my address, for 
my part, as good as I knew how. We were 
invited to assist at the ceremony, and a great 

number of the leading members of the Cath- 
olic Committee determined to avail them- 
selves of this opportunity to show their zeal 
for the success of the cause of liberty in 
Prance, as well as their respect and grati- 
tude to their friends in Belfast. In conse- 
quence, a grand assembly took place on the 
14th of July. After the review, the Volun- 
teers and inhabitants, to the number of 
about 6,000, assembled in the Linen-Hall, 
and voted the address to the French people 
unanimously. The address to the people of 
Ireland followed, and, as it was directly and 
unequivocally in favor of the Catholic 
claims, we expected some opposition, but 
we were soon relieved from our anxiety, for 
the address passed, I may say, uiianimou-ly : 
a few ventured to oppose it indirectly, but 
their arguments were exposed and overset by 
the friends to Catholic emancipation, amongst 
the foremost of whom we had the pleasure 
to see several Dissenting clergymen of great 
popularity in that county." 

It will be seen that on the whole souk; 
progress was already made, and much more 
was sooti to be expected in harmonizing the 
Catholics and Dissenters, at least in the 
towns. A harder task remained — to make 
peace between them in the country, [n the 
County Armagh, Peep-of-Day Boys were 
growing more ferocious, and of course, the 
Defenders more strongly organized for resist- 
ance. As before, the country gentlemen of 
that county, as ignorant and savage a race 
of squires as any in Ireland, took part with 
the aggressors. At an assizes, in 1791, the 
grand jury passed a resolution declaring that 
there had sprung up among the Papists " a 
passion for arming themselves, contrary to 
law" — and that this was matter of serious 
alarm, etc. As the usual pretext of the 
visits of the Protestant Boys, " Wreckers," 
and other such banditti was to search for 
arms, such a resolution of the grand jury 
wis neither more nor less than an invitation 
to continue such visits, aud an assurance of 









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PRINCIPLES OP THE initio I RISTTMENT. 



211 



protection to the " Wreckers." These troub- 
les had now extended considerably into 
Tyrone, Down, and Monaghan Counties: 

and ii Btiis indignation eve"n at tins day to 
tliink of so many wretched families always 
kept in wakeful terror; lying down in fear 
and rising up with a heavy heart, or perhaps 
flying to the desolate mountains by the light 
of their own burning cabins. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
1791—1792. 

Principles of United Irish Society— Tent — Addressee 
— Meeting of Parliament — Catholic relict" — Trifling 
measure of thai kind Petition of the Catholics — 
Rejeoted — Steady majority of two-thirds for the 
( lastle — Plaoeholding merahers — Violent ogitat ion 
upon tin' Catholic olaims -Questions put to < 'atho- 
Lio Universities of tlio Continent — Their answers 
— Opposition to project of Convention — Catholic 
question in the Whig Club— Catholic Convention 
in Dublin — National Guard. 

Thb first clubs of "United Irishmen" 
were perfectly legal and constitutional in 
their structure, in their action, and in their 
aims; and so continued until the new or- 
ganization was adopted in 1795. They con- 
sist..!, both in Belfast and in Dublin, of 
Protestants chiefly, though many eminent 
Catholics joined them from the first. The 
tii~! sentence of the constitution of the first 
club, al Belfast, is in these plain and moder- 
ate words. 

" 1st. This society is constituted for the 
purpose of forwarding a brotherhood of 
affection, a communion of rights, and a 
union of power among Irishmen of every 
religious persuasion, and thereby to obtain 
a complete reform in the legislature, founded 
on the principles of civil, political, and reli- 
gious liberty." 

Recollecting the hopeless character of the 
Irish Parliament of that day, one can 

se iiv.lv pretend that it did not need " re- 
form ;" and as it most certainly would never 
reform itself, unless acted upon strongly by 

an external pressure, the idea seems to have 
been reasonable to endeavor to procure a 
union of power amongst Irishmen of everj 
religious persuasion for that end. It was too 
clear also that a Parliament so constituted 
never would emancipate the Catholics — that 
is, never would tolerate a "brotherhood of 
affection." or a "communion of rights." It 



was therefore extremely natural for patriotic 
Protestants, who felt that Ireland was thei. 
country, and no longer a colony but a nation 
to take some means of assuring their fellow 

countrymen, the Catholics, that they at least 
did not wish to perpetuate the degradation 
and exclusion of three millions of Irishmen ; 
and thereupon to concert with them some 
common action for getting rid of this incu- 
rable oligarchy, which was the common 
enemy of them all. This was the whole 
meaning and purpose of the society for 
more than three years; and its means and 
agencies were as fair, open, and rational as its 
objects. Addresses, namely, to the people 
of Ireland, and sometimes to Reform clubs 
in England and in Scotland ; articles in the 
newspapers, particularly in the Northern 
Star; and the promotion of an enlarged 
personal intercourse between the two sects 
who had lived in such deadly estrangement 
for two centuries. When they met one 
another face to face, worked together in 
clubs and meetings, visited one another's 
houses, fondled one another's children, there 
could not but grow up somewhat of that 
feeling of "Brotherhood" which is the first 
word of their constitution, the very cardinal 
principle of their society. 

But this " Brotherhood" — what was it but 

the French frattntite I And their "Civil, 
political, and religious liberty " was a phrase 
which to the ear of Government sounded of 
I'ljaliti and the Champ-de-Mars. The whole. 
of the programme given above, which looks 
to day so just and sensible, was then felt to 
be reeking all over with "French principles." 
The Government therefore kept an eye 
steadily on these societies, as will soon ap- 
pear in the sequel. 

The Dublin club, which was formed in 
November of the same year, 1791, adopted 
the same declaration of principles, or consti- 
tution; but added a "test,'' which was 

nothing but a solemn engagement to be 
taken by each new member — "that he 
would persevere iu endeavoring to form a 
brotherhood of affection amongst Irishmen 
of every religious persnasion," etc., and 
"that he would never inform on or give 
evidence against any member of this or 
similar societies for any act Or expression of 
theirs done or uiado collectively or iudi- 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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vidually, in or out of iliis society, in pur- 
suance of the spirit of tliis obligation," — in 
other words, that if brotherhood amongst 
Irishmen, and the claim of civil and religious 
liberty should be made a crime by law (as 
it. was but too likely) he would not inform 
upon his comrades for their complicity in 
those crimes. 

From this time active correspondence was 
carried on. A strong address, written by 
Dr. Drennan, was sent by the Society of 
United Irishmen in Dublin to the delegates 
for promoting a reform in Scotland, in which 
this sentence occurs — one of many similar 
suggestions which were undoubtedly in- 
tended to lead the way to something more 
and better than a reform in Parliament. 
"If Government has a sincere regard for 
the safety of the constitution, let them coin- 
cide with the people in the speedy reform 
of its abuses, and not, by an obstinate ad- 
herence to them, drive that people into 
Republicanism?' There was another ad- 
dress from the same body, to "the Volun- 
teers of Ireland" (for the wreck of that 
organization still existed in some places), 
adopted at a meeting of which Drennan 
was chairman, and Archibald Hamilton 
Rowan, secretary, and containing still strong- 
er expressions. This document became in 
1794 the subject of a prosecution for se- 
ditious libel against Rowan the secretary, 
who was convicted by a carefully packed 
juiv of bis enemies, and sentenced to two 
yea's' imprisonment and a fine of five hun- 
dred pounds. 

In the mean time, parliamentary proceed- 
ings were going forward, much in their 
usual way. A session opened on the 19th 
of January, 1792; but it is impossible now 
to take much interest in following the futile 
efforts of the opposition. Mr. Grattan, 
who carefully avoided the United Irishmen, 
could still at least abuse the Government in 
terms of eloquent scurrility, and did not fail 
to do so, in moving an amendment to the 
address: — "By this trade of Parliament the 
kin" was absolute : his will was signified by 
both Houses of Parliament, who were then 
as much an instrument in his hand as a 
bayonet in the bands of a regiment. Like 
a regiment they had their adjutant, who 
sent to the infirmary for the old, and to the 



brothel for the young; and men thus carted 
as it were into that House to vote for the 
minister, were called the representatives of 
the people." 

The country, as well as the ministers had 
heard all this abuse before, ami had begun 
almost to regard it as a discharge of blank 
cartridge. Yet the session is in some meas- 
ure notable for a trilling Catholic Relief 
measure, introduced by Sir Hercules Lang- 
rishe, and rather unexpectedly supported by 
the Government. In fact it was evident to 
the English Government that the Catholics 
were becoming a real element for good or 
for evil in this Irish nation : they had re- 
fused to be extirpated ; refused to be brutal- 
ized by ignorance, for they would fly to the 
cuds of the earth for education; they had 
so well profited also by the petty and grudg- 
ing relaxations already granted them, that a 
large proportion of them were rich and in- 
fluential ; they were, in short, a power to be 
conciliated if that could be cheaply done, 
and so detached from "French principle-." 
and made grateful to the Government. It is 
not, therefore, surprising to find Mr. Secre- 
tary Hobart (of course by orders from Eng- 
land) seconding the motion of Langrishe 
for leave to bring in this bill. Sir Hercules 
thus defines the objects of his bill for the 
Catholics : — 

1st. He would give them the practice and 
profession of the law, as a reasonable pro- 
vision, and application of their talents to 
their own country. 

2dly. He would restore to them education, 
entire and unrestrained, because a state of 
ignorance was a state of barbarity. That 
would l»e accomplished by taking oft' the ne- 
cessity for a license, as enjoined by the act 
Of 1782. 

3dlv. lie would draw closer the bonds of 
intercourse and affection, by allowing inter- 
marriage, repealing that cruel statute which 
served to betray female credulity, and bas- 
tardize the children of a virtuous mother. 

4thly. He would remove those obstruc- 
tions to arts and manufactures, that limited 
the number of apprentices, which were so 
necessary to assist and promote trade, lie 
then moved, "That leave be given to bring 
in a bill lor removing certain restraints and 
disabilities under which his majesty's Roman 



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TRIFLING MEASURE OF CATHOLIC BELIEF, 



Catholic subjects labor, from statutes at 
present in force." 

Tli is bill was prepared and concerted by 
its author in concert with Edmund Burke; 

ami was perhaps as liberal in Us provisions 
as any bill which could at that moment be 
presented with any chance of auccess: yet, 
meagre as it was, it called forth a storm of 
bigoted and brutal opposition. The General 
Committee of the Catholics — Edward Byrne, 
Esq, in the chair— held a meeting and 
passed some resolutions, which it is some- 
what humiliating to read, but which were 
certainly politic in the circumstances. Here 
is the document : — 

"Dublin, February 4th, 1792. 
"General Committee of Roman Catho- 
lics. Edward Byrne, Esq. in the Chair. 

"Resolved, That this committee has been 
informed, that reports have been circulated, 
that the application of the Catholics for re- 
lief, extends to unlimited and total emanci- 
pation ; and that attempts have been made, 
wickedly and falsely, to instil into the minds 
of the Protestants of this kingdom an opin- 
ion, that our applications were preferred in a 
tone of menace. 

* Resolved, That several Protestant gen- 
tlemen have expressed gnat satisfaction on 
being individually informed of the real ex- 
tent and respectful manner of the applica- 
tions for relief; have assured us, that nothing 
could have excited jealousy, or apparent op- 
position to us, from our Protestant country- 
men, but the above-mentioned misapprehen- 
sions, 

"Resolved, That we therefore deem it ne- 
cessary to declare, that the whule of our 
Lite applications, whether to his majesty's 
ministers, to men in power, or to private 
members of the legislature, as well as our 
intended petition, neither did, nor does con- 
tain any thing, or extend further, either in 
substance or in principle, than the four fol- 
lowing objects : 

"1st. Admission to the profession and 
practice of the law, 

"2d. Capacity to serve in county magis- 
tracies. 

"3d. A right to bo summoned, and to 
servo on grand and petty juries. 

'■ Mi. The right of voting in counti 




only for Prutestaut members of Parliament ; 
in such a manner, however, as that a Roman 
Catholic freeholder should not vote, unless 
he either rented anil cultivated a farm of 
twenty pounds per annum, in addition to 
his forty shillings freehold; or else possessed 
a freehold to the amount of twenty pounds 
a year." 

That is to say, the Catholic Committee 
found itself obliged earnestly to disavow the 
sacrilegious thought of being allowed to 
vote on the same qualification as the Protes- 
tant forty-shilling freeholders; disclaimed 
with horror the idea of voting for Catholic 
members of Parliament ; and publicly de- 
clared to Parliament and to all mankind 
that they did not presume to aspire to 
" total emancipation." But humble and 
scanty as their claim was, it was more than 
the Langrishe bill proposed to grant them. 
There was no provision in it for admitting 
them to the elective franchise upon any 
terms whatever. The committee prepared 
a petition, which was signed by some of the 
most respectable mercantile men of Dublin, 
and while the bill was in progress, the peti- 
tion was presented by Mr. Egan. This gave 
rise to a conversation on the following Mon- 
day (20th February). On that day Mr. 
David La Touche moved, that the petition 
of the llomau Catholic committee, presented 
to the House on the preceding Saturday, 
should be read by the clerk: it was read, 
and he then moved, that it should be re- 
jected. Tho motion was seconded by Mr. 
Ogle. The greater part of the House was 
very violent for the rejection of the petition. 
Some few, who were against the prayer of 
the petition, objected to the harsh measure 
of rejection. Several of the opposition 
members supported Mr. La Touche's motion. 
Even Mr. G. Ponsonby, on this occasion 
voted against his friend Mr. Grattan. The 
solicitor-general attempted to soften the re- 
fusal to the Catholics by moving, that the 
prayer of the petition, as far as it related 
to a participation of the elective franchise 
should not then be complied with. The 
attorney-general and some other stanch 
supporters of Government had spoken simi- 
lar language; thai they hoped quickly to 







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IIISTOliY OF IRELAND. 



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done away, but that the fulness of lime was 
not yet come. Mr. Forbes, the Hon. F. 
Hutchinson, Colonel (now Lord) Hutchinson, 
Mr. Smith, Mr. Hardy, and Mr. Grattan 
Bpoke strongly against the motion ami rn 
favor of admitting the Catholics to a share 
in ihc elective franchise. Much virulent 
abuse was heaped upon that part of the 
body of Roman Catholics which was sup- 
posed to be represented by the Catholic 
Committee. At a very late hour the House 
divided, 208 for rejecting the petition, and 
28 only against it. Then Mr. La Touche 
moved, that the petitiou from the society of 
the United Irishmen of Belfast, should be 
also rejected : and the question being put 
was carried with two or three negatives. 

The bill itself passed quietly through the 
committee; and on the third reading, Sir 
Hercules Langrishe congratulated the coun- 
try on the growth of the spirit, of liberality. 
The growth was slow, and the liberality 
was rather narrow : nor would this measure 
deserve mention — as it was soon superseded 
by a much larger one — but to show the very 
humble and unpretending position taken by 
the only body then representing the Cath- 
olics. It must be remembered, too, that 
war in Europe was by '.his time imminent 
and certain ; and though England had not 
yet formally joined the coalition against 
France, thai event was becoming daily more 
inevitable; and the Government was very 
desirous, as usual in such moments of danger, 
to send a message of peace to Ireland, and 
to show the three millions of Catholics that 
their real friends were, not those "fraternal" 
United Irishmen, but Mr. Pitt and the Earl 
of Westmoreland. 

Upon all other questions, the state of 
parties in Parliament continued nearly the 
Same thai il had been for many years; that 
is, the Castle was always certain of more 
than a two-i birds majority. Mr. G. Pon- 
sonby, after an elaborate argument, moved 
for leave to bring in n bill repealing every 
law which prohibited a trade from Ireland 
with the countries lying eastward of the 
Cape of Good Hope; which was fo>t by 
150 votes against 70. On the same day, 
Mr. Forbes, faithful to his special mission, 
brought forward his regular Place and Pen 
siou bills: they were both put off to a 



distant day, without a division, though not 
without some debate. Indeed these attacks 
on the places and pensions were now more 
intolerable to the Government and its sup- 
potters than ever before; and they were 
louder than ever in their reprobation of such 
Jacobin movements, as a manifest attempt 
to diminish the royal prerogative and bring 
in French principles. 

A singular motion was made this session, 
which merits notice as an illustration of the 
shameless and desperate corruption of the 
times. Mr. Browne moved to bring in a 
bill to repeal an act of the last session touch- 
ing the "weighing of butter, hides and 
tallow" in the city of Coik, anil the ap- 
pointment of a weighmaster in that city. 
This oliice had long been in the gift of the 
corporation of the city, and the corporation 
had always found one weighmaster more 
than enough : but the Government, iu pur- 
suance, said Mr. Browne, of their settled 
policy of "creating influence," had taken 
the appointment, split it into three parts, 
and bestowed it on three Members of Par- 
liament. Mr. Grattan seconded the motion. 
It was opposed by the chancellor of the 
exchequer on the express ground that it was 
an "insult to the crown," and therefore a 
manifest piece of French democracy and 
infidelity, intended to overthrow the throne 
and the altar. There was a sharp debate, 
in which Patriots said many cutting things; 
and at half-past two in the morning the 
motion was negatived without a division. 
Is it, wonderful that the, minds of honest 
people were now altogether turned away 
from such a Parliament! It was prorogued 
on the 18th of April. The Speaker, in his 
address to the viceroy, speaks of one gratify- 
ing fact, "the extension of trade, agriculture, 
and manufactures, which has with a rapid 
and uninterrupted progress raised this king- 
dom to a state of prosperity and wealth 
never bet'.. re experienced in it." Put at the 
same time he let his excellency know, that 
this prosperity "would soon cease" if they 
did not carefully cherish the blessed consti- 
tution in church and state. "Its preserva- 
tion, therefore," he continued, "must ever 
be the great object of their care, and there 
is no principle on which it is founded so 
essential to its preservation, nor more justly 



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AGITATION UPON THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS 



•ar to their patriotic and loyal feelings, 
than that which has settled the throne of 
these realms on his majesty's illustrious 
house; on it, and on the provisions for 
securing a Protestant Parliament, depends 
the Protestant Ascendency, and with it the 
continuance of the many blessings we now 
enjoy." 

It appears from the studied allusions to 
the Protestant Ascendency, which in the 
speech of the Speaker were evidently aimed 
nst the petition of the Catholics for a 
participation in the cleetive franchise, that 
Mr. Foster wished to raise a strong and 
general opposition to that measure through- 
out the country : but the speech of the lord- 
lieutenant imported, that the Government, 
moved by the impulse of the British coun- 
cils, was disposed rather to extend than 
contract the indulgences to the Roman 
Catholics. His majesty approved of their 
wisdom in the liberal indulgences that had 
been granted, but suggested no apprehen- 
sions of danger to the Protestant interest, 
which had been almost a matter of course 
in all viceregal speeches, to the great coin- 
forl of the "Ascendency." 

'I his year was a season of most vehement 
agitation and discussion upon the Catholic 
claims. That body, was, of course, greatly 
dissatisfied with the miserable measure of 
relief granted by the shabby bill of Sir ller- 
cules Langrishe. Mr. Simon Butler, chair- 
man of the Dublin society of United Irish- 
men, published, by order of that society, a 
' Digest of the Popery Laws," bringing into 
one view the whole body of penalties and 
disabilities to which Catholics still remained 
subject after all the small and nibbling at- 
tempts 'ii pretences of relief. The pamphlet 
thus truly sums up the actual condition of 
the Catholics at that moment, after Sir Her- 
cules Langrishe's Act: — 

'•Such is the situation of three millions 
of good and faithful subjects in their native 
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1 ! Excluded from every trust, power, 
or emolument of the state, civil or mili- 
tary; excluded from all the benefits of the 
constitution in all its parts; excluded from 
all corporate rights and immunities; ex- 
pelled from grand juries, restrained in petit 
juries; excluded from everj direction, from 
• very trust, from every incorporated society, 



from every establishment, occasional or fixed, 
instituted for public defence, public police, 
public morals, or public convenience; firm 
the bench, from the bank, from the ex- 
change, from the university, from the col- 
'ege of physicians : from what are they 
not excluded? There is no institution 
which the wit of man has invented or the 
progress of society produced, which private 
charity or public munificence has founded 
for the advancement of education, learning, 

»nd g I arts, for the permanent relief of 

age, infirmity, or misfortune, from the super- 
intendence of which, and in all cases where 
common charity would permit, from the en- 
joyment of which the legislature has not 
taken care to exclude the Catholics of Ire- 
laud. Such is the state which the corpora- 
tion of Dublin have thought proper to assert 
'differs in no respect from that of the 
Protestants, save only in the exercise of po- 
litical power;' aud the host of grand Junes 
consider 'as essential to the existence of the 
constitution, to the permanency of the con- 
nection with England, and the continuation 
of the throne in his majesty's royal house.' 
A greater libel on the constitution, the con- 
nection, or the succession, could not he pro- 
nounced, nor one more pregnant with dan- 
gerous and destructive consequences, than 
this, which asserts, that they are only to be 
maintained and continued by the slavery 
and oppression of three millions of good 
and loyal subjects." 

At the same time the General Committee 
prepared a " Declaration," of Catholic tenets 
on certain points with regard to which peo- 
ple of that creed had long been wanton I v 
belied: such as keeping of faith with her- 
etics; the alleged pretension of the Pope to 
absolve subjects from their allegiance; of 
clergymen to dispense them from oaths, ami 



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the like. All these alleged doctrine the 
Declaration indignantly and contemptuous- 
ly denied; and it was signed universally 
throughout Ireland by clergy and laity. 
the Declaration was added a republication 
"I* the well-known ''Answers of six Cath- 
olic Universities abroad to the queries which 
had been propounded to I hem, at the re- 
quest of Mr. Pitt, three years before, on be- 
half of the English Catholics." The uni- 
versities were those of Paris, Louva'n, A^cala. 




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IIISTOKY OF ICKI.AND. 



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Douay, Salamanca, and Valladolid. The 
queries and the answers form a highly im- 
portant document for the history of the 
time. We give the queries in full, and an 
extract or two from the answers — only pre- 
mising that Mr. Pitt sought these declara- 
tions, not to satisfy his own mind, because 
he was too well informed to need this, but only 
to stop the mouths of benighted country 

gentlemen and greedy Ascendency politicians, 
who would be sure to bawl out against the 
concessions to Catholics which he in that 
perilous time and for political reasons was 
determined to grant. 

THE QUERIES. 

1. Has the Pope, or cardinals, or any body 
of men, or any individual of the Chinch of 
Koine, any civil authority, power, iurisdiv 
tion, or pre-eminence whatsoever, within the 
realm of England ? 

2. Can the Tope or cardinals, or any 
body of men, or any individual of the 
Church of Home, absolve or dispense hi- 
inajesly's subjects, from their oath of alle- 
giance, upon any pretext whatsoever. 

3. Is there any principle in the tenets of 
the Catholic faith, by which Catholics are 

justified in not keeping faith with heretics, 
or other persons differing from them in 
religious opinions, in any transaction, either 
of a public or a private nature ? 

And the six universities responded unani- 
mously and simultaneously in the negative 
upon nil the three points. The answers are 
all exceedingly distinct and categorical. 
That of the university of Alcala, in Spain, 
may serve as a specimen : — 

"To the first question it is answered 
That none of the persons mentioned In the 
proposed question, either individually, or col- 
lectively in council assembled, have aiiv 
right in civil matters; but that all civil 
power, jurisdiction, and pre-eminence are de- 
rived from inheritance, election, the consent 
of the people, and other such titles of that 
nature. 

"To the second it is answered, in like man- 
ner—That none of the persons above men- 
tioned have a power to absolve the subjects 
of his Britannic majesty from their oaths 
of allegiance. 




"To the third question it is answered — llial 
the doctrine which would exempt Catholic 
from the obligation of keeping faith will 
heretics, or with any other persons who dis 
sent from them in matters of religion, in- 
stead of being an article of Catholic faith, is 
entirely repugnant to its tenets. 

"Signed in the usual form. March 1 7th, 
1789." 

The learned doctors of some of these 
universities could not refraiu, while they 
gave their answers, from administering a 
rebuke to those who asked such questions. 
For instance, the Faculty of Divinity at 
Lou vain, "Having been requested to give an 

opinion upon the questions above slated, 

does it, with readiness — but is struck with 
astonishment that such questions should, at 
the end of this lSth century, be proposed to 
any learned body, by inhabitants of a king- 
dom [England] that glories in the talents 
and discernment of its natives." * 

The publication of the Catholic Declara- 
tion, with the opinions of the universities. 

was very far indeed from satisfying the theO 

logians of the Protestant interest; especially 
as there came forth at the same time the 
detailed plan for electing delegates this year 

to the Convention of Catholics which hud 
already been decided upon. These Papists 
wore evidently preparing to rise a little out 
of their abject, humility. The Protestant 
theologians thought themselves too acute to 
be imposed upon by all those line protesta- 
tions of Papists, and professions made by 

Popish universities. Since when, they de- 
sired to know, was it held that the deehira- 
tion of persons charged with systematic per- 
fidy — that they were persons who keep 
faith — was held to be evidence of their 
good character? They also cited examples 
of the Pope having actually, in former ages, 
absolved, or attempted to absolve subjects 
from their allegiance. Besides, was it not 
well known that those universities in France 
and Spain were full of Popish doctors, who 
would desire nothing belter than to delude 
the minds of unsuspecting Irish Protestants, 
and so pave the way for the overthrow of 
the Protestant Church, resumption of for 
feited estates, and fulfilment of Pastorini'a 
prophecies! It seems to have been more 
especially the "plan' 7 for election of dele- 



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OPINIONS 



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gates to the Catholic. Convention tiiut excited 
the alarm and wrath uf the "Ascendency." 

inmediately on the appearance of tins 
plan, n general outcry was rained against it; 
Bedition, tumult, conspiracy, and treason, 

wer h I from county to county, from 

grand jury to grand jury. Si legislators, 

high in the confidence of their sovereign, 
and armed with the influence of station and 
office, presided .-it. those meetings, and were 
foremost in arraigning measures, upon ihe 
merits of which in another place and in an- 
other function they were finally to deter- 
mine. 
The exaggerated and alarming language 

"i' st of the grand juries imported, thai 

the Catholics of [reland were ou tl ve of 

a general insurrection, ready to hml the 
king from his throne, and tear the whole 
frame of the constitution to pieces. 

The Lcitrim graud jury denominated the 
plan "An inflammatory and dangerous pub- 
lication," and stated, "that they fell h nc- 
cessary to come forward at that period to 
dei 1 are, that they were ready to support, 
with their lives and fortunes, their present, 
most valuable constitution in chinch and 
Btate; and that they would resist, to the ut- 
most of their power, the attempts of any 
body of men, however numerous, who 
should presume to threaten innovation in 
either." 

The grand jury of the county of Cork 
denominated the plan "An unconstitutional 

[ -''ding, of the most alarming, dangerous, 

and seditious tendency; an .attempt, to over- 
awe Parliament;" they stated their deter- 
mination to "proteel and defend, with their 
lues and property, the present constitution 
in church and state." That of Roscommon, 
after the usual epithets of "alarming, dan- 
gerous, and seditious," asserted that the 
plan called upon the whole body of the 
Roman Catholics of Inland to associate 
themselves in the metropolis of that king- 
dom, upon the model of the national assem- 
bly of Prance, which had already plunged 
that devoted country into a state of anarchy 
and tumult unex unpled in any civilized na- 
tion : they sated it to be "an attempt, to 
over-awe Parliament;" they mentioned 
theii serious and sensible alarms for the 

existence of their present happy establish- 

28 



ment iii church and stale; and tlvir deter- 
mination, "at the hazard of every thing dea 
to them, to uphold .and maintain the l'rot 
estant interest of Ireland." 

The grand jury of Sligo Resolved, "that 
they would, at all times, and l>v every con- 
stitutional means in their power, resist and 
oppose every attempt then making, or there- 
after to be made, by the Roman Catholics, to 
obtain their elective franchise, or any par- 
ticipation in the government of the country.'' 
And that of Donegal declared, that though 
" they regarded the Catholics with tender- 
ness, they would maintain, at the hazard of 
every thing dear to them, the Protestant in- 
terest of Ireland." 

The grand jury of Fermanagh, profess- 
ing also "the warmest attachment to their 
Roman Catholic brethren," felt it, however, 
necessary to 'come forward at that period to 
declare, that they were " ready with their 
lives and fortunes to support their present 
invaluable constitution in church and state." 
Anil that of the County of Derry, after ex- 
pressing their apprehensions lest that pro- 

c ling "might lead to the formation of a 

hierarchy (consisting partly of laity) which 
would destroy the Protestant Ascendency, 
the freedom of the elective franchise, and 
the established constitution of this country," 
tendered their lives ami fortunes to support 
the happy constitution as established at the 
revolution of 1G88. A very great majority 
of the leading signatures affixed to those 
resolutions, were those of men either high 
in the government of the country, or enjoy- 
ing lucrative places under it, or possessing 
extensive borough interest. 

The grand jury of the county of Louth, 
with the Speaker of the House of Commons 
at their head, declared, "that the allowing 
to Roman Catholics the right of voting for 
members to serve in Parliament, or admit- 
ting them to any participation in the gov- 
ernment of the kingdom, was incompatible 
with the safety of the Protestant establish- 
ment, the continuance of the succession to 
the crown in the illustrious House of Hano- 
ver, and finally tended to shake, if not de- 
stroy, their connection with Great Britain, 
on the continuance and inseparability of 
which depended the happiness and prosper. 
itv of that kingdom; that they would op 




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poso every rit 1 1 • 1 1 1 j > t. towards such ii danger- 
one innovation, anil thai they would support 
with (heir lives and fortunes the present 
constitution, mid the settlement of the 
throne on liis majesty's Protestant house." 
The freeholders of the county of Limerick 
charged the Catholic Committee with an 
intention to over-awe the legislature, to force 
a repeal of 1 li>- pennl laws, and to create a 
Popish democracy for their government and 
direction in pursuit of whatever objects 
might be holden out to them by turbulent 
and seditious men. They then instructed 
their representatives in Parliament, " at all 
events, to oppose nny proposition which 
might be made for extending to Cath- 
olics the right of eleotive franchise:" at 
tins meeting the chancellor was present. 
The corporation of Dublin in strong terma 

denied the c potency of Parliament to 

extend the right of IV. bise to the Cath- 
olics, which they called "alienating their 
most valuable inheritance;" and roundh 
H8seried against the fact, that u the last ses- 
sion of Parliament lefl the Roman Catholics 
in no wise different from their Protcstaut 
fellow-subjects, save only in tlio exercise of 
political power." 

Some of the grand juries indignantly re- 
jected the proposals made to ihom of com- 
ing to any resolutions injurious t<» their Cath- 
olio In. linen. Agents had been employed 
to tamper with every grand jury that met 
during the summer iissizes, Nothing could 
tend more directly than tins measure of pre- 
engaging tin- sentiments of the country 
against three millions of its inhabitants, to 
raise and foment discord and disunion be- 
tweon Protestants and Catholics. Counter- 
resolutions, answers_aiid replies, addresses and 
pro' est at ions, were puhlishud and circulated 
in the public papers from some grand jury- 
men, and from many different bodies of 
Catholics; several bold and severe publica- 
tions appeared during the oourse of the 
summer, not, only from individuals of the 
Catholic body, bul from the friends of their 
cause amongst the Protestants. It isscarcelv 
questionable but that the virulent and acri* 
mouious opposition raised against the Cath- 
olic petition for a very limited pari cipation 
in the elective franchise, enlivened the sense 
of their grievances, opened their views, and 



united their energies into a common effort 
to procure a general repeal of the whole 
Penal Code. 

The General Committee of tho Catholics, 
and the United Irish Society were unavoid- 
ably coming closer together. In a debate 
of the committee, Mr. Keogh, a gentleman 
of great manliness of character as well as 
power of intellect, fairly said that for a Into 
publication (Digest of the Popery Laws), 
the United Irishmen and their respected 
chairman, Mr. Simon Butler, demanded their 
wai mest gratitude.* 

At that time the United Irish Society was 
the only association of any kind which even 
admitted a Catholic into its ranks. No 
Catholic could be iii the Whig Club; nor 
would it even permit the Catholic question 
to be agitated there. This point was de- 
cide, I In a singular debate of the Whig Club 
in November, L792, when Mr. Huband, hav- 
ing proposed that the sense of ihe Incctine; 

should bo taken upon the course to be pur- 
sued by members with respect to Catholic 

claims — 

Some gentlemen deoidodly asserted, that 
they did not think the Catholic question 
ought to !"• mentioned or discussed in the 

Whig ('bib. They were averse to their 
having any concern in it, and one went so 

far .is to say, thai if it were admitted to be 

debated ill that society, lie woiihl with his 
own band strike bis name out of the list of 

the members. 

* Mr. Plowdon, in an apologetio sort of way, Rays 
upon tliis oocusion, " It whs natural for persons stag- 
gering undor oppression oordiully to grasp every 
hand that hold out relief." Nothing oun bo more 
provoking tlian the affuotation of "loyalty" to the 
Bouse of Hunover which oertain Ciitholio writers, pre- 
vious to emauoipation, thought it noedful t" mill,!'. 
Plowdon, in another pluoe, spoaking of tlio sntne 
publication made by the United Irishmen, says : — 
•• It would be unfair, if the historian wore to ropre- 
acnl tho transactions of a particular period from 
consequences that appeared at h distant interval of 
time, and the subsequent fate of many of the iiotora 
in the soones. It is his duty I'uith fully to represent 
thrin as they reallj passed at tlie time. Merit and 
demerit can only attach from previous or co-existing 
clroumstancos ; noi from the poBthumona issue en- 
gendered in iii« womb of time by future baae and 
nnavowed connections, It was u<>i beoause an in- 
dividual whs guilty of treason in the yoar 179$, that 
even previous aol or transaotlon in which that In- 
dividmd wiis concerned for the twenty, "°i " r •i vo 
preceding years, was afibotod with the venom of hia 
alter crimo." 




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rATItol.ir CONVENTION IV I>1 HI IN'. 



210 








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On which Mr. A. Hum, Rowan observed, 
that lie would I"- ua tenacious its any other 
gentleman, i>f remaining in any society 
where improper subjects were proposed for 
di-i-iiss.il. ii ; but that for hi- part, he would 
not hesitate to strip off liis Whig Club uni- 
form, and throw it to the waiter, if the 
Catholic ijur-.ti.ui were deemed an unfit sub- 
j. i-t for their discussion. 

Mr. \V. Brown called the attention of 

mtlemen to the purpose of their associa- 
tion. They placed ihemsejves in the front 
of the public cause, to further it, not to stop 
it- further progress; the second principle of 
their declaration was, a Bolemn engagement 
to support the rights of the people, etc. 
Who, said he, are the people! I dare any 
gentleman t<> name the people of [reland 
without including the Roman Catholics. 

What ! is ii a q tion, Bhall three millions 

i- [rishmeu continue slaves or obtain their 

freed ! I> it a question to be deserted by 

n professing patriotism, professing to re- 
dress the public oppression, pledged to stand 
together in defence of their country's liber- 
ties ' No ; it is not. 

To desert the cause of the Catholics, 
would bo to desert the principles of their in- 
stitution, it would be to deserve the calumny 
thrown against them by their enemies, that 
they were an opposition struggling for power, 
not a band of patriots for the public weal; 
ii would i"li their names of honor, their 
rank and wealth of consequence, and it 
would finally sink them from a station of 
political importance, down to the obscurity 
and insignificance of an interested and im- 
potent party. 

On the question being put, whether the 
Qatholic question should be taken into con- 
sideration or not on Wednesday fortnight, 
ii w;is negatived on a division by thirteen, 

Tlie long-talked-of < ''invention of the 

Catholics was actually held in December of 
i In- year: the elections of delegates had 

1 ii regularly and quietly held, in pursuance 

of the "plan," and the first meeting of the 
delegates assembled at Tailors' Ball, Dub- 
lin, on tin- 2d of December, 1792; two 
hundred delegates being present. 

W liile this peaceable convention was 
holding its meetings, another phenomenon 
appeared in Dublin, which gave siill greater 



I uneasiness both to the "Ascendency" and 
to the Castle. The National Guard, a new 

military body, WHS lUTayed and disciplined ill 

Dublin. They wore green uniforms, with 
buttons engraved with a harp, under a cap 
of liberty, instead of a crown. Their lead- 
ers were A. H.Rowan and James {Tapper 
Tandy ; they affected' to address each other 
by the appellation of citizen, in imitation of 
the French. This corps was in high favor 
with the populace, and was always cordial- 
ly greeted as they appeared in the street or 
on p.-uade. Government really felt alarm : 
a general insurrection w.-is apprehended : 
they pretended to have information of the 
particular nights fixed for that purpose. 
The magistrates, by order of < Jovei-nun-nt, 
pal lolled the streets with bodies of hoi-- 

each night. It was given out from the 
Castle, that the custom-house, the post office, 
and the jail, were the first places to l«- at- 
tacked; and that the signal for rising w.-is (0 
have been the pulling down of the statue of 
King William in College Green with ropes. 

Many Other false rumors of conspiracies and 

assassinations were set afloat. In the mean 
while the National Guards, and all the Vol- 
unteer corps of Dublin, wen: summoned to 
assemble on Sunday, the 9th of December, 
1792, to celebrate the victory of the French, 
and the triumph of universal liberty. The 
summons began with an affectation of Gal- 
licism, "Citizen Soldier? However, the 
meeting was prevented; and Government 
issued a proclamation, on the Sth of Decem- 
ber, against their assembling. The National 
• iiianls did not a semble ; and the onlj per- 
sons who appeared on parade were, A. II. 

Rowan, J. N. Tandy, and Carey the printer. 

This Catholic Convention, and this Na- 
tional Guard appeared dangerous in the 
eyes of Fitzgibbon (now Earl of Clare) — the 
object of bis life was the legislative union, 
and he foii-saw thai unless conventions of 
delegates and associations of armed citizens 
were prohibited and prevented by law, that 

great una niv never could lie carried. Ac- 
cording!} his busy brain was alr.ady busy in 
maturing a series of measures to deprive all 
Irishmen, n bether 1 Yo testa at or Catholic, of 
every means of expressing their wishes by 
delegates, and even means of asserting 
their rights by aims. 



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H1STOKY OF IRELAND. 






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CHAPTER XXVII. 

1792—1793. 
The Catholic Convention — Reconciliation of din'er- 
encea amongst 1 1 ie Catholics — Their ileputatiou to 
the king— Successes of the French fortunate lor 
the Catholics — DumonTiez and Jcmappes— Gra- 
cious reception of the Catholic deputation— Bel- 
fast mob draw tin- carriage of Catholic delegates — 
Secret Committee of the Lords— Report on De- 
fenders uml United Irishmen— Attempt of com- 
mittee to connect the two — Lord Clare creates 
" alarm among the better classes " — Proclamation 
against unlawful assemblies— Lord Edward Fitz- 
gerald — French Republic declares war against 

England — Lar;;e measure of Catholic relief i ic- 

diatoly proposed — Moved by Secretary liobart— 
Aet carried — Its provisions — Wluit it yields, and 
what it withholds — Arms and gunpowder aet — 
Act against conventions — Lord Clare the real 
author of British policy in Ireland as now estab- 
ishod— Effect and intention of the " Convention 
net" — No such law in England — Militia bill — Cath- 
olic Committee — No reform — Close of session. 

The Catholic Convention mot under 
rather favorable auspices. In the course of 
tin- summer a reconciliation or coalition had 
been generally effected between the commit- 
tee ami several of the sixty-four addressers, 
including bishops. Convinced that his ma. 
jesty's ministers in England were disposed 
in favor their pretensions, it was found politi- 
cal in the buily to act in concert; and to 
this accommodating disposition and desire of 
internal union, is to be attributed the modera- 
tion of the public acts of that convention. 
They framed a petition to the king, which 
was a firm though modest representation 
of their grievances: it was signed by Dr. 
Troy and Dr. Moylan on behalf of them- 
selves and the other Roman Catholic prel- 
ates and clergy of Ireland, aud by the sev- 
eral delegates for the different districts 
which they respectively represented. They 
then proceeded to choose five delegates 
to present it to his majesty : the choice 
fell upon Sir Thomas French, Mr. Byrne, 
Mr. Keogh, Mr. Devereux, and Mr. Bellew. 
These gentlemen went by short seas: in 
their road to Donaghadee they passed 
through Belfast in the morning, and some 
of the most respectable inhabitants waited 
upon them at the Donegal Arms, where 
thev remained about two hours: upon their 
departure, tin* populace took their horses 
from their carriages and dragged ihem 
th.otigh the town amidst the liveliest shouts 



of joy and wishes for their success.* The 
deli-gates returned these expressions of af- 
fection and sympathy, by the most grateful 
acknowledgements and assurances of theii 
determination to maintain that union which 
formed the strength of Ireland. On the 2d 
of January, lV'.KS, the gentlemen delegated 
by the Catholics of Ireland attended the 
levee at St. James's, were, introduced to his 
majesty by Mr. Dundas, secretary of state 
for the home department, and had the honor 
of presenting their humble petition to his 
majesty, who was pleased most graciously to 
receive it. 

His majesty had his reasons. Fortunately 
for the Catholics, England was at this moment 
in a condition of extreme difficulty and peril. 
She was already engaged in the coalition of 
European powers to crush the new-born 
Hercules of France. The French, under 
Dumouriez, had happily driven back the 
Prussian invaders from the passes of the Ar- 
gonne. Dumouriez had followed up his 
successes, entered Belgium and gained over 
the Aiistriaus the glorious victory of Je- 
mappes. The King of France had already 
been removed from his throne to the Tem- 
ple prison ; and on the very day when the 
King of England was so graciously receiving 
the Catholic delegates, that unhappy French 
monarch was awaiting his trial, sentence, 
and execution at the hands of his people: 
all of which took place a few days after- 
wards. This event was to be the signal for 
England to enter actively into the war. 
Ever since August of last year the British 
Court had refused all communication with 
M. Chauvelin, the French envoy, and he was 
finally dismissed from England immediately 
on the arrival of news of King Louis' cxe- 
• Of this extraordinary demonstration, never ci- 
ampled before, and never imitated since, Wolfe* 
Tone says : — " Whatever effect it might have on the, 
negotiation in England, it certainly tended to raise 
and confirm the hopes of the Catholics at home. 
' Let our delegates,' said they, ' if they arc refused, 
return by the same route.' To those who look be- 
yond the surface it was an interesting spectacle, and 
pregnant with material consequences, to see the 
Disscuter of the North drawing, with his own bauds, 
the Catholic of the South in triumph, through what 
may be denominated the capital of Prcsbytcriauism. 
However repugnant it might bo to the wishes of the 
British minister, it was a wholesome suggestion to 
his prudence, and when ho scanned the whole busi- 
ness in Ins mind, was probably not dismissed from 
his contemplation." 



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RKPUI.'T ON l>i:ri:\l>Ki:s AM) ITSITKIJ lUISHMKN, 



cution. War, therefore, whs now incvil ible, 
and war on such a scale ami against such a 
foe as would tax the utmost energies and 
resources of Great Britain. It was deter- 
mined accordingly to endeavov to purchase 
the three millions of Irish Catholics, who 
make such excellent recruiting material; so 
that instead of having Irish brigades against 

O DO 

them, they might have Irish regiments for 

thcni. 1 1 was also a part of this policy to 
detach the Catholics from the United Irish- 
men, to disgust them with " French prin- 
ciples," and predispose them to look favor- 
ably on the Legislative Union. The dele- 
gates returned from London, in the compla- 
cent language of Mr. Plowden : — "the wel- 
come heralds of the benign countenance and 

eption they had received from the father 
of his people." 

On the 10th of January, 1*792, the Irish 
Parliament met. The speech from the 
throne recommended attention to the chums 
of the Catholics. The House of Lords very 
early in the session appointed a secret com- 
mittee to inquire into the state of the nation, 
with special reference to the troubles in the 
North between Peep-of-Day Boys and De- 
fenders. The Secret Committee made a 
most extraordinary report; in which they 
appear to find no criminal rioters in the 
North except the poor Defenders. "All, so 
far as the committee could discover, of the 
Roman Catholic persuasion, poor ignorant 
laboring men, sworn to secrecy, and im- 
piessed with an opinion that they were as- 
sisting the Catholic cause." The committee 
further endeavored to connect in some way 
wuli those agrarian disturbers, the political 
demonstrations of the United Irishmen at 
Belfast and other towns. They report with 
high indignation : — 

"That an unusual ferment had for some 
months past disturbed several parts of the 
North, particularly the town of Belfast and 
the county of Antrim ; it was kept up and 
encouraged by seditious papers and pamph- 
|i is of the most dangerous tendency, printed 

»1 very cheap and inconsiderable rates ill 

Dul. bn and Belfast, which issued almost dailj 
I'. .mi certain societies of men or clubs in both 
■ places, calling themselves committees 
under various descriptions, and carrying on 
a constant cones] lence with each other. 




These publications were circulated amongst 
the people with the utmost industry, and ap- 
peared to be calculated to defame the Gov- 
ernment and Parliament, and to render the 
people dissatisfied with their condition and 
with their laws. The conduct of the French 
was shamefully extolled, and recommended 
to the public view as an example for imita- 
tion ; hopes and expectations had been held 
up of their assistance by a descent upon that 
kingdom, and prayers had been offered up at 
Belfast from the pulpit, for the success of 
their arms, in the presence of military asso- 
ciations, which had been newly levied and 
arrayed in that town. A body of men asso- 
ciated themselves in Dublin, under the title 
of the First National Battalion : their uniform 
was copied from the French, green turned up 
with white, white waistcoats and striped trou- 
sers, gilt buttons, impressed with a harp 
and letters importing ' First National Battal- 
ion,' no crown, but a device over the harp 
of a cap of liberty upon a pike ; two pattern 
coats had been left at two shops in Dublin. 
Several bodies of men had been collected in 
different parts of the North, armed and dis- 
ciplined under officers chosen by themselves, 
and composed mostly of the lowest classes of 
the people. These bodies were daily increas- 
ing in numbers and force, they had exerted 
their best endeavors to procure military men 
of experience to act as their officers, some of 
them having expressly stated, that there were 
men enough to be had, but that officers were 
what they wanted. Stands of arms and gun- 
powder to a very large amount, much above 
the common consumption, had been sent with- 
in the last few months to Belfast and New- 
ly, and orders given for a much greater quan- 
tity, which it appeared could be wanted on- 
ly for military operations. At Belfast, bod- 
ies of men in arms were drilled and exercised 
for several hours almost every night by can- 
dle-light, and attempts had been made to se- 
duce the soldiery, which, much to the hon- 
or of the king's Ibices, had proved ineffect- 
ual. The declared object of these militai'y 
bodies was to procure a reform of Parliament ; 
hut the obvious intention of most of them 
appeared to be to over-awe the Parliament 
and the Government, and to dictate to both. 
The committee forbore mentioning the names 
of several persons, lest it should in any man- 



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ner affect aDy criminal prosecution, or involv 
llie personal safely of any man who had come 
forward to give them information. The re- 
sult of their inquiries was, that in their opin- 
ion it was incompatible with the public safety 
and tranquillity of that kingdom, to permit 
bodies of men in arms to assemble when 
they pleased without, any legal authority : 
and that the existence of a self-created repre- 
sentative body of any description of the king's 
subjects, taking upon itself the government 
of them, and levying taxes or subscription*, 
etc.," ought, not to be permitted. 

It is very easy to see the object of this 
report: it was simply Lord Clare's method 
of preparing the way for his coercion acts, 
which wire to apply not only to the Defend- 
ers but also to the United Irishmen and to 
the Catholic Convention itself. 

The policy adopted towards the Catholics 
at that time took the form which it has worn 
ever since, and which may be described in 
four words — to conciliate the rich and to co- 
erce the poor. This extravagant report of the 
Lords' committee, giving so overcharged a 
picture of the insurrectionary spirit of the 
North, was in order to create ''alarm among 
the better classes," the uniform preparative 
for coercion and oppression in belaud. 

On the 31st of January the House of Com- 
mons took into consideration a proclamation 
of the lord-lieutenant and privy council, da- 
ted the 8th December last, for dispersing all 
unlawful assemblies: and Lord Head fort 
moved a vote of thanks to the viceroy for 
this proclamation " to preserve domestic 
tranquillity from those whose declared objects 
were tumult, disaffection, and sedition," This 
occasioned some debate; but the address 
passed without a division. This proceed- 
ing of the lions- proves that the great Gov- 
ernment majority in the House, as well as 
the Lords, were in full concurrence with the 
Government in favor of coercion. It is fur- 
ther interesting from an incident which be- 
fell at the close of the debate — Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald, in a very vehement tone, declar- 
ed, "I gi\e my most hearty disapprobation 
to that address, for I do think that the lord- 
lieutenant and the majority of this House, 
are the worst subjects the king has." A loud 
cry of "to the bar," and "lake down his 

from every 



part of the House. The House was cleared 
in an iusiant, and strangers were not re-ad- 
mitted for nearly three hours. 

He was admitted to explain himself, and 
on his explaining, the House 

" Resolved, nem. con., That the excuse of- 
fered by the Right Hon. Edward Fitzgerald, 
commonly called Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 
for the said words so spoken, is unsatisfac- 
tory and insufficient:" and he was ordered 
to attend at the bar on the next day, when 
his apology was received, though not with- 
out a division upon its sufficiency : for receiv- 
ing it, 135; against it, CO.— (12 Par. Deb., 
p. 82.) 

Mr. Grattan also expressed himself with 
some indignation in this debate, on the 
classing up the remnant of his old Volun- 
teers along with such seditious company as 
United Irishmen and National Guards: for 
Mr. Secretary Hobart had read to the 
House, as part of the outrageous proceed- 
ing which had dictated the strong meas- 
ure of the proclamation, a certain summons 
of the corps of goldsmiths, calling on the 
delegates of that corps to assemble and 
celebrate the retreat of the Duke of Bruns- 
wick (from Valmy), and the French victory 
in the Low Countries (Jemappes). Mr. 
Grattan was soon to learn that in the appli- 
cation of the new laws which were now to 
l>e enacted the remnant of the classic old 
Volunteers was to be held no more sacred 
than the most republican United Irish club, 
or the poorest lodge of Defenders. 

On the 1st of February the French Re- 
public declared war against England (which 
was now known to be the very head and heart 
of the coalition against France): aud on the 
14ih of that month the Irish secretary, Mr. 
lb 'bait, presented a petition from some Cath- 
olics, and described at length the measure 
which he intended to introduce. A few days 
after, be brought in his "Relief Bill," and 
had it lead a first time. It was opposed by 
Mr. Ogle, and by the famous Dr. Duigenau. 
Throughout its passage it was supported by 
the Court party, because it was a Court 
measure; and Mr. Grattan, Mr. Curran, and 
most of the opposition supported it, of 
course, Dr. Duigenan raked up several 
tunes all the most hideous accusations that 
ever bigotry had invented and ignorance 



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believed against Papists, in order to oppose 
ibe gTant of any relief lo snch miscreants. 
< in the second reading, Mr. G.Ponsonby and 
Mr. Latouche spoke against it. Wheu the 
bill was in committee, Ml George Knox, in 
a liberal and able speech moved, that the 
committee might be empowered to receive a 
clause to admit Roman Catholics to sit and 
vote io the House of Commons. Major 
Doyle seconded the motion, which was 
strongly supported by Mr. Daly, Col. Hutch- 
inson, Mr. M. Smith, Mr. John O'Neil, Mr. 
1 lardy, and some other gentlemen friendly 
to Catholic emancipation ; it was, however, 
rejected upon a division by 103 against 69. 

The bill finally passed both Houses and 
received the royal assent, on the 9th of 
April. This act, which was received with so 
much gratitude, and was extolled as such a 
triumph of liberality, enables Catholics to 
vte for members of Parliament — that is, 
for Protestant members and none other — 
admits them to the bar, that is, the outer 
bar — all the honors and high places of the 
profession being reserved for Protestants — 
enables them to vote for municipal officers — 
that is, Protestant officers exclusively — per- 
mits them to possess arms, provided they 
possess a certain freehold and personal es- 
tate, and take certain oaths, neither of which 
conditions applied to Protestants ; allows 
them to serve on juries, but not to sit on 
parish vestries ; admits them, under certain 
restrictions, to hold military and naval com- 
missions, certain of the higher grades being 
excepted — and it subjects the exercise of 
most of these, new privileges to the taking 
of a most insulting and humiliating oath. 
As this act (38 Geo. III., c. 21.) settled for 
thirty-six years the whole condition and re- 
lations of the Catholics, it is here given in 
full :— • 

"33 Geo. III., c. xxi. 

u An Act for the Belief of His Majesty's 
Popish or Roman Catholic Subjects of 
Ireland. 

" Whereas, various acts of Parliament 
have been passed, imposing on his majesty's 
subjects professing the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion, many restraints and disabilities, to 
which other subjects of this realm are not 
liable; and from the peaceable and loyal de- 



meanor of his majesty's Popish or Roman 

Catholic subjects, it is fit that such restraints 
and disabilities shall be discontinued: Be it 
therefore enacted, by the king's most excel- 
lent majesty, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Lords, spiritual and temporal, 
and Commons in this present Parliament as- 
sembled, and by the authority of the same, 
That his majesty's subjects, being Papists, 
or persons professing the Popish or Roman 
Catholic religion, or married to Papists or 
persons professing the Popish or Roman 
Catholic religion, or educating any of their 
children in that religion, shall not be liable 
or subject to any penalties, forfeitures, dis- 
abilities, or incapacities, or to any laws for 
the limitation, charging, or discovering of 
their estates and property, real and personal, 
or touching the acquiring of property or 
securities affecting property; save such as 
his majesty's subjects of the Protestant re- 
ligion are liable and subject to ; aud that 
such parts of all oaths as are required to be 
taken by persons in order to qualify them- 
selves for voting at elections of members to 
serve in Parliament; and also such parts of 
all oaths required to be taken by persons 
voting at elections for members to serve in 
Parliament, as import to deny that the per- 
son taking- the same is a Papist or married 
to a rapist, or educates his children in the 
Popish religion, shall not hereafter be re- 
quired to be taken by any voter, but shall 
be omitted by the person administering the 
same ; aud that it shall uot be necessary, in 
order to entitle a rapist, or person profess- 
ing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion f7l 
to vote at an election of members to serve 
in Parliament, that he should at, or previous 
to his voting, take the oaths of allegiance 
and abjuration, any statute now in force to 
the contrary of any of the said matters in 
any wise notwithstanding. 

" II. Provided always, and be it farther 
enacted, That all Papists or persons profess- 
ing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, 
who may claim to have a right of voting for 
members to serve in Parliament, or of vot- 
ing for magistrates in any city, town corpo- 
rate, or borough, within this kingdom, be 
hereby required to perform all qualifications, 
registries, and other requisites, which are 
now required of his majesty's Protestant 







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subjects, mi lil.c oases, by any law or laws 

now of fi in this kiugdoui, save and ox 

oept snoh oaths mill piuis of oatlii us are 
herein before exoeptod. 

■ in. And provided alwagt, That nothing 
hereinbefore contained shall extend, or be 
construed to extendi to ropeal or alter any 
law or act of Parliaiuont now in forco, by 
whioh < • ■ ■ 1 1 .- ■ 1 1 1 qualifloationi are required to 
be performed by persons enjoying an} offices 
or plaoes of trust under bis majesty) bis 
heirs and suooe sol's, other than as ben n 
niter is enacted. 

"IV. Provided also, That nothing heroin 
contained, shall extond, or be construed lo 
extend to give Papists, or persons professing 
the Popish religion, a right to vote at any 
parish vestry for lovying of money to re 
build or repair auy pni ish ohui oh, or rospeot 
ing the demising or disposal of the income 
of .'my estato belonging to any uhuroh or 
parish, 01 for the salary of the parish olork, 
.■I ;ii ill.' eleotion of an) ohurohwnrden. 

" \'. Provided always, That nothing con 
i lined in this aot shall extond to, or be con 
strued to affeot anj notion or suit now de 
pending, whioh sliall have boon brought or 
instituted previous to the commencement of 
i in . -. lion of I 'arliamont. 

"VI. Provided also, I'hnt nothing herein 
oont lined, shall extond to authorise any Pa 
pi i, oi person professing the Popish or 
Roman Catholic religion, to have or keep in 
his bauds or possession, any arms, urmor, 
ammunition, or any warlike stores, aword 
blades, barrels, locks, or Btocks of guns, or 
i'u. n in i, or i" exompt bui h pm i on hVom anv 
foifeiture, or penalty inflioted by anj act 
re i"'. ting at m , armor, or ammunition, in 
the hands or po ■ iou of any I 'apist, or 
respecting Papists having oi keeping buoIi 
warlike stores, save and exoept Papists, or 

persons of tlie Roman Catholic relio 

.i .-.I of a freohold estate of one hundred 
pounda a year, or possessed of a personal 
estate of one thousand pounds or upwards, 
who are hereby authorised to keep arms and 

.'i I n I nil nil ion as ProtQ li.nl-. no\\ bj law inav j 

and also, save and except Papists or Roman 
Catholios possessing a freehold estate of ten 
pounds yearly value, and loss tlian one hun- 
dred pounds, or a personal estate of Ihroe hun- 
dred, and lo •- than one thousand pounds, who 



shall have at the sossion of the ponce in the 
oonuty in whioh thoy reside, taken the oath 
of allegianco proscribed to be taken by an 
act passed in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
years ofhii present majesty's reign, entitled, 
'An act to enable his majesty's subjects, of 
whatever persuasion, to testify their alleoianre 

If liim ,' mill also in open court, swear and 

subscribe an affidavit, that the) are possessed 
of a freehold estate yiolding a olenr yearly 
profit to the person making the same of ten 
pounds, or a personal property of three bun* 
died pounds above hisjnsi debts, specifying 
i Ill-run tho name and nature of suob free- 
bold, and nature of sneli personal property, 
which affidavits shall !»' carefull) preserved 
by the eleil. of the peace, who shall have 
for Ins trouble a fee of sixpence, and no 
more, foi overy Buch affidavit; and tho per- 
son making such affidavit, and possessing 

BUI li property, may keep and Use anus and 
aiiiniiinili.ni as Protestants U1IW, 80 hAg as 

they sliall respectively possess a property 

of the annual \ alne of ten pounds and Up- 

« ar.l-.. if ii. ehold, or the value of thre 
hundred pounds if personal, any statute u 
i In- oonl i ai j not wil hstanding, 
•• VII. And it it tnacted, That it shall 

and nia\ bo lawful for Papists, 01' persons 

professing the Popish or Roman Catholic) 
religiou, to bold, exercise, and enjoy all ei\ il 
and unlit uv offices, or plaoes of trust or 
profit undor his majesty, his heirs and suc- 
cessors, in this kingdom; and to hold or 
lake degroos, or any professorship in, or be 
in i i. is or fellows of any college, to I"' 
hereafter founded in this kingdom, provided 
ill it -a. li oolloge shall be a member of the 
University of Dublin, and shall not be 
founded i Kolusivelj for the education of 
Papists, oi persons professing tho Popish or 
Roman Catholic religion, nor consist exclu- 
sively of masters, fellows, or other persons 

to bo named or elerled on tlie foundation 

of Biiob oollege, being persons professing the 
Popish or Roman Catholio religion; or to 

hold any olliee 01' pine of trnsl in, and to 

be a member of anv lay body corporate, ex- 
oept the College of the holy and undivided 
I'luiiiy of Queen Elisabeth, near Dublin, 
without t iking and subscribing the oaths of 
allegiance^ supremacy, or abjuration, or 
making or subscribing the declaration re- 






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quired to be taken, made, and subset ibed, to 
enable anj itch por ion to Imld and enjoj 

Biiy of such places, and without i living 

i In i ramcnl of tlie Lord's Supper, accord 
ing to the rights and ceremonies of tho 
< Ihurch of Ireland, anj law, i tatuto, or by- 
law of anj corporation to the contrary not- 
withstanding; provided that even Mich poi 
son ball take and subscribe tho oath up- 
I •• > i 1 1 1 • -• j li\ tho Baid act pa • ed in i lie thir 
teenl h and fourteenth years of Ins mnje I j ' 
i , ■•hi itled, ' An act to enable his ma- 
jesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, to 
!■• i if) their allegiance to him ;' and also the 
oath and declaration following, that is to 

sat : 

•' ' I, A. r>., do hereby declare, thai 1 do 

profi the K an < latbolic religion. I, A., 

I!., do swear, that I <!<> abjure, condemn, and 

deti t, as 'In istian and impious, the prin 

ciple thai il i- lawful to murder, destroy, or 
any ways injure any person whatsoever, for, 
or under the pretence of being a heretic; 
and ! do declare solemnly before God, that 
I believe, that no oct in itself unjust, inv 
moral, or wicked, can ever be justified or 
excused by, or under pretence, or color, thai 

it was do lither for the good of the 

church, <>r in obedience to any ecclesiastical 
power whatsoever. I also declare, that it is 
nol .hi article of the < Sutholic faith, neither 
am I thereby required t" believe or profe , 
thai the Pope is infallible, or thai I am 

b .'I i" oboj an ordeT in its own nature 

immoral, though the Pope or any ecclesias- 
tical power should issue or direct such order, 

but, "ii il mill ai \ , I hold, thai ii would 

be sinful in me to pay any respect or obedi- 
ence thereto; I further declare, that 1 < I * * 
nol believe that any sin whatsoever commit 

tod by i •an I"- forgiven al the mere will 

of any Pope, or any priest, or of any person 
what oever; but that sincere Borrow for past 

• ti , a firm and • incere lution to avoid 

future guilt, and t" atone to God, are pre- 
ii. • I ill. I ■ pi ir able requisite to estab 
li.-li a well-founded expectation <>f foi • 
ii. . and thai anj pi i on « ho receives ab- 
solntion without these previous requi it< ,so 

far f btaining thereby any remission of 

is sins, incurs tho additional guilt of viola- 
ting a sacrament; and 1 do swear, thai [will 
defend to the utmost of ray power the set 

2'J 



tlemonl and arrangement of property in lliis 
count i j a • ■ tablii lied by the law e now in 
being; I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and 
olomnly abjure any intention to subver' 
tho present church establishment for the 
purpo ■• of substituting a Catholic establish- 
ment in iH stead ; and' I do solemnly swear, 
thai I will not exercise any privilege, to 
which I am or may become entitled, to dis« 
inili and weaken the Protestant religion and 
Protestant government in this kingdom. 
So help me ( lod.' 

"VIII. And be it enacted, Thai Papists, 
or persons professing the Popi h or Roman 
Catholic religion, may be capable of being 
olected professors of medicine, upon thn 
foundation of Sir Patrick Dunn, any law or 
statute to the contrary notwithstandin 

" IX. Provided always, mnl be it enacted, 
Thai nothing herein contained shall extend, 
or be construed to extend, to enable any 

person to Bit or vole in either II.. I par- 
liament, or to hold, exerciso, or enjoy the 
office of Lord-lieutenant, lord-deputy, or 
other chief governor or governors of ihis 
kingdom, lord high chancellor or keeper, or 
commissioner of the great seal of this 
kingdom, lord high treasurer, chancellor 
of the exchequer, chief justice of thn 
Court of King's Bench, or < lommon 

lord chief bai if the < 'ourt of Exchequer, 

justice of the Court of King's Bench or 

i in on Plea?, or baron of the < lourl of 

Exchequer, judge of tho High Courl of Ad- 
miralty, master or keeper of the rolls, secre- 
tary of state, keeper of the privy seal, vice- 
treasurer, or deputy vice-treasurer, teller 
and cashier of the Exchequer, or auditor 
general, lieutenant or governor, or custos 
rotulorum of ci ties, secretary to tho lord- 
lieutenant, lord deputy, or oiler chief goi - 
ernor or governors of this kingdom, member 
of his majesty's iimst honorable privy coun- 
cil, prime sergeant, attorney -general, solicitor- 

ral, I and third sergeants al law, or 

king's council, masters in chancery, provost 
or fellow of the Colloge of tho holy and un- 

divided Trinity of Qi n Elizabeth, near 

I lublin ; postmaster-general, master, 
lieutenant general of his majesty's ordnance, 
commander-in-chief of Ins majesty's force , 
ei.il. on the staff, and sheriffs and sub- 
sheriffs of any i ty In this kingdom; or 



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HISTOKY OF IRELAND. 



any office contrary to ihe rules, orders, aud 
directions made and established by tlie lord- 
lieutenant and council in pursuance of tlic 
act passed in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
years of King Charles the Second, entitled, 
'An act for the explaining of some doubts 
arising upon an act entitled, An act for 
the better execution of his majesty's gracious 
declaration for the settlement of this king- 
dom of Ireland, and satisfaction of the sev- 
eral interests of adventurers, soldiers, and 
other his subjects there, and for making 
some alterations of, and additions unto the 
said act, for the more speedy and effectual 
settlement of this kingdom,' unless he shall 
have taken, made, and subscribed the oaths 
and declarations, and performed the several 
requisites, which by any law heretofore 
made, and now of force, arc required to en- 
able any person to sit or vote, or to hold, ex- 
ercise, and enjoy the said offices respectively. 

" X. Provided also, and be it enacted, That 
nothing in this act contained shall enable 
any Papist, or person professing the Popish 
or Roman Catholic religion, to exercise any 
right of presentation to any ecclesiastical 
benefice whatsoever. 

"XI. And be it enacted, That no Tapist, or 
person professing the Popish or Roman 
Catholic religion, shall be liable or subject to 
any penalty for not attending divine service 
on the Sabbath day, called Sunday, in his oi- 
lier parish church. 

" XII. Provided also, and be it niacin!. 
That nothing herein contained, shall be con- 
strued to extend to authorize any Popish 
priest, or reputed Popish priest, to celebrate 
marriage between Protestant and Protestant, 
or between any person, who hath been or 
professed himself or herself to be a Protes- 
tant at any time within twelvemonths before 
such celebration of marriage, and a Papist, 
unless such Protestant and Papist shall have 
been first married by a clergyman of the 
Protestant religion, and that every Popish 
priest, or reputed Popish priest, who shall 
celebrate any marriage betwen two Protes- 
tants, or bctweeu any such Protestant and 
Papist, unless such Protestant and Papist 
shall have been first married by a clergyman 
of the Protestant religion, shall forfeit the 
sum of five hundred pounds to his majesty, 
upon conviction thereof. 



" XIII. And whereas it may be expedient, 
in case his majesty, his heirs and successors, 
shall be pleased so to alter the statutes of the 
College of the holy and undivided Trinity 
near Dublin, and of the University of Dub- 
lin, as to enable persons professing the Ro- 
man C itholic religion to enter into or to take 
degrees in the said university, to remove any 
obstacle, which now exists bv statute law ; be 
it enacted, That from and after the first day 
of June, one thousand seven hundred and 
ninety-three, it shall not be necessary for 
any person upon taking any of the degrees 
usually conferred by the said university, 
to make or subscribe any declaration, or 
to take any oath, save the oaths of allegiance 
and abjuration, any law or statute to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 

"XIV. Provided always, That no Papist 
or Roman Catholic, or person professing the 
Roman Catholic or Popish religion, shall take 
any benefit by or under this act, unless he 
shall have first taken and subscribed the oath 
and declaration in this act contained and set 
forth, and also the said oath appointed by the 
said act passed in the thirteenth and four- 
teenth years of his majesty's reign, entitled, 
'An act to enable his majesty's subjects, of 
whatever persuasion, to testify their allegiance 
to him,' in some one of his majesty's four 
courts in Dublin, or at the general sessions of 
the peace, or at any adjournment thereof to 
be holden for the county, city, or borough 
wherein such Papist or Roman Catholic, or 
person professing the Roman Catholic or 
Popish religion, doth inhabit or dwell, or be- 
fore the going judge or judges of assize in the 
county wherein such Papist or Roman 
Catholic, or person professing the Roman 
Catholic or Popish religion, doth inhabit 
and dwell, iu open court. 

"XV. Provided always, and be it enacted, 
Tint the names of snch persons as shall 
so take and subscribe the said oath and dec- 
laration, with their titles and additions, shall 
be entered upon the rolls, for that purpose to 
be appointed bv said respective courts; and 
that the said rolls once in every year shall 
be transmitted to, and deposited in the Rolls 
Office in this kingdom, to remain amongst 
the records thereof, and the masters or 
keepers of the rolls in this kingdom, or their 
lawful deputy or deputies, are hereby em- 



* 



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arms AND GUNPOWDER AND CONVENTION ACTS. 



227 






powered and required to give and deliver to 
such person or persons so taking and sub- 
goribiue the said oaths and declaration, a cer- 
Uficate or certificates of such person or per- 
sons having taken and subscribed ibe said 
oaths and declaration, lor each of which cer- 
tificates the sum of one shilling anil no more 
shall he pai 

"XVI. And be it further prooided and 
enacted, That from and after the first day of 
April, one thousand seven hundred and 
ninety -three, no freeholder, burgess, freeman, 
or inhabitant of this kingdom, being a Pa- 
pist or Roman Catholic, or person professing 
the Roman Catholic or Popish religion, shall 
at any time be capable of giving his vote for 
tin- electing of any knight or knights of any 
shire or county within this kingdom, or citi- 
zen or burgess to serve in any Parliament, 
until he shall have first produced and shown 
to the high sheriff of the said county, or his 
deputy or deputies, at any election of a knight 
or knights of the said shire, and to the re- 
spective chief officer or officers of any city, 
borough, or town-corporate, to whom the 
return of any citizen or burgess to serve 
in Parliament doth or shall respectively 
belong, at lie' election of any citizen or bur- 
gee to serve in Parliament, such certificate 
of his having taken rend subscribed the said 
oath and declaration, either from the Polls 
Office, or from the proper officer of the court 
in which the said oaths and declaration shall 
be taken and subscribed; and such person 
being a freeholder, freeman, burgess, or in- 
habitant so producing and showing such cer- 
tificate, shall be then permitted to vote, as 
amply and fully as any Protestant freeholder, 
freeman, burgess, or inhabitant of such coun- 
ty, city, borough, or town-corporate, but not 
otherwise." 

This law, it, may be thought, saved toler- 
ably well the main privileges of the odious 
"Ascendency;" and still left the two sects, or 
two nations in the relative position of a su- 
perior and an inferior casle : hut the require- 
ments of Euglish policy at this time were ab- 
solute and undeniable. It was however felt 

bv the thoroughgoing Protestants of Ireland 
to be a sore humiliation thus at last to have 
to acknowledge the civil existence of Papists 
at all, and that Papists no longer breathed 



altogether by "connivance." But the irrita- 
tion of the Protestant interest was soothed 
by certain other measures which the Govern- 
ment carried through this session — the (Sun 
powder Act and the Convention Act. The 
Gunpowder Act, entitled ''An act to prevent 
the importation of Arms, Gunpowder, and 
Ammunition into this Kingdom, and the re- 
moving and keeping of Gunpowder, Arms, 
and Ammunition without license,''" contained 
very oppressive provisions, authorizing ma- 
gistrates and police to make searches for 
arms ; and may be called the first of the reg- 
ular series of "Arms Acts," with which Ire- 
laud is so familiar down to the present day. 
It was not at all opposed in Parliament : in- 
deed, like all the other Anns Acts, it purported 
to be a temporary measure, to be in force 
only until the 1st of January, 1794, and the 
end of then next session of Parliament. The 
Government pretended that it was needed 
just at that time to defeat and suppress 
the seditious conspiracy which Lord Clare 
and the Committee of the Lords had discov- 
ered; but which did not then exist at all; 
and which afterwards was occasioned, or in- 
deed rendered necessary, by the atrocious 
abuse of the very coercive laws which were 
said to be intended to defeat it. 

But the second of these two acts, the 
Convention Act, Lord Clare's special and 
favorite measure, stamps that nobleman as 
the true author and creator of British policy 
in Ireland, from his own time until this hour. 
The bill was introduced into the House of 
Lords by Lord Clare himself. Its real ami 
plain object was to prevent the prevalence of 
the successful example of the Catholic Con- 
vention, and to anticipate a Convention 
which it was alleged that the United Irish 
Society was about to convene at Athloue. 

This act (33 Geo. III., c. 29) to prevent the 
election or appointment of unlawful assem- 
blies, under pretence of preparing or present- 
ing public petitions or other addresses to his 
majesty or the Parliament, recites, that the 
election or appointment of assemblies, pur- 
porting to represent the people, or any de- 
scription of tic p. ople, under pretence of pre- 
paring or presenting petitions, complaints, re- 
monstrances, and declarations, and other 
addresses to the king, or to both or either 
Houses of Parliament, for alteration of mat- 



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ten established by law, tor redress of alleged 
grievances in church and state, may be made 
use of to sorve the ends of factious and sedi- 
tions persons, to the violation of the public 
peace, and the great and manifesl encourage- 
ment of riot, tumult, and disorder : and il 
enacts, that all such assemblies, committees, 
or other bodies of persons elected, or other- 
u ise constituted or appointed are unlawful as- 
semblies, and that nil persons giving or pub- 
lishing notice of the election to be made 
of such persons or delegates, or attending, or 
voting or acting therein by any means, are 
guilty of a high misdemeanor. The act con- 
cludes with a declaration, "that nothing in it 
shall impede the undoubted right of his maj- 
esty's subjects to petition the king or Parlia- 
ment for redress of any public or private 
gi ievance." 

This measure gave rise to long and acri- 
monious debates. When ii was in coramil 
tee, Mr. Grnttan made a vigorous Bpeech 
against it: his chief objection to it was, that 
it was a false declaration of law, and deprived 
the subject of his constitutional right of pe- 
titioning effectually against grievances by 
rendering the previous measure of consulta- 
tion and deliberation criminal. Especially lie 
was indignant that it by implication con- 
demned all previous oonvi ntions of delegates 
which had ever been held, including his own 
Volunteer Convention, lie said — "This hill 
is said to be an expedient to restore peace ; 
why then is il a reflection/ Why do the 
preamble and declaration pronounce every 
man who has 1 n a delegate, all the Volun- 
teers, the delegates nt Dungnnuon, the dele- 
gates of the convention, the committee of the 
lawyers' corps, and the corps that appointed 
that committee; the committee of the Cath- 
olics, their late conventions, and all the 
Cntholios who appointed that convention — 
that is the whole Catholic body^offenders, 
men guilty of an unlawful assembly, and this 
moment liable to he prosecuted 1 For so 
much has the bill in object : not the peace 
ol the country, but reflection on great bodies, 
the gratification of spleen at the expense of 
the constitution, by voting false doctrine 
into law, au.l the brightest passages of your 
history into unlawful assemblies. Gentle 
men have conoeived this hill an expedient to 
quell insurgents: let them read the bill. It 



is not a riot act; it does not go against riots 

thai, are, hut conventions that are not. The 
title of the bill, as first brought in, was to 
prevent riots and tumults arising from con- 
ventions; hut as the hill had nothing to say 

to riots, and lots appeared to have arisen 

from conventions, such title was in deceney 

dropped, and the object of the bill "as now 

professed to be an act against conventions. 
Gentlemen said a national convention at 
Athlono was intended, lie did believe that 

such aone had been intended some time ago, 

but that then it was not so; or if then 
intended, that it would be trifling and con> 
temptible. Ills objection to the bill was, 
that it was a trick, making a supposed 

National Convention at Athlone, in 17'.)-i, a 

pretext for provenling delegation forever." 

All opposition was vain. The Govern- 
ment had fabricated an alarm, purposely to 
get this act passed. Mr. Secretary Eobart's 
remarks on occasion of this debatejMJxposa 
dearly enough the whole policy of the Gov- 
ernment : — 

Mr. llohait declared, nothing gave him 
more pain, than that the debate on this bill 
should have extended to such length, or that 
it should, on the close of the session, create 
any thing like a disunion of sentiment., lie 
declared that nothing but the very alarming 
state to which the country had been reduced 
bj a spint of popular commotion, excited by 
conventions, usurping the privileges of rep- 
resentation, and assuming to control Parlia- 
ment, could have induced him to consent to 
the introduction of this bill ; and even the 
nobleman, who had brought it into the other 
House, before he had done so, had considered 
it over and over again, and did not bring it 
forward until" absolute necessity called for 
some effectual measure to stem the torrent of 
sedition, at a time when writs had been is- 
sued by the society called Uniled Irishmen, 

for the purpose of assembling the convention 
al Aihlone, and under a conviction, that if 
Parliament should break up without adopt- 
ing the bill, which In his idea never did, nor 

never was intended to meddle with the con- 
stitutional rights of the people, the constitu- 
tion itself might be subverted before Parlia- 
ment could be assembled. 

'The act passed : on the final division, the 
teller In favor of the passage was Arthur 



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There ia not, and never was, any 

such law in England. From that day to 

his, it hug effectually prevented the people of 

eland from deliberating in an orderly and 
authoritative manner, bj nns of accredited 

i l< | ites, upon their own affairs. It was af 

terwarda the rock ahead which ifronted 

O'Connell in all hie agitation. This law it, 
was which prevented his calling together the 
promised "Council of Three Hundred," and 

fl him only the alternative of inorganic 

"MonBter n tings" -which latter indeed 

were also made criminal by a prudent inter- 

pretati >f law. 

In this same session of Parliament, and be- 
fore the passage of the Catholic Relief bill, 
there was passed ;i new Militia bill, intro- 
duced by Lord Hillsborough, to establish the 
militia, as his lordship said, "as nearly as cir- 
cumstances would permit, on the same plan 
as that of England." The whole number of 
men he proposed to be 16,000, upon a rough 
estimate 500 for cadi county, The new 
Militia law was one of the must efficient of 
that series of measures now Becured by the 
i \o\ eminent to enable them at anj I tine to 
crush down every popular movement which 
w.is nol t" .h'-ir on ii taste. 

The General C mittee of the Catholics 

had adjourned after dispatching their dele- 
gates i" the km--, an. 1 they had left a sub- 
committee sittiug in Dublin, with power to 
acl for them between their rising and their 
next meeting; but they made a material 

teration in its constitution, by associating 
to the twelve members who then formed it, 
the whole of tho country deleg ite , each of 
whom was henceforward lo be, ipso facto, a 
member thereof. They then resolved, unnn- 

i n ly, thai they would reassemble when 

duly summoned by the sub-committee, who 
were invested with powers for that purpose. 
" We w ill atteud," cried a member from a 
remote county (0' Gorman, of Mayo), " if we 
are summoned to u t across tho Ail intii ." 

The sub-committee had entered into a 

of negotiations with Mr. Secretary Ho- 

,ari respecting the details of I heir Relief bill. 

Bui all I i the oi iginal demand in the 

t.> the king »as for general relief, 
including admission to both Boubos of Par- 

li mi. hi, ii ■ n became e\ ident to tl 

inter that thev woiil'l take much less. Wolfe 



lone, in his indignant narrative of these 

I ei line's, says : — 

"In the first interview with the Irish 
minister, the two Houses of Parliament were 

at on jiven np, and the question began to 

be, not how much must be conceded, hut 

how much niie'hl, he withheld. So strikine 

a change did not escape the vigilant i 

the administration; they instantly recovered 
from the panio which had led them into 
such indiscreet, and, as it now appeared, 
unnecessary concessions at the opening of 
Parliament; thev dexterously Beduced the 
Catholics into the strong ground of negotia- 
tion, so well known to themselves, so little 
to their adversaries; they procrastinated, 
and they distinguished, they started doubts, 
they pleaded difficulties; the measure of 
relief was gradually curtailed, and, during 
the le. lions- and anxious progress of discus- 
Bion, whilst the Catholic mind, their hopes 
and fears, were unremittingly intent on tho 
progress of their bill, which was obviously 
and designedly suspended, the acts already 
commemorated ( Militia, Gunpowder, <nnl 
Convention Acts) were driven through both 

Mouses with the nt st impetuosity, and, 

with the most cordial and unanimous con- 
currence of all parii.s, receive. 1 the ro\al 
ass,. nt." 

In fact, the leading Catholics, whether 
prelates or landed proprietors, seemed to be, 
or affected to be, quite satisfied with the 
poor relief they had obtained : and we find 
henceforth less and lesa disposition on their 
I ail lo join in, or to countenance, the ultra- 
iiberal views of the United Irishmen.* In 
truth, there was no bod) of men in the three 
kingdoms more naturally disposed to abhor 

'■ French principles" than (he ( latholic pen , 

gentry, and bishop , who thought their own 
interests safer under the British Government 
than in I he liberty and equality of a republic 

;: i i i .-■ ne< i si nl, iii" indicul ioiia ..I i ei- stio- 

v, hii uttended the policy of Govornmonl to 
nttitoh to ili. 'in tho loading Cutliolics, nnd o pi chilly 

tiie bishops, nnd so keep tho i utholio bod; ' of 

I uitod Irish ranks, nppeara in the touo .a' il.u 

puAtonil lottoi ol i " lab to thi ir flocks, in 

which ihoy warned i liom n tain ' " ni i n ion do ens" 
nnd lawless persons, From ihis moment, nl o, tho 
laboi lou Me Plowden, in hi i u oful HittoHcal lit 

i ii k», novel Ii;.- ii : I word Cor the nnfortnnnto 

lors, ornnj otlior Iri limon who did not ol •■ 

to submit quietly and pntioutlyto tho very uttermost 
extremities oi tyruauy. 



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230 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




on the French model. The ablest workers, 
it is true, on the General Committee, John 
Kcogh, MeNeven, and Richard McCormick, 
joined the United Irish Society, which had 
not yet become revolutionary, republican, 
and separatist, but which was soon to be 
forced into that extreme position. 

The same session of Parliament of 1*793, 
saw the passage of some measures which 
had been amongst the favorite objects of 
the opposition for years. It seemed, indeed, 
at the commencement of that session as if 
the principle of Parliamentary Reform were 
to be admitted and fully carried out. The 
several great objects which had been urged 
by the opposition, ever since the last Parlia- 
ment, with great perseverance and ability, 
were the Responsibility bill, the Place and 
the Pension bill. There were also other meas- 
ures of great consequeuce, but of less gen- 
eral importance ; such as the disqualifying 
of revenue, officers from sitting in Parliament, 
and the repeal of the Police act. By the Re- 
sponsibility bill, no money could be disposed 
of by the sole order from the king, as was 
before the case; for Irish officers were to 
sign all warrants; and every warrant and 
officer came before Parliament. The neces- 
sary consequence of such a bill was, that the 
hereditary reveuue was given up, and, like 
the additional supply, voted annually. The 
great effect aod consequence of such a meas- 
ure, any man who understood government, 
must see at a glance. 

By the Pension bill all pensioners for years 
or during pleasure were excluded ; and the 
sum, which then was near one hundred and 
twenty thousand ponn Is a year, was reduced 
to eighty thousand. 

By the Place bill, all new places from the 
date of the bill were disqualified. Officers 
of revenue, whose duty required their absence 
from Dublin, were excluded : and the prin- 
ciple of excluding them all was carried. 

Besides the acts already mentioned, the 
following popular acts were passed in the 
session of 1793, viz. (33 Geo. III., c. xxv.) : 



"An Act to encourage the Improvement of 
Barren Land;" (xxxi.) "An Act for regula- 
ting the Trade of Ireland to and from the 
East Indies, under certain conditions and 
provisions for a time therein mentioned;" 
(33 Geo. III., c. xxxiv.) "An Act for the 
support of the Honor and Dignity of His 
Majesty's Crown in Ireland, and for granting 
to His Majesty a Civil List Establishment, 
under certain Provisions and Regulations;" 
(33 Geo. III., c. xli.) "An Act for securing 
the Freedom and Independence of the House 
of Commons, by excluding therefrom Per- 
sons holding any Offices under the Crown, 
to be hereafter created, or holding certain 
Offices therein enumerated, or Pensions for 
Term of Years, or during His Majesty's Pleas- 
ure ;" (33 Geo. III., c. xlviii.) "An Act to 
remove Doubts respecting the Functions of 
Juries in Cases of Libel;" (33 Geo. III., 
c. lii.) "An Act for the Advancement of 
Trade and Manufactures, by granting the 
Sums therein mentioned for the Support ot 
Commercial Credit.'' 

But no general measure of reform could 
be carried. The conciliatory disposition of 
the Government abated sensibly in propor- 
tion as the French successes on the Continen 
seemed more doubtful. In fact, Dumouriez 
lost the Low Countries as quickly as he had 
won them : rather indeed he had given up 
his conquests to the Allies; having, as is 
well known, become a traitor to his country. 
The miserable wretch subsisted for many 
years on a pension from the English Govern- 
ment, and died in Buckinghamshire, in 1823. 
It. was believed for a time in England that 
the French Revolution was going back, and 
that the danger was in a great measure past. 
They resolved therefore to rely on the tri- 
fling concessions they had already made to 
conciliate the opposition party and the upper 
classes of the Catholics, and to make relent- 
less use of their new coercion acts in "stamp, 
ing out" United Irishmen. 

The session was closed on the 16th of 
August, 1793. 



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TRIALS OF DEFENDERS PACKING JUKIES, 




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CHATTER XXVIII. 

1703- ITU"). 

Small results of CatholicRelief Bill— Distinctions still 
kept up— Excitement against the Catholics — Trials 
of I lefenden — Packing Juries —Progress of United 
Irishism — Oppose. 1 by Catholic bishops— Arrests 
of Bond and Butler- Prosecution of A. Hamilton 
Etowan — Lust effort for Parliamentary Reform - 
I ' ' ■ :• red — United Irish Meeting in Dublin disper- 
sed by the Police— Rev. Win. Jackson and Wolfe 
l 'om -Rowan charged with Treason — Rowan cs- 
-Tonc allowed to quit the country — Vow 
of the Cave Hill — Fitzwilliam's Administration 
— Fitzwilliam deceived by Pitt — Dismissal of Mr. 
Beresford — Plan of Mr. IMt — Insurrection first — 
" Union " afterwards — Fitzwilliam recalled — Great 
I> ispondency — The " Orangemen " — Beginning 
of Coercion and Anarchy. 

The limited and grudging measure for 
relief i f the Catholics had by no means had 
the (fleet of destroying the odious distinc- 
tions which had so long divided Irishmen 
of different religions persuasions. The law 
indeed was changed, but the insolent and 
exclusive spirit which had inspired the 
Penal Code; the very marked and offen- 
ive disabilities which still left the Catholic 
•eople in a condition of legal inferiority, 
gave the " Ascendency " ample opportunity 
to make them feel daily and hourly that they 
were still a proscribed and oppressed race. 
Great difficulties at first prevailed in raising 
the different regiments of militia ; for al- 
though Catholics were rendered capable of 
serving in them, no Catholic officers were 
appointed ; this marked reprobation of all 
gentlemen of that communion so directly in 
the teeth of the act, diffused a general dif- 
fidence amidst the lower orders, and it was 
found necessary to appoint several Catholic 
officers, before the militia corps could be 
e irapleted. 

i atholics were not yet eligible as mayors 
or sheriffs, but there was now no legal ex- 
clusion of them from tin: guilds of mer- 
chants. Accordingly, thirty highly respect- 
able Catholic merchants of Dublin applied 
for admission into their guild, but were 
1 on the mere ground of their re- 
ligion. In every part of the kingdom con- 
tinual cfforis were made to traduce and 
vilify the whole Catholic body, in order to 
defeat and annul the measures which the 
legislature hid passed in their favor. Never, 
perhaps, in all the history of the country, 




had the virulent malignity 
been so busy in charging upon Catholic? 
all manner of evil principles and practices 
Their indignant denials of these imputation* 
were utterly unheeded. Every town cor- 
poration followed the example of that of 
Dublin, and excluded Catholics even from 
the poor privilege of belonging to the guild 
of their trades. The growth and progress 
of Defenderism, particularly in the county 
of Meath, afforded fuel to the enemies of the 
Catholic body, which they studied to im- 
plicate in the outrages which were some- 
times committed. Painful industry was 
employed to work up the imaginations 
of the inhabitants into the expectation of 
a general massacre of all the Protestants 
throughout that county. No arts were 
left untried to criminate the Catholic bodv ; 
every exceptionable word or action of an in- 
dividual, however contemptible, was charged 
on the whole ; and the object was now, 
not so much to suppress the Defenders, as 
to fasten their enormities on the Catholic 
body. 

On several trials which took place at the 
assizes for Meath County iu prosecuting 
men charged with being Defenders, the 
juries were composed exclusively of Prot- 
estants. Catholics, it is true, were legally 
competent to sit on juries, but in every case 
of prosecution by the crown, the Protestant 
sheriff took care to show them that they 
were not regarded as "good and lawful 
men." Irritated and humiliated by such 
continued oppression, it is not wonderful 
if many of the Catholics began to despair 
of being ever allowed to live in peace and 
honor in their native land without such a 
revolution as would destroy both the "As- 
cendency "and the English connection along 
with it. Great numbers of them about this 
time joined the United Irish Society, which 
was not yet indeed a revolutionary or re- 
publican body in form, although its princi- 
pal leaders were revolutionists in principle, 
and already foresaw the necessity which 
shortly after drove them into armed insur- 
rection. The Catholic bishops, it must be 
admitted (if it be any credit to them), most 
vehemently opposed the United Irishmen, 
and omitted no occasion of protesting their 
" loyalty," and pouring execration upon 



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-V 




HISTORY OF XEELAJs'D. 




French principles." In the humble ad- 
dress to the King- from nine Catholic bishops, 
we find these strong expressions, which prove 
a spirit of the most determined submissive- 
ness under oppression : — 

"Whilst we lament the necessity that in- 
flicts the calamities of war upon any, even 
the must depraved of our fellow-creatures, 
we incessantly supplicate the Almighty Dis- 
poser of events, that, blessing your Majesty's 
arms with success, lie may crown you with 
the glory of stopping the progress of that 
atheistical faction, which aims at the sub- 
version of every religious and moral prin- 
ciple. 

" We look towards that unhappy nation, 
which is the object of hostility, and acknowl- 
edge with humble thanksgiving the goodness 
of Divine Providence, which, under the best 
of constitutions, has bestowed on the land 
we live in, freedom exempt from anarchy, 
protection guarded against oppression, and 
a prince calculated by his wisdom and virtue 
to preserve that happy condition of society." 

It is a part of the history of our country 
that these four archbishops and five bishops 
diil actually bear this high testimony to the 
freedom and happiness of Ireland, at a time 
when every accused Catholic was tried be- 
fore a packed jury of his enemies — when no 
Catholic could be a magistrate or sheriff, 
and therefore no Catholic had the least 
chance of justice in any court — when the un- 
fortunate flocks of these prelates were having 
their staeks of grain sold to pay tithes to cler- 
gymen they never saw, and church-rates to 
support churches which they never entered. 

The government now began a system of 
active operations against the United Irish- 
men. Two of their chiefs, Simon Butler 
and Oliver Bond, the first a barrister, the 
second a Dublin merchant, had already, in 
1792, been summoned to the bar of the House 
of Lords, charged with having acted as 

lairman and secretary of one of the meet- 
ings in Taylor's Hall, at which an address 
to the people was adopted, very strongly 
denouncing the corrupt composition of Par- 
iament. This was construed as an offence 
against the privilege of Parliament ; and 
Butler and Bond were condemned to be 
imprisoned for six months, and to pay each 
a fine of £500. The next leader marked 



for vengeance was the famous Archibald 
Hamilton Ilowan, the friend of Tone, and 
one of the boldest of the early chiefs of the 
Society. It was determined to prosecute 
him on a charge of sedition, on account of 
an address "to the Volunteers," adopted 
at a meeting where he acted as secretary. 
The address had been adopted and pub- 
lished two years before ; yet the govern- 
ment had hesitated all this while to bring 
him to trial. In fact, arrangements had 
first to be perfected to ensure the packing 
of the jury. This was done by making 
John Giffard, one of the most unscrupulous 
and indefatigable partizans of the "Ascen- 
dancy," one of the Sheriffs of Dublin ; he 
knew precisely on what jurors the Castle 
could depend. It was on occasion of this 
trial that the system of jury-packing was 
thoroughly organized and reduced to an 
art ; it has since that time formed the chief 
instrument of British government in* Ire- 
land. 

The prosecuted address was written by 
Drennan ; and its first paragraph will show 
the nature of the " sedition : " — 

" Citizen-soldiers, you first took up arms 
to protect your country from foreign ene- 
mies and from domestic disturbance ; for 
the same purposes it now becomes necessary, 
that you should resume them ; a proclama- 
tion has been issued in England for em- 
bodying the militia, and a proclamation has 
been issued by the Lord -Lieutenant and 
Council in Ireland for repressing all seditious 
associations ; in consequence of both these 
proclamations, it is reasonable to apprehend 
danger from abroad and danger at home, 
from whence but from apprehended danger 
are these menacing preparations for war 
drawn through the streets of this capital, or 
whence if not to create that internal com- 
motion which was not found, to shake that 
credit which was not affected, to blast that 
volunteer honor which was hitherto inviolate, 
are those terrible suggestions and rumors 
and whispers that meet us at every corner, 
and agitate at least our old men, our women, 
and children ; whatever be the motive, or 
from whatever quarter it arises, alarm has 
arisen, and you volunteers of Ireland are 
therefore ■summoned to arms at the instance 
of government as well as by the responsi- 



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bility attached to your character, and the 
permanent obligations of your constitution. 

We "ill not at this day condescend to quote 
authorities for the right of having and of 
using arms, but we will cry aloud, even 
amidst the storm raised by the witchcraft 
of a proclamation, that to your formation 
was owing the peace and protection of this 
island, to your relaxation has been owing its 
relapse into impotence and insignificance, to 
your renovation must be owing its future 
freedom and its present tranquillity ; you 
are therefore summoned to arms, in order to 
preserve your country in that guarded quiet, 
which may secure it from external hostility, 
and to maintain that internal regimen 
throughout the land, which, superseding a 
notorious police, or a suspected militia, may 
preserve the blessings of peace by a vigilant 
preparation for war." 

The address went on to recommend a 
civil and military convention, which was not 
against the law at that time, though in the 
next year the " Convention Act" was passed 
to prevent all such assemblies. 

Upon this the Attorney-General filed an 
e:r-o[licii> information. The trial came on the 
29th of January, 1794, though the informa- 
tion had been filed as far back as the 8th 
of the preceding June. Upon calling over 
the jury one of them was objected against, 
as holding a place under the crown, but the 
Attorney-General insisted upon the illegality 
of the objection, and observed, that it went 
against all that was honorable and respect- 
able in the land. It was, therefore, overruled 
by the court. After a trial of about ten 
hours, the jury found Rowan guilty. This was 
very unexpected by Mr. Rowan's party. A 
motion was afterwards made in court to set 
aside the verdict, and grant a new trial 
grounded on several affidavits. The motion 
was argued for six days, and was at last 
discharged. The grounds upon which the 
defendant's counsel rested their case were, 
1. Upon the declaration of a juror against 
Mr. Rowan, viz., that the country would 
never be quiet till he was hanged or banished 
'J. OpOD the partiality of Mr. Giffard, the 
sheriff, who had so arrayed the panel as to 
have him tried by an unfair jury. 3. Upon 
the incredibility of one Lister, the chief and 
only witness against him ; and 4. The mis- 
30 



direction of the court. The sentence of the 
court upon Mr. Rowan was to pay to His 
Majesty a line of £500 and be imprisoned 
two years, to be computed from the 29th 
of January, 1194, and until the Cue were 
paid, and to find security for his good be- 
havior for seven years, himself in .£2,000, 
and two sureties in £1,000 each. The ver- 
dict ami judgment of the court gave great 
dissatisfaction to the popular party. Their 
disapprobation of the verdict was expressed 
in court by groans and hisses. 

Parliament met on the 21st of January ; 
and in March, Mr. Win. Brabazon Ponsonby 
presented his bill for amending the state of 
the representation of the people in Parlia- 
ment. Mr. Grattan and Sir Lawrence 
Parsons supported the bill ; the government 
party does not seem to have even taken the 
trouble to debate the question, being quite 
sure of the result. On motion of Sir Her- 
cules Langrishe it was ordered to be read a 
second time that day six months ; and so 
ended all efforts for reform in the Irish Par- 
liament. The Houses were prorogued on 
the 25th of March. 

In the meantime, Hamilton Rowan was 
lying in Xewgate, according to his sentence. 
The United Irish Society of Dublin voted 
him an address in his prison, vehemently 
denouncing the packing of juries, and prom- 
ising " inflexible determination to pursue the 
great object of cur association — an equal 
,and impartial representation of the people in 
Parliament." But the government was now 
determined to treat these extra-parliamen- 
tary reformers without ceremony. On the 
4th of May, their ordinary place of meeting, 
the Taylor's Hall in Back laue, was invaded 
by the police, the meeting dispersed and the 
papers seized. After this event many of 
the more timid, or prudent members, fell off 
altogether from the society ; but the more 
resolute and indignant, especially the re- 
publican portion of the body, made up their 
minds from this moment to re-organize the 
society upon a distinctly revolutionary and 
military basis, which they effected in the 
course of the next year. Their reasons for 
taking this extreme resolution were — that 
as the people were not fairly represented in 
Parliament, and had no hope of being so 
represented — as the Convention Act had 





...^Nii.i.^, 








-■^-' . Est- >, 








HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



deprived them of the right to consult on 
their common affairs publicly, by means of 
delegates appointed for that purpose — and 
as eveu trial by jury was now virtually 
abolished, so that no man's life or liberty 
had any longer the slightest protection from 
the laws, they were thrown back upon their 
original rights and remedies as human 
beings — that is to say, the right and remedy 
of revolution. 

A few days before the attack of the 
police upon Taylor's Hall, a certain Rev. 
William Jackson, a clergyman of the Church 
of England, was arrested in Dublin on a 
charge of high treason. He had come from 
France, with instructions from the govern- 
ment of the republic to have an emissary 
appointed by the United Irish leaders who 
should go to Paris and negotiate for French 
aid in a revolutionary movement. He had 
come by way of Loudon ; and there Mr. 
Pitt, who w:is perfectly aware of his errand 
and his every movement, contrived that he 
should be provided with a companion upon 
his mission. This was one Cockayne, an 
attorney, who came to Dublin with Mr. 
Jackson, and affected great zeal in the 
cause of liberty and of Ireland. Jackson 
had letters of introduction to Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald, who refused, however, to hold 
any communication with him. He was in- 
troduced, however, to Wolfe Toue, and had 
several interviews with Rowan iu prison. 
Tune at first entered into his views, and 
undertook to be himself the agent who 
should go to France ; but at the next in- 
terview, having conceived suspicions of 
Cockayne, if not of Jackson himself, he 
drew back, and declined further negotiation. 
Rowan, however, was less cautious, and had 
many interviews with Jackson and Cockayne, 
in which he endeavored first to secure Tone's 
services as the French agent, and on his re- 
fusal, Dr. Reynolds'. All this while Mr. 
Pitt and the government were kept fully 
apprised of all that was going forward ; 
and at length, when it was supposed there 
was evidence enough to involve Jackson, 
Tone, Rowan and Reynolds in a charge of 
high treason, Jackson was arrested, brought 
to trial the next year, convicted on the tes- 
timony of Cockayne, and about to be sen- 
tenced to death, when he dropped dead in 




court, having swallowed arsenic for 
purpose. 

On the 1st of May, Archibald Hamilton 
Rowan, now certain of being tried, convicted 
and executed for high treason, escaped from 
Xewgate prison, arrived in France, and 
thence proceeded to America. Reynolds 
avoided arrest by timely flight. Tone was 
not apprehended ; but he was given to un- 
derstand that the accusation was hanging 
over him ; and was left the option of quitting 
the country, but without any promise being 
exacted on his part as to his course for the 
future Before going away, he wrote a 
narrative of the two conversations he had 
with Jackson. Tone's son, in his memoir 
of his father, says : " When my father de- 
livered this paper, the prevalent opinion, 
which he then shared, was, that Jackson 
was a secret emissary employed by the 
British Government. It required the un- 
fortunate man's voluntary death to'elear his 
character of such a foul imputation. What 
renders this transaction the more odious, is, 
that, before his arrival in Ireland, the life 
of Jackson was completely in the power of 
the British Government. His evil genius 
was already pinned upon him ; his mission 
from France, his every thought and his 
views, were known. He was allowed to 
proceed, not in order to detect an existing 
conspiracy in Ireland, but to form one, and 
thus increase the number of victims. A 
more atrocious instance of perfidious ami 
gratuitous cruelty is scarcely to be found iu 
the history of any country but Ireland." 

Iu May, 1165, Tone proceeded to Belfast 
with his family, met there some of his early 
associates in the formation of the first 
United Irish Club, and made some agreeable 
excursions with them. One of the scenes 
which he describes in his memoirs is im- 
pressive, seen in the light of subsequent 
events : " I remember, particularly, two 
days that we passed on the Cave hill. On 
the first, Russell, Neilson, Sirams, M'Cracken 
and one or two more of us, on the summit 
of M'Art's fort, took a solemn obligation, 
which, I think I may say, I have on my 
part endeavored to fulfill — never to desist in 
our efforts, until we had subverted the 
authority of England over our country, and 
asserted her independence." 



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FITZWILLIAM S ADMINISTRATION. 



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Tone had already solemnly promised liis 
friends in Dublin, that if he now retired to 
the United Slates, it would only be to pro- 
ceed thence to France, and labor to form 
the alliance which he regarded as the grand 
mis-ion of his life between the French Re- 
public and a republic in Ireland. 

In the beginning of the year 1795, owing 
to certain arrangements between the Eng- 
lish ministers and those lately "coalized " 
Whigs who had been admitted to a share in 
the administration, Lord Westmoreland was 
recalled from Ireland, and Lord Fitzwilliam 
was sent over as Lord-Lieutenant. This 
pave great hope and satisfaction to the 
Irish Catholics and their friends in Parlia- 
ment. Lord Fitzwilliam was a Whig of 
the Burke school, a close friend of the Duke 
of Portland ; and it was universally under- 
stood that he had not undertaken the gov- 
ernment of Ireland save on the express 
terms that complete Catholic Emancipation 
would be made a government measure. In- 
deed, this was well known ; for before con- 
senting to come to Ireland he had induced 
Mr. Grattan to go over and confer with 
him on the policy to be pursued. Mr. Grat- 
tan, of course, made the emancipation of the 
Catholics the main and indispensable point ; 
and the Duke of Portland and Lord Fitz- 
william fully concurred, with the distinct 
assent also of Mr. Pitt. For the due un- 
derstanding of the cruel fraud which that 
minister was now meditating upon the Irish 
nation, it is needful that tins previous ar- 
rangement of policy should be made clear ; 
and, Fortunately, we have the evidence, both 
of Mr. Grattan and Lord Fitzwilliam him- 
self, in full contradiction to the reckless as- 
sertions of Fitzgibbon. Mr. Grattan, in 
his Answer to Lord Clare, says: "In 
summer, on a change being made in the 
British Cabinet, being informed by some of 
the learned persons therein, that the admin- 
istration of the Irish Department was to be- 
long to them, and that they sent for us to 
adopt our measures, I stated the Catholic 
Emancipation to be one of them." And 
Lord Fitzwilliam, in his letters to Lord 
Carlisle, makes this explicit statement: 
" From the very beginning, as well as 
through the whole progress of that fatal 
business, for fatal I fear I must call it, I 




acted in perfect conformity with the original 
outline settled between me and His Majesty's 
ministry, previous to my departure from 
London. From a full consideration of the 
real merits of the case, as well as from every 
information I had been able to collect of the 
state and temper of Ireland, from the year 
1790, I was decidedly of opinion, that not 
only sound policy, but justice, required, on 
the part of Great Britain, that the work, 
which was left imperfect at that perioi , 
ought to be completed, and the Catholics 
relieved from every remaining disqualifica- 
tion. In this opinion the Duke of Portland 
uniformly concurred with me, and when this 
question came under discussion, previous to 
my departure for Ireland, I found the Cab- 
inet, with Mr. Pitt at their head, strongly 
impressed with the same conviction. Had 
I found it otherwise, I never would have 
undertaken the government. I at first pro- 
posed that the additional indulgences should 
be offered from the throne ; the very best 
effects would be secured by this act of un- 
solicited graciousness ; and the embarrass- 
ing consequences which it was natural to 
foresee must result from the measures being 
left open for any volunteer to bring forward, 
would be timely and happily avoided. But 
to this proposal objections were started, 
that appeared of sufficient weight to induce 
the adoption of another plan. I consented 
not to bring the question forward on the 
part of government, but rather to en- 
deavor to keep it back, until a period of 
more general tranquillity, when so many 
material objects might not press upon the 
government, but as the principle was agreed 
on, and the necessity of its being brought 
into full effect was universally allowed, it 
was at the same time resolved, that if the 
Catholics should appear determined to stir 
the business, and bring it before Parliament, 
I was to give it a handsome support on the 
part of the government. 

" I was no sooner landed, and informed 
of the real state of things here, -than I found 
that question would force itself upon my 
immediate consideration. Faithful to the 
system that had been agreed on, and anxious 
to attain the object that had been commit- 
ted to my discretion, I lost not a moment 
in gaining every necessary information, or 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



in transmitting the result to tlie British 
Cabinet. As early as the 8th of January, I 
wrote to the Secretary of State on the sub- 
ject ; I told him that I trembled about the 
Roman Catholics ; that I had great fears 
about keeping them quiet for the session ; 
that I found the question already in agita- 
tion ; that a committee was appointed to 
bring forward a petition to Parliament, 
praying for a repeal of all remaining dis- 
qualifications. I mentioned my intentions 
of immediately using what efforts I could to 
stop the progress of it, and to bring the 
Catholics back to a confidence in govern- 
ment. I stated the substance of some con- 
versations I had on the subject with some of 
the principal persons of the country. It 
was the opinion of one of these, that if the 
postponing of the question could be nego- 
tiated on grounds of expediency, it ought 
not to be resisted by government. That 
it should be put off for some time, was al- 
lowed by another to be a desirable thing, 
but the principle of extension was at the same 
time strongly insisted on, and forcibly in- 
culcated, as a matter of the most urgent 
necessity." 

Lord Fitzwilliam took possession of his 
government on the 4th of January, 1195. 
Parliament stood prorogued until the 22d 
of January. lie occupied the intervening 
time in making some dismissals from office, 
which created great dismay and resentment 
in the Castle circles, and proportional joy in 
the minds of the people. Mr. Grattau was in- 
vited to accept the post of Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, but declined. Mr. Ponsonby and 
Mr. Curran were to be made Attorney and 
Solicitor-General ; and these appointments in 
themselves were significant of a marked 
change in the Irish policy. But nothing 
struck the country with such surprise and 
pleasure, mingled with apprehension, as the 
dismissal of Mr. Beresford from the Revenue 
Board. The Beresford family was at that time 
the most powerful of the aristocracy of Ire- 
land ; had the two peerages of Waterford 
and Tyrone, and had also been so successful 
in its constant efforts to create for itself a 
controlling influence by means of patronage 
and boroughmoua;ering, that it was thought 
no viceroy could dare to displace a Beres- 
ford. In the letter cited before, addressed 



to Lord Carlisle, Fitzwilliam says : "And 
now for the grand question about Mr. 
Beresford. In a letter of mine to Mr. Pitt 
on this subject, I reminded him of a conver- 
sation, in which I had expressed to him (in 
auswer to the question put to him by me,) 
my apprehensions, that it would be necessary 
to remove that gentleman, and that he did 
not offer the slightest objection, or say a 
single word in favor of Mr. Beresford. This 
alone would have made me suppose that I 
should be exempt from every imputation of 
breach of agreement if I determined to re- 
move him ; but when, on my arrival here, I 
found all those apprehensions of his danger- 
ous power, which Mr. Pitt admits I had 
often represented to him, were fidly justified ; 
when he was filling a situation greater 
than that of the Lord-Lieutenant ; and I 
clearly saw, that if I had connected myself 
with him, it would have been connecting 
myself with a person under universal heavy 
suspicions, and subjecting my government 
to all the opprobrium and unpopularity at- 
tendant upon his mal-adm'mistration." 

This bold step, as it was then felt to be, 
still further confirmed the joyful expectation, 
that an ample Catholic Relief bill would 
soon be brought in and sustained by the 
government. All the Catholics and liberal 
Protestants were highly pleased at the pros- 
pect. The Northern Star, organ of the 
United Irishmen, published in Belfast, had 
triumphantly announced Catholic Emanci- 
pation as a matter settled. The Catholics 
generally agreed to put their case into the 
hands of Mr. Grattau, their old and warm 
advocate; and it seems highly probable that 
if the compact made with Lord Fitzwil- 
liam had been observed, and all the remain- 
ing disabilities of Catholics frankly removed 
at once, the insurrection would never have 
taken place, and infinite misery and atrocity 
saved to the country. But Mr. Pitt knew 
well that if there were no insurrection there 
would also be no union. He had his plans 
already almost matured; and his chief ad- 
viser for Irish affairs was the thorough Lord 
Clare. 

Mr. Beresford, the dismissed Commission- 
er of the Revenue, at once went to England, 
laid his complaints before Mr. Pitt, and 
even had an audience of the Kin"-. Lord 







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INSURRECTION FIRST " UNION " AFTERWARDS, 



Fitzwilliam very soon found, from the 
tenor of the letters he received from Pitt, 
that the minister was dissatisfied with some 
of his measures ; and disquieting rumors 
prevailed that he would not long remain in 
Ireland. 

In the meantime, Catholic petitions 
poured into the House. Mr. Grattan 
moved for leave to bring in his Catholic 
Relief bill; and leave was given with only 
three dissentient voices. This was of itself 
a very remarkable feature in Irish politics; 
and what was even more notable was the 
fact that no counter-petitions of Protestants 
were sent in. The nation was in good hu- 
mor; and the House voted larger supplies 
in men and money for carrying on the war 
than had ever been voted in Ireland before. 
Now the unpleasant rumors became more 
positive, and assumed more consistence. On 
the 28th of February, Sir Lawrence Par- 
sons, in his place in Parliament, asked the 
members opposite if the rumors were true; 
but received no answer. Sir Lawrence 
added, " he was sorry to be obliged to con- 
strue the silence of the right honorable and 
honorable gentlemen into a confirmation of 
this rumor; and he deplored most deeply the 
event, which, at the present time, must 
tend to throw alarming doubts on the 
promises, which had been held out to the 
people, of measures to be adopted for the 
promotion of their happiness, the concilia- 
tion of their minds, and the common at- 
tachment of every class of his majesty's 
faithful subjects of Ireland, in support of 
the same happy constitution. If those 
measures were now to be relinquished, 
which gentlemen had promised with so 
much confidence to the country, and on the 
faith of which, the House had been called 
on to vote the enormous sum of one million 
seven hundred thousand pounds, he must 
consider his country as brought to the most 
awful aud alarming crisis she had ever 
known in any period of her history." 

He then moved tin address to His Excel- 
lency, entreating him to remain in his gov- 
ernment; Mr. Duquery seconded the mo- 
tion, and ased very strong language with 
respect to the conduct of Mr. Pitt, "who, 
not satisfied," he said, "with having in- 
volved the country in a disastrous war, in- 




tended, to complete the mischief by risking 
the internal peace of Ireland, making that 
country the dupe of his fraud and artifice, 
in order to swindle the nation out of £1, 
700,000 to support the war on the faith 
of measures which it now seemed were to 
be refused." 

And now all proceedings on the Catho- 
lic Relief bill were suspended, by positive 
orders from England; and as Mr. Grattan 
had acted in bringing it forward as a min- 
isterial supporter he could only acquiesce, 
though with the gloomiest forebodings. 

Again, on the 2d of March, Sir Law- 
rence Parsons made a very violent speech, 
severely reprobating the bad faith of the 
British Cabinet with regard to Lord Fitz- 
william. " But the great object," he said, 
" of the motion he was about to make was 
to calm the public mind, to irive the people 
an assurance that the measures which were 
proposed would not be abandoned; that 
the Parliament would keep the means in 
their hands until they were accomplished; 
and that they would not be prorogued un- 
til they were fairly and fully discussed. He 
did not pretend to say specifically what 
these measures were. The first he believed 
to be the Catholic bill; and if a resistance 
to any one measure more than another was 
likely to promote dreadful consequences it 
was this. He said nothing as to the orig- 
inal propriety of the measure; but this 
much he would say, that if the Irish admin- 
istration had countenanced the Catholics in 
this expectation, without the concurrence of 
the British Cabinet, they had much to an- 
swer for. On the other hand, if the Brit- 
ish Cabinet had held out an assent, and had 
afterwards retracted; if the dremon of dark- 
ness should come from the infernal regions 
upon earth, and throw a fire-brand amongst 
the people, he could not do more to pro- 
mote mischief. The hopes of the public 
were raised, and in one instant they were 
blasted. If the House did not resent that, 
insult to the nation and to themselves, they 
would in his mind be most contemptible; 
for although a majority of the people might 
submit to be mocked in sobarefaced a man- 
ner, the case was not as formerly, when 
all the Parliament of Ireland was against 
the Catholics; and to back them, the force 



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238 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



of England." Now, although the claim of 
the Catholics was well known and under- 
stood, not one petition controverting it had 
been presented from Protestants in any 
part of Ireland. No remonstrance ap- 
peared, no county meeting had been held. 
What was to be inferred from all this, but 
that the sentiments of the Protestants were 
for the emancipation of the Catholics? A 
meeting was held on Saturday last at the 
Royal Exchange of the merchants and 
traders of the metropolis, which was as nu- 
merously attended as the limits of that 
building would admit. The Governor of 
the Bank of Ireland was in the chair. An 
address was resolved on to His Excellency 
Lord Fitzwilliam, full of affection, and re- 
solutions strong as they could be in counte- 
nance of the Catholic claim. He would 
ask them, was the British minister to con- 
trol all the interests, talents, and inclina- 
tions in that country ? He protested to 
God, that in all the history he had read, he 
had never met with a parallel of such omin- 
ous infatuation as that by which he ap- 
peared to be led. " Let them persevere," 
said he, "and you must increase your army 
to myriads; every man must have five or 
six dragoons in his house." Sir Lawrence 
ended with a motion to limit the Money 
bill; but this motion was voted down by a 
large majority. Members could hardly yet 
believe that so great a villany was intend- 
ed. Mr. Conolly, however, remarked "that 
he would vote for it if he did not hear 
something satisfactory " — namely about the 
retention of Lord Fitzwilliam. Within a 
few days after Lord Fitzwilliam was re- 
called from Ireland. No more was heard 
about Catholic Relief for nearly forty years. 
Lord Camden succeeded as viceroy, and the 
country was delivered over to its now inev- 
itable ordeal of slaughter and desolation ; 
an ordeal which, in Mr. Pitt's opinion, was 
needful to pave the way for the Legislative 
Union. Air. Plowden has very truly de- 
scribed the effect of these transactions upon 
the nation: — 

" The report of Earl Fitzwilliam's inteuded 
removal was no sooner credited, than an 
uuiversal despondency, in some instances 
bordering on desperation, seized the whole 
nation. Meetings were formed throughout 



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the kingdom, in order to convey to their 
beloved and respected Governor, their high 
sense of his virtue and patriotism, and their 
just indignation at his and their country's 
enemies. The deep and settled spirit of 
discontent which at this time pervaded all 
ranks of people, was not confined to the 
Catholics. The Dissenters and as many of 
the Protestants of the establishment, as had 
not an interest in that monopoly of power 
and influence, which Earl Fitzwilliam had 
so openly attacked and so fearfully alarmed, 
felt the irresistible effect : all good Irishmen 
beheld with sorrow and indignation, the re- 
conciliation of all parties, interests, and relig 
ions defeated, the cup of national union 
dashed from their eager lips, and the spirit 
of discord let loose upon the kingdom with 
an enlarged commission to inflame, aggra- 
vate, and destroy. Such were the feelings, 
and such the language of those who de- 
plored the removal of that nobleman, in the 
critical moment of giving peace, strength, 
and prosperity to their country. And how 
large a part of the Irish nation lamented 
the loss of their truly patriotic Governor, 
may be read in the numberless addresses 
and resolutions that poured in upon him 
both before and after his actual departure, 
expressive of their grief, despair, and indig- 
nation at that ominous event. They came 
from every description of persons, but from 
Right Boys, Defenders, and the old de- 
pendants upon the castle." The people of 
Ireland, of all sects and classes seemed 
seized with a sudden undefined horror at 
the prospects before them. They saw that 
a great opportunity was lost. And they 
had no mortal quarrel with one another, 
save the quarrel always made for them, 
always forced on them, by an English min- 
ister sitting safe in his Cabinet at Westmin- 
ster. Many on both sides who were des- 
tined soon to meet in deadly struggle could 
have prayed that this cup might pass. On 
the 25th of March, P795, Lord Fitzwilliam 
took his departure from Ireland, when the 
resentment, grief, and indignation of the 
public were most strongly marked. It was 
a day of general gloom : the shops were 
shut; no business of any kind was transact- 
ed, and the whole city put on mourning. 
His coach was drawn to the water side by 



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some of the most respectable citizens, and 
cordial sorrow appeared on every counte- 
nance. The reception of Earl Camden, 
who arrived in Dublin live days after, wore 
a very different complexion ; displeasure 
appeared generally : many strong traits of 
disapprobation were exhibited, and some of 
the populace were so outrageous, that it 
became necessary to call out a military 
force in order to quell the disturbances that 
ensued. 

Still the rage for meetings and addresses 
continued. On the 9th of April a most 
numerous and respectable meeting of the 
Catholics was had in their chapel in Francis 
street, to receive the report of their dele- 
gates, who had presented their petition at 
St. James' : when Mr. Keogh reported, 
that in execution of their mission, they had 
on the 13th of March presented their peti- 
tion to His Majesty, and had received what 
■was generally termed a gracious reception. 
That they had afterwards felt it their duty 
to request an audience with the Duke of 
Portland, the Secretary of State for the 
Home Department, to receive such informa- 
tion as he should think fit to impart rela- 
tive to His Majesty's determination on the 
Bubject of their address. That his grace 
declined giving any information whatever, 
save that His Majesty had imparted his 
pleasure thereon to the Lord-Lieutenant, 
and that he was the proper channel through 
which that information should pass. Here 
their mission was determined. Mr. Keogh 
continued to deliver his sentiments upon the 
critical situation of affairs, and amongst 
many strong things, which fell from him, 
one observation gave particular offence to 
government. He was not, he said, sorry 
that the measure had been attempted, 
though it had been defeated : for it pointed 
out one fact at least, in which the feelings 
of every Irishman were interested, and by 
which the Irish Legislature would be 
roused to a sense of its own dignity. It 
showed that the internal regulations of 
Ireland, to which alone an Irish Parliament 
was competent, were to be previously ad- 
justed by a British Cabinet. "Whilst this 
debate was going on, a very large party of 
the young men of the college came into the 
chapel, and were most honorably received. 




Some of them joined in the debate. They 
came that hour from presenting an address 
to Mr. Grattan, to thank and congratulate 
him upon his patriotic efforts in the cause 
of Catholic Emancipation, and the reform 
of those abuses, which had inflamed public 
indignation, to which Mr. Grattan made an 
appropriate answer. Every patriotic Irish- 
man must look back with unavailing regret 
to the lost opportunity, or rather to the 
cruel deception, of Lord Fitzwilliam's short 
administration. There was really at that 
moment a disposition to bury the hatchet 
of strife. At no subsequent period, down 
to this day, were the two nations which 
make up the Irish population, so well dis- 
posed to amalgamate and unite. But that 
did not suit the exigencies of British policy. 
There was to be an insurrection, in order 
that there might be a Legislative Union. In 
this same eventful year of 1795, British 
policy was materially aided by a new and 
portentous institution — the Orange Society. 
The recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, and the abso- 
lute and most inevitable despair of obtain- 
ing either Reform of Parliament or Catho- 
lic Emancipation under the existing order 
of things, had driven vast numbers of the 
people, of both religions, into the United 
Irish Society. A spirit of union and frater- 
nity was spreading fast. " Then," says Mr. 
Plowden, " the gentlemen in place became 
frightfully alarmed for their situations ; ac- 
tive agents were sent down to Armagh, to 
turn the ferocity and fanaticism of the Peep 
of Day Boys into a religious contest with 
the Catholics, under the specious appear- 
ance of zeal for Church and King. Personal 
animosity was artfully converted into relig- 
ious rancor ; and for the specious purpose 
of taking off the stigma of delinquency, the 
appellation of Peep of Day Boys was 
changed into that of Orangemen." It was 
in the northern part of Armagh County 
that this bloody association originated, and 
Mr. Thomas Verner enjoyed the bad emi- 
nence of being its first " Grand Master." 
Their test is said to have been : " In the 
awful presence of Almighty God, I, A. B., 
do solemnly swear, that I will, to the 
utmost of my power, support the King and 
the present government; and I do further 
swear, that I will use my utmost exertions 




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to exterminate all the Catholics of the king- 
dom of Ireland." But this oath, being 
secret, has latterly been denied by the 
Orangemen of respectability and conse- 
quence. It has been generally credited, 
that it was taken by all the original lodges, 
and continued afterwards to be taken by 
the lower classes. The Orange oath is 
given in the above terms in a pamphlet 
published in 1197, called " A View of the 
Present State of Ireland," which is attrib- 
uted to Arthur O'Connor. But whatever 
may have been the original form of engage- 
ment, or however it may have since been 
changed by more politic " Grand Masters," 
nothing is more certain than that the 
Orange Society did immediately and most 
seriously apply themselves to the task of 
exterminating the Catholics. There is quite 
as little doubt that this shocking society 
was encouraged by the government, and by 
most of the magistrates and country geutle- 
men to keep alive religious animosity, and 
prevent the spread of the United Irish or- 
ganization. An union of Irishmen, upon 
the just, liberal, and fraternal basis of this 
organization, would have rendered impossi- 
ble that other "Union" on which Mr. Pitt 
had set his heart — the Union of Ireland 
with England. The recall of Lord Fitzwil- 
iam and the arrival of Lord Camden gave 
the signal for the bloody anarchy, through 
which Ireland was doomed to pass for the 
next four years, ami which, it was deliber- 
ately calculated, was to end in her extinc- 
tion as a nation. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

1795— 17i)7. 
"To Hell or Connaught" — " Vigor beyond the 
Law " — Lord Carhanipton's Vigor — Insurrection 
Act — Indemnity Act — The latter an invitation to 
Magistrates to break the law — Mr. Grattan on the 
Orangemen — His Resolution — The Acts Passed — 
Opposed by Grattan, Parsons, and Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald — Insurrection Act destroys Liberty of 
the Press — Suspension of Habeas Corpus — U. I. 
Society — New Members — Lord E. Fitzgerald — Mac 
Neven— Emmet— Wolf Tone at Paris— His Journal 
—Clarke— Carnot—Hoclie— Bantry Bay Expedi- 
tion — Account of, in Tone's Journal — Fleet An- 
chors in Bantry Bay — Account of the affair by 
Secret Committee of the Lords— Government fully 
Informed of all the Projects. 

The chief object of the government and 
its agents was now to invent and dissemi- 




nate fearful rumors of intended massacres 
of all the Protestant people by the Catho- 
lics. Dr. Madden says : " Efforts were 
made to infuse into the mind of the Pro- 
testant feelings of distrust to his Catholic 
fellow-countrymen. Popish plots and con- 
spiracies were fabricated with a practical 
facility, which some influential authorities 
conceived it no degradation to stoop to ; 
and alarming reports of these dark confed- 
erations were circulated with a restless 
assiduity." The effects were soon apparent 
in the atrocities committed by the Orange- 
men in Armagh, and by the magistrates 
and military in other countries. The per 
secuted "Defenders" of Armagh made 
some feeble attempts to protect themselves, 
though almost without arms. This resist- 
ance led to the transaction called " Battle 
of the Diamond," near the village of that 
name, on the 21st of September, 1795. 
Several writers have alleged that the. Cath- 
olics invited this conflict by a challenge 
sent to the Orangemen. Of course, the lat- 
ter, having abundance of arms, and being 
sure of the protection of the magistrates, 
were not slow to accept such an invitation ; 
but nothing can be more absurd than to 
term the affair a battle. Not one of the 
Orange party was killed or wounded. Four 
or five Defenders were killed, and a propor- 
tionate number wounded ; and this is the 
glorious battle that has been toasted at 
Orange banquets from that day to the 
present. Mr. Emmet* thus describes the 
transaction: "The Defenders were speed- 
ily defeated with the loss of some few killed 
and left on the field of battle, besides the 
wounded, whom they carried away. * * 
The Catholics, after this, never attempted 
to make a stand, but the Orangemen com- 
menced a persecution of the blackest dye. 
They would no longer permit a Catholic to 
exist in the country. They posted up on 
the cabins of these unfortunate victims this 
pithy notice, "To Hell or Connaught;" 
and appointed a limited time in which the 
necessary removal of persons and property 
was to be made. If, after the expiration of 
that period, the notice had not been complied 
with, the Orangemen assembled, destroyed 
the furniture, burned the habitations, and 

• Pieces of Irish History. 



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forced llic ruined families to fly elsewhere for 
shelter." Mr. Emmet adds, "Whilethese 
outrages were going on, die resident magis- 
trates were not found to resist them, and in 
si une instances were even more than inactive 
spectators." Dr. Madden has preserved and 
printed a number of the " notices," ill- 
spelled, but sufficiently intelligible, which 
were posted on the cabin doors. But the 
Orangemen by no means confined them- 
selves to mere forcible ejectment of their 
enemies. Many fearful murders were com- 
mitted on the unresisting people ; and 
what gives perhaps the clearest idea of the 
persecution is the fact that seven thousand 
persons were estimated in the next year to 
have been either killed or driven from their 
homes in that one small county alone.* 
But the unhappy outcasts, even when they 
escaped with their lives, had no shelter to 
fly to. In most cases they could only wan- 
der on the mountains until either death re- 
lieved them, or they were arrested and im- 
prisoned; while the younger men were sent, 
without ceremony, to one of the " tenders," 
then lying in various seaports, and tlrcnce 
transferred on board British men-of-war. 
This was the device originally of Lord Car- 
hampton, then commanding in Ireland. It 
was called a " vigor beyond the law;" a del- 
icate phrase which has since come very 
much into use to describe outrages commit- 
ted by magistrates against the law. Dur- 
ing all the rest of this year the greater part 
of Leinster, with portions of Ulster and 
Minister, were in the utmost terror and 
agony; the Orange magistrates, aided by 
the troops, arresting and imprisoning, with- 
out any charge, multitudes of unoffending 
people, under one pretext or another. It 
is right to present a sample of the story as 
told by " loyal men." Thus, then, the mat- 
ter is represented by Sir Richard Musgrave, 
p. 145: " Lord Carhampton, finding that 
tin' laws were silent and inoperative in the 
counties which he visited, and that they did 
nut afford protection to the loyal and peace- 
able subjects, who in most places were obliged 
to fly from their habitations, resolved to re- 

* Mr. Plowden, who in as hostile to the Defenders 
M :iny Orangeman, says from live to seven thousand. 
O'Connor, Emmet and MacNeven, in their Memoirs 

of the Uniuu, say " seven thousand driven from their 
homes." 



store them to their usual energy, by the 
following salutary system of severity : 
' In each county he assembled the most 
respectable gentlemen and landholders in 
it, and having, in concert with them, exam- 
ined the charges against the leaders of this 
banditti, who were in prison, but defied jus- 
tice, he, with the concurrence of these gen- 
tlemen, sent the most nefarious of them on 
board a tender, stationed at Sligo, to serve 
in His Majesty's navy.' " There is no doubt 
that great numbers of people were obliged 
to fly from their habitations ; but then 
these were the very people whom Lord 
Carhampton and the magistrates called 
banditti, and sent to the tender as " nefa- 
rious." Such is, however, a specimen of 
the history of these times as told upon 
Orange authority. 

In the midst of these painful scenes. 
Parliament assembled on the 21st of Janu- 
ary, 1196. Lord Camden, in his speech 
from the throne, congratulated them on 
" the brilliant successes of the Austrian 
armies upon the Rhine;" and then, alluding 
to dangerous secret societies, he intimated 
that certain additional powers would be 
called for ; in other words, martial law. 
The Attorney-General lost no time in bring- 
ing forward an Insurrection Act and an 
Indemnity Act — the latter being for the 
purpose of indemnifying magistrates and 
military officers against the consequences 
of any of their illegal outrages upon the 
people. 

Mr. Curran wished to know the extent 
aud nature of that delinquency, which it 
was intended to indemnify ; when Mr. M. 
Beresford observed, the word delinquency 
was not applicable to the persons intended; 
a part of the country was alarmingly dis- 
turbed; the magistrates and others invested 
with power had, in order to prevent the 
necessity of proclaiming martial law univer- 
sally, acted in that particular district, as if 
martial law were proclaimed : this conduct, 
so far from being delinquency, was justifi- 
able aud laudable, and of happy conse- 
quence in the event. 

On the 28th of the month, the Attorney- 
General adverted to the notice he had 
given on the first night of the session, of 
his intention of bringing in two bills : the 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



object of one of them was, for preventing in 
future insurrections, and tumults, and riots 
in this kingdom; and the object of the other 
bill was, to indemnify certain magistrates 
and others, who, in their exertions for the 
preservation of the public tranquillity, might 
have acted against the forms and rules of 
law ; he stated that the bill for the more 
effectually preventing of insurrections, tu- 
mults, aud riots, by persons styling them- 
selves Defenders, aud other disorderly per- 
sons, was, however repugnant to his feel- 
ings. 

He said, that the act then in force for 
administering unlawful oaths was not suffi- 
ciently strong, aud the administering of un- 
lawful oaths was the source of all the trea- 
sonable actions which had taken place in 
the country: the bill proposed, that the ad- 
ministering of unlawful oaths should be 
felony of death; but he would propose, 
that that bill should be but a tempo- 
rary law ; there was also a clause iu 
the bill to enable the magistrates, at 
the quarter sessions, to take up all idle 
vagrants and persons who had no visible 
means of earning a livelihood, and send 
them to serve on board the fleet ; lie said 
he did not propose to hurry this bill through 
the House, but give time for the considera- 
tion, as it might be necessary to add much, 
and make several alterations. lie then 
moved for leave " to bring in a bill for the 
more effectual prevention of insurrections, 
tumults, and riots, by persons styling them- 
selves Defenders, and other disorderly per- 
sons;" and leave was given to bring iu the 
bill. Then he moved for leave "to bring iu 
a bill for indemnifying such magistrates and 
others, who might have, siuce the 1st of 
January, 1795, exceeded the ordinary 
forms and rules of law for the preservation 
of the public peace, and suppression of in- 
surrection prevailing in some parts of this 
kingdom." 

There was earnest opposition against 
these two bills, but without effect : they 
were both passed into laws ; and they had 
(lie effect, which they were certainly intended 
to have, of exciting, or at least hastening, 
the insurrection of 1798. It is observable 
that the motive assigned by the govern- 
ment officials for passing these laws was 



always the outrages aud alleged secret asso- 
ciations of Defenders. Not a word was 
said about the real outrages and extermina- 
ting oaths of Orangemen. Indeed, the 
measures in question were really directed 
not against either Defenders or Orangemen, 
but against the United Irishmen, the only 
association of which the government had the 
slightest fear. Besides the two bills, the 
Attorney-G eneral proposed four supplement- 
al resolutions asserting the necessity of 
giving enlarged powers to magistrates to 
search for arms and to make arrests. On 
the reading of these resolutions, Mr. Grattan 
observed, that he had heard the right honor- 
able gentleman's statement, and did not 
suppose it to be inflamed ; but he must ob- 
serve at the same time it was partial ; he 
did, indeed, expatiate very fully and justly 
on the offences of the Defenders ; but with 
respect to another description of insurgents, 
whose barbarities had excited general ab- 
horrence, he had observed a complete silence; 
that he had proceeded to enumerate the 
counties that were afflicted by disturbances, 
and he had omitted Armagh ;— of that, 
neither had he comprehended the out- 
rages in his general description, nor in his 
particular enumeration: of those outrages, 
he had received the most dreadful accounts ; 
that their object was the extermination of 
all the Catholics of that county ; it was a 
persecution conceived iu the bitterness of 
bigotry, carried on with the most ferocious 
barbarity, by a banditti, who being of the 
religion of the state, had committed with 
the greater audacity and confidence, the 
most horrid murders, and had proceeded 
from robbery and massacre to extermina- 
tion ; that they had repealed, by their own 
authority, all the laws lately passed in fa- 
vor of the Catholics, had established in the 
place of those laws, the inquisition of a mob, 
resembling Lord George Gordon's fanatics, 
equaling them in outrage, and, surpassing 
them far in perseverance and success. 

That their modes of outrage were as 
various as they were atrocious ; they some- 
times forced, by terror, the masters of fami- 
lies to dismiss their Catholic servants — they 
sometimes forced landlords, by terror, to 
dismiss their Catholic tenantry — they seized 
as deserters, numbers of Catholic weavers— 



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ME. GR.VTTAN ON THE ORANGEMEN HIS RESOLUTION. 



243 



sent them to the enmity jail, transmitted 
them to Dublin, where they remained in 
elose prison, until some lawyers, from com- 
passion, pleaded their cause, and procured 
their enlargement, nothing appearing against 
I hem of any kind whatsoever. Those in- 
surgents, who called themselves Orange 
Boys, or Protestant Boys, that is, a ban- 
ditti of murderers, committing massacre in 
the name of God, and exercising despotic 
power in the name of liberty — those insur- 
gents had organized their rebellion, and 
formed themselves. into a committee, who sat 
and tried the Catholic weavers and inhabi- 
tants, when apprehended falsely and illegally 
as deserters. That rebellious commilttee, 
they called the committee of elders, who, 
when the unfortunate Catholic was torn from 
his family and his loom, and brought before 
them, in judgment upon his case— if he gave 
them liquor or money, they sometimes dis- 
charged him — otherwise they seat him to a 
recruiting office as a deserter. They had 
very generally given the Catholics notice to 
quit their farms and dwellings, which notice 
was plastered on the house, and conceived 
in these short but plain words : " Go to 
Hell, Connaught won't receive yon — fire and 
faggot. AVill Tresham and John Thrust- 
out." That they followed these notices by 
a faithful and punctual execution of the 
horrid threat — soon after visited the house, 
robbed the family, and destroyed what they 
did not take, and finally completed the 
atrocious persecutions by forcing the unfor- 
tunate inhabitants to leave their land, their 
dwellings, and their trade, and to travel 
with their miserable family, and with what- 
ever their miserable family could save from 
the wreck of their houses and tenements, 
and take refuge in villages, as fortifications 
against invaders, where they described 
themselves, as he had seeu in their affida- 
vits, in the following manner: "We, (men- 
tioning their names,) formerly of Armagh, 
weavers, now of no fixed place of abode or 
means of living, &C." In many instances 
this banditti of persecution threw down the 
houses of the tenantry, or what they called 
racked the house, so that the family must By 
or be buried in the grave of their own cabin. 
The extent of the murders that had been 
committed by that atrocious and rebellious 



banditti he had heard, but had not heard 
them so ascertained as to state them to that 
house ; but from all the inquiries he could 
make lie collected, that the Catholic inhabi- 
tants of Armagh had been actually put ont 
of the protection of the law ; that the 
magistrates had been supine or partial, and 
that the horrid banditti had met with com- 
plete success and, from the magistracy, with 
very little discouragement. This horrid 
persecution, this abominable barbarity, and 
this general extermination had been acknowl- 
edged by the magistrates, who found the 
evil had now proceeded to so shameful an 
excess, that it had at length obliged them 
to cry out against it. On the 28th of De- 
cember, thirty of the magistrates had come 
to the following resolution, which was evi- 
dence of the designs of the insurgents, and 
of their success: "Resolved, That it ap- 
pears to this meeting, that the County of 
Armagh is at this moment in a state of un- ' 
common disorder ; that the Boman Cath- 
olic inhabitants are grievously oppressed by 
lawless persons uuknown, who attack and 
plunder their houses by night, and threaten 
them with instant destruction, unless they 
abandon immediately their lands and habi- 
tations." 

The " Insurrection act" was intended tp 
give magistrates most unlimited powers to 
arrest and imprison, and search houses for 
arms ; the other act, called of " Indemnity," 
was an actual invitation to break the law. 
Mr. Grattan, whose speeches, more than 
any records or documents, illustrate this 
period of the history of his country, com- 
menting on this latter act, says : "A bill 
of indemnity went to secure the offending 
magistrates against the consequences of their 
outrages and illegalities ; that is to say, in 
our humble conception, the poor were 
stricken out of the protection of the law, 
and the rich out of its penalties ; and then 
another bill was passed to give such lawless 
proceedings against His Majesty's subjects 
continuation, namely, a bill to enable the 
magistrates to perpetrate by law, those of- 
fences which they had before committed 
against it ; a bill to legalize outrage, to bar- 
barize law, and to give the law itself the 
cast and color of outrage. By such a bill, 
the magistrates were enabled, without legal 






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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



process, to send on board a tender IT is 
Majesty's subjects, and the country was 
divided iuto two classes, or formed iuto two 
distinct nations, living under the same King, 
and inhabiting the same island ; one con- 
sisting of the King's magistrates, and the 
other of the King's subjects ; the former 
without restraint, and the latter without 
privilege." 

Both the bills passed; but amongst those 
who opposed them to the last in the House 
of Commons, by the side of Mr. Grattan and 
Sir Lawrence Parsons, it is with pleasure that 
one finds the honored name of Lord Edward 
Fitzgerald. The debates on these bills and 
resolutions furnish perhaps the most authen- 
tic documents for the history of the time, 
and especially for the lawless outrages which 
were then devastating the north of Ireland. 
One of the Attorney-General's resolutions 
spoke of the necessity of punishing persons 
who "seized by force the arms of His 
Majesty's subjects." Mr. Grattan moved 
an amendment, to add "and also the pur- 
sons of His Majesty's subjects, and to force 
them to abandon their lands and habita- 
tions ; " aud in the third resolution, after the 
words " murdering those who had spirit to 
give information," to add, "also attempting 
to seize the persons, and obliging His 
Majesty's subjects, by force, to abandon 
their lands and habitations." 

But the amendment, as it evidently con- 
templated the protection of the unhappy 
Catholics of Armagh County, was opposed 
by the Attorney-General, and rejected as a 
matter of course. 

One of the clauses of the "Insurrection 
act " was vehemently, but vainly, opposed 
by Sir Lawrence Parsons : it was to em- 
power any two magistrates to seize upon 
persons who should publish or sell a news- 
paper or pamphlet which they, the two 
magistrates, should deem seditious, aud 
without any form of trial to send them on 
board the fleet. This was a total annihila- 
tion of the Press, saving only the Castle 
Press. 

When it is recollected that the magis- 
tracy and Protestant country gentlemen of 
Ireland were at that time inflamed with the 
most furious rage against their Catholic 
countrymen, and were besides purposely ex- 



cited by rumors of intended Popish risings 
for the extirpation of Protestants, (which 
many of them, in their ignorance, believed,) 
it will be seen what a terrible power these 
acts conferred upon them. They naturally 
conceived, and very justly, that the law 
now made it a merit on their part to break 
the law, provided it were done to the op- 
pression and ruin of the Catholic people; 
and felt that they were turned loose with 
a full commission to burn, slay, rob, and 
ravish. It will be seen that they largely 
availed themselves of these privileges. 
There was but one thing now wanted ; and 
this was the suspension of the Habeas Cor- 
pus act. . This was supplied in the next ses- 
sion of Parliament, which took place on 
t he 13th of October; and from that moment 
Ireland stood utterly stripped naked of all 
law and government. 

In the meantime the United Irish Soci- 
ety had been steadily increasing and busily 
laboring and negotiating. Some valuable 
members had lately joined it, in despair of 
any peaceable or constitutional remedy. 
The chief of these was the generous and 
gallant Lord Edward Fitzgerald, brother 
to the then Duke of Leiuster, formerly a 
Major in the British army, and who had 
served under Coruwallis against the Amer- 
icans. Since his return to Europe he had 
several times visited the Continent, and 
mingled much with revolutionary society in 
France. Having seen so much of the 
world, he was not so ignorant and stupid as 
were most of the Irish gentry at that pe- 
riod ; and his natural nobility of soul was 
revolted by the brutal usage to which he 
saw his countrymen subjected at the hands 
of the " Ascendancy." It is probable, too, 
that he, the descendant of au ancient Gallo- 
Hibernian house, settled in Ireland more 
than six centuries, which had given chiefs 
to the ancient Clau-Geralt, and had been 
called " more Irish than the Irish," had far 
more sympathy with the Irish race than the 
mob of Cromwellian and Williamite gran- 
dees who then ruled the country. Arthur 
O'Connor was another valuable accession to 
the ranks of the United Irishmen. He was 
also highly connected, though by no means 
equally so with Lord Edward ; but he was 
nephew of Lord Longueville, had sat in 



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Parliament for Philipstown, and bad la- 
bored zealously for a time on the forlorn 
hope of the opposition, by the side of G rat- 
tun and Ourran. Another was Thomas 
Addis Emmet, a barrister, a warm friend 
of Wolf Tone, who had been long intimate- 
ly associated in principle with the leaders 
of the United Irish Association, and bad 
been privy to the design of Tone, to negoti- 
ate a French alliance ; a fourth was Dr. 
William James Mac Neven, a physician in 
Dublin, originally of Galway County, but 
who had been educated on the Continent, 
as most of the young professional men 
among the Catholics then were. These 
four became members of the " Executive 
Directory" of the "United Irish Society; 
and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, when its 
military organization was formed, was made 
Commander-in-Chief. It was after the pas- 
sage of the Insurrection and Indemnity 
acts, and in the recess between the two ses- 
sions of Parliament of l"9(i, that the 
United Irishmen began to make definitive 
preparations for armed resistance.* 

Theobald Wolfe Tone was now in Paris, 
having arrived at Havre the 1st of Febru- 
ary, 1796, bearing a letter of introduction 
to Charles De la Croix, Minister for For- 
eign Affairs, from the French Envoy at 
Philadelphia. He had another letter to 
James Monroe, then the representative of 
the United States in Paris, who very kindly 
guided him in his proceedings to gain the 
ear of the French authorities. He had 
several interviews with De la Croix, with 
Clarke (who was afterwards Due de Fel- 
tiv,i and, what was of more importance, 
with the illustrious Carnot, Chief of the 
Executive Directory, who really himself 
controlled at that moment the movements 
of all the French armies. The journal kept 
by Tone during the remainder of that year, 
is at times very entertaining, and again ex- 
tremely affecting — especially where he re- 
cords the few pieces of intelligence which 
reached him from Ireland in those days of 
iuterrnpted communications. For example, 
one day at Rennes, he writes : " October 

* See examination of Arthur O'Connor before the 
Secret Committee oi the House of Lords: Com.— 
When did the military organization begin? O'Con- 
north after the Ivvrutive had n-MiIveil on re- 
sistance to the Irish Government, and on an alliance 
With France in Ma)', 17'JU. 




29//i. — This morning before we set out, Gen- 
eral Harty sent for me, and showed me an 
English paper that he had just borrowed, 
the Morning Post, of September 24tii, in 
which was an article copied from the North- 
ern Star of the 1 6th precedent. By this 
unfortunate article, I see that what I have 
long expected, with the greatest anxiety, is 
come to pass. My dear friends, Russell 
and Sam. Neilson, were arrested for high 
treason on that day, together with Rowley 
Osborne, Haslett, and a person, whom I 
do not know, of the name of Shanaghan. 
The persons who arrested them were the 
Marquis of Downshire, the Earl of West- 
raeath, and Lord Londonderry, together 
with that most infamous of all scoundrels, 
John Pollock. It is impossible to conceive 
the effect this heavy misfortune has upon 
my mind. If we are not in Ireland time 
enough to extricate them, they are gonej 
for the Government will move heaven, 
earth, and hell to insure their condemna- 
tion. Good God 1 If they fall—" 

His progress in negotiating for substan- 
tial aid from France had at first been slow, 
and sometimes looked discouraging. He 
was required to draw up two " memorials " 
upon the state and resources of Ireland, for 
the Government ; and in these memorials, 
and in the conversations which he records 
with Clarke and Carnot, it is chiefly impor- 
tant to remark, that he always pressed ur- 
gently for a large force, such as would en- 
able the chiefs of the United Irishmen at 
once to establish a provisional government, 
and prevent anarchy; that he strenuously 
opposed a recommendation of Clarke, for 
exciting both in England and Ireland a 
species of c/wuannerie, or mere peasant in- 
surrection, with no other object than to cre- 
ate confusion, and operate as a diversion. 
Tone admitted that it might be natural and 
justifiable for the French to retaliate in 
this way, what the English had done to 
them in La Vendee; but his own object was 
the independence of his country, which, he 
rightly thought, would not be served by 
mere riot and confusion. We find also in 
these notes that Clarke and Carnot several 
times questioned him about the dispositions 
of the Catholic clergy, and how they might 
be expected to act in case of a landing, 




1LNS .CCli.NB.S.0, 




It r 






HISTORY OF IKELANTJ. 



"3 



v, k 



ss 



K?* 



He always replied that no reliance could be 
placed upon the clergy at first, especially if 
the expedition were not in sufficient force to 
put dowu quickly all resistance; that they 
were opposed to republicanism and revolu- 
tion, but if the French went in sufficient 
force the clergy neither would nor could 
give serious opposition to the liberation of 
his country. 

While Tone was laboring through these 
summer months to get those ministers im- 
pressed with his own ideas, and wondering 
at their hesitation, when it was in their 
power to deal a mortal blow upon English 
power, another negotiation was going on, 
which at the time was unknown to him. It 
is stated in the Report of the Lords' Secret 
Committee, hereafter to be cited, that the 
agent of the United Irishmen in this second 
negotiation was Edward John Lcwins, an 
attorney in Dublin; but this is probably an 
error. At all events, it is certain that the 
French Directory was at that moment in 
correspondence with the Irish chiefs through 
other channels than Wolfe Tone; and that 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Arthur 
O'Connor had come to Switzerland by way 
of Hamburg to meet agents of the Direc- 
tory; and General Hoche had repaired to 
Basle, just over the French frontier, to con- 
fer with those gentlemen. In deciding 
upon so vast an armament, the Ministers of 
the French Republic were certainly justified 
in procuring all possible authentic informa- 
tion about Ireland ; and in checking the 
memorials of Tone by the reports of other 
well-known leaders of the United Irishmen. 
They had incautiously opened their negotia- 
tions with the Directory through the medi- 
um of M. Barthelemi, of whose integrity 
they had no suspicion; and Dr. Madden in- 
forms us that by this error " they at once 
placed the secret of their mission in the 
sympathizing bosom of Mr. William Pitt."* 
The Secret Committee of the Lords, indeed, 
in 1198, details the negotiation with perfect 
correctness, and hints at the means by 
which the expedition was frustrated. How- 
"soever that may be, it is evident that the 
reports of Lord E. Fitzgerald and Arthur 
O'Connor respecting their friend Wolfe Tone 
were in all respects satisfactory. The uext 
* Maddeu's United Irishmen, 2d series, p. 390. 




time he was in the Cabinet of Genera] 
Clarke, on his expressing a wish to be en- 
abled to write to his friends, to tell them he 
was alive and well at Paris, Clarke, says 
the journal, answered, " ' As to that, your 
friends know it already.' I replied, ' Not 
that I knew of.' He answered, 'Aye, but 
I know it, but cannot tell you at present 
how.' He then went on to tell me he did 
not know how to explain himself further, 
'for,' added he, 'if I tell you ever so little, 
you will guess the rest.' So it seems I am 
a cunning fox without knowing it. He 
gave me, however, to understand that he 
lunl a communication open with Ireland, 
and showed me a paper, askirg me did I 
know the handwriting. I did not. He 
then read a good deal. It stated very 
briefly, that fourteen of the counties, in- 
cluding the entire North, were completely 
organized for the purpose of throwing off 
the English yoke and establishing our inde- 
pendence; that, in the remaining eighteen, 
the organization was advancing rapirtlv, 
and that it was so arranged that the inferi- 
ors obeyed their leaders, without examining 
their orders, or even knowing who they 
were, as every one knew only the person 
immediately above him. That the militia 
were about 20,000 men, 11,000 of whom 
might be relied on, that there were about 
12,000 regular troops, wretched bad ones, 
who would soon be settled in case the busi- 
ness were attempted. Clarke was going on, 
but stopped here suddenly, and said, laugh- 
ing, ' There is something there which I 
cannot read to you, or you will guess.' I 
begged him to use his discretion without 
ceremony. He then asked me, did I know 
of this organization ? I replied that I 
could not, with truth, say positively I knew 
it, but that I had no manner of doubt of it; 
that it was now twelve months exactly since 
I left Ireland, in which time, I was satisfied, 
much must have been done in that country, 
and that he would find in my memorials 
that such an organization was then begun, 
was rapidly spreading, and, I had no doubt, 
would soon embrace the whole people. It 
is curious, the coincidence between the 
paper he read me and those I have given 
here, though, upon second thought, as truth 
is uniform, it would be still more cxtraordi- 



M 



/ 



;'■. - : ^ 



, - * 









&\ 



jf! 





nary if they should vary. I am delighted 
beyond measure with the progress which 
has been made in [reland since my banish- 
ment. I see they are advancing rapidly 
and safely, and, personally, nothing can be 
more agreeable to me than this coincidence 
between what I have said and written, and 
the accounts which I see they receive here. 
The paper also stated, as I had done, that 
we wauled arms, ammunition, and artillery; 
in short, it was as exact, in all particulars, 
as if the same person had written all. This 
ascertains my credit in France beyond a 
doubt. Clarke then said, as to my busi- 
ness, he was only waiting for letters from 
General Ilochc, in order to settle it finally; 
that I should have a regiment of cavalry, 
and, it was probable, it might be fixed that 
dav; that the arrangement of the forces in- 
tended for the expedition was intrusted to 
Hoche, by which I see we shall go from 
Brittany instead of Holland. All's one for 
that, provided we go at all." 

A few days after this, and just when poor 
Tone was almost in his last straits for 
money, he was sent for to the Luxembourg 
Palace, and there, in the Cabinet of M. 
Fleury, a very handsome young man came 
up to him very warmly, seemed to have 
known him all his life, and introduced him- 
self as General Hoche— the most rising man 
at that moment among the young military 
chiefs of the republic. It was he who had 
had the honor of defending Dunkirk success- 
fully against the English, and afterwards of 
defeating utterly the Vendean force, equip- 
ped and armed by the same English, and 
landed at Quiberon under the guns of Ad- 
miral Warren's fleet. In short, it was against 
the English he had done most of his service, 
and he coveted the privilege of commanding 
the formidable expedition which was now 
■ fully resolved on for the liberation of Ire- 
laud, lie informed Tone that the latter 
was to be attached to his personal stall', with 
the grade of Chef de-Brigade. At last, 
then, the grand object of Wolfe Tone's life 
and labors seemed on the point of being at- 
tained, lie was delighted with Hoche, who 
quite agreed with him iu his views of the 
scale on which the expedition should be 
made, and of the necessity of proceeding by 
the laws of regular warfare, not of chuiiau- 



nerie. For the due comprehension of the 
true intent and aims of this celebrated ex- 
pedition we may here give a passage from 
Tone's record of his conference with its 
chief : — 



" He asked me in case of a landing being 
effectuated, might he rely on finding pro- 
visions, and particularly bread ? I said it 
would be impossible to make any arrange- 
ments in Ireland,, previous to the landing, 
•because of the surveillance of the Govern- 
ment, but if that were once accomplished, 
there would be no want of provisions ; that 
Ireland abounded in cattle, and, as for 
bread, I saw by the Gazette that there was 
not ouly no deficiency of corn, but that she 
was able to supply England, in a great de- 
gree, during the late alarming scarcity in 
that country, and I assured him, that if the 
French were once in Ireland, he might rely 
that, whoever wanted bread, they should 
not want it. He seemed satisfied with this, 
and proceeded to ask me, might we count 
upon being able to form a provisory govern- 
ment, either of the Catholic Committee, men- 
tioned in my memorials, or of the chiefs of 
the Defenders ? I thought I saw an open 
here, to come at the number of troops in- 
tended for us, and replied, that that would 
depend on the force which might be lauded ; 
if that force were but trifling, I could not 
pretend to say how they might act, but if it 
was considerable, I had no doubt of their 
co-operation. 'Undoubtedly,' replied he, 
' men will not sacrifice themselves, wdien 
they do not see a reasonable prospect 
of support ; but, if I go, you may be 
sure I will go iu sufficient force.' He 
then asked, did I think ten thousand men 
would decide them? I answered, undoubt- 
edly, but that early iu the business the 
Minister had spoken to me of two thousand, 
aud that I had replied that such a number 
could effect nothing. No, replied he, they 
would be overwhelmed before any one could 
join them. I replied, I was glad to hear 
him give that opinion, as it was precisely 
what I had stated to the Minister, aud I 
repeated that, with the force he mentioned, 
I could have no doubt of support and co- 
operation sufficient to form a provisory gov- 
ernment. He then asked me what I thought 
of the priests, or was it likely they would 



\*U 



&rQ 



. 





HISTORY OF IRELAND. 





give us auy trouble ? I replied I certainly 
did not calculate on their assistance, but 
neither did I think they would be able to 
give us any effectual opposition ; that their 
influence over the minds of the common peo- 
ple was exceedingly diminished of late, and 
I instanced the case of the Defenders, so 
often mentioned in my memorials, and in 
these memorandums I explained all this, 
at some length, to him, and concluded by 
saying, that, in prudence, we should avoid 
as much as possible shocking their prejudices 
unnecessarily, and that, with common dis- 
cretion, I thought we might secure their 
neutrality at least, if not their support. I 
mentioned this merely as my opinion, but 
added that, in the contrary event, I was sat- 
isfied it would be absolutely impossible for 
them to take the people out of our hands. 
We then came to the army, lie asked me 
how I thought tiny would act ? I replied, 
for the regulars I could not pretend to Bay, 
but that they were wretched bad troops ; 
fur the militia, I hoped and believed that 
when we were once organized, they would 
not only not oppose us, but come over to the 
cause of their country en masst ; neverthe- 
less, I desired him to calculate ou their op- 
position, and make his arrangements accord- 
ingly ; that it was the safe policy, and if it 
become necessary, it was so much gained 
lie said he would, undoubtedly, make his 
arrangements so as to leave nothing to 
chance that could be guarded against ; that 
he would come in force, and bring great 
quantities of arms, ammunition, stores, and 
artillery, aud, for his own reputation, see 
that all the arrangements were made on a 
proper scale. I was very glad to hear him 
speak thus ; it sets my mind at ease ou 
diverse points. He then said there was one 
important point remaining, on which he de- 
sired to be satisfied, and that was what 
form of government we would adopt ou the 
event of our success ? I was going to 
answer him with great earnestness, when 
General Clarke entered, to request we 
would come to dinner with citizen Carnot. 
We, accordingly, adjourned the conversation 
to the apartment of the President, where vre 
found Carnot, and one or two more. Hoche, 
after some time, took me aside and repeated 
his question. I replied, ' Most undoubtedly, 



a republic.' lie asked again, ' Was I 
sure ? ' I said, as sure asl could be of any- 
thing ; that I knew nobody in Ireland who 
thought of any other system, nor did I be- 
lieve there was anybody who dreamt of 
monarchy. He asked me was there no 
danger of the Catholics setting up oue of 
their chiefs for King? I replied, ' Not the 
smallest,' aud that there were uo chiefs 
amongst them of that kind of eminence. 
This is the old business again, but I believe 
I satisfied Hoche ; it looks well to see him 
so anxious on that topic, on which he 
pressed me more than on all the others." 

From this time preparations were pushed 
forward with more or less activity; but by 
no means fast enough to satisfy the ardent 
spirit of Tone. The rendezvous for the 
troops was appointed at Bcnnes, the old 
capital of Bretagne ; while the fleet, con 
sisting of ships of war aud transports, was 
getting ready at Brest. During the several 
months which intervened, as news occasion- 
ally came in from Ireland, telling of the 
systematic outrages on the country people 
and new arrests and measures of "vigor be 
youd the law," his anxiety and impatience 
redoubled. On the 2Sth of July he writes : 
"I see the Orange Boys are playing the 
devil in Ireland. 1 hare no doubt it is the 
work of the Government. Please God, if I 
get safe into that country, I will settle 
those gentlemen, and their instigators also 
more especially." Again, late in August, 
he writes : — 

" The news, at least the report of to day, 
is, that Richery and the Spaniards are be- 
fore Lisbon, and that a French army is in 
full march across Spain, in order to enter 
Portugal ; that would be a blow to Master 
John Bull fifty times worse than the affair 
of Leghorn. Why the unhappy Portuguese 
did not make their peace at the same time 
with Spain, I cannot conceive, except, as 
was most probably the case, they durst not 
consult their own safety for fear of offending 
the English. What an execrable nation 
that is, and how cordially 1 hate them. If 
this affair of Portugal is true, there will not 
remain one port friendly to England from 
Hamburg to Trieste, and probably much 
further both ways. It is impossible she can 
staud this long. Well, if the visitation of 








^ 




y 





Providence be sometimes slow, it is always 
sure, If our expedition succeeds, 1 tliiuk 
wo will give her the coup de gj-aa, and make 
her pay dear for the rivers of blood she has 
made to Bow in our poor country, her mas- 
sacres, ler pillages, and her frauds ; 'Alors, 
Ct sera notre tour.' We shall see ! We 
shall see ! Oh that I were, this fine morn- 
ing, at the head of my regiment on the Cave 
Hill ! Well, all in good time." 

A ill still the time (lew, while innumerable 
causes of delay interfered with the dispatch 
of the fleet. And in the meantime Camden 
and Carhampton's reign of terror was in full 
.sway, goading the people to desperation; 
ami the fiery Chef-de-Brigade gnawing his 

OWU heart in Paris, or in Heine's. 

At last, but not until the 15th of Decem- 
ber, all was on hoard. The troops were to 
have amounted to In, 000 men, hul they 
were actually 13,975 men, with abundance 
of artillery and ammunition, and arms for 
4."', 000 men. Tone was on board the line- 
of-battle ship Tndomptabk, of 80 "'tins. There 
were on the whole 17 sail of the line, 13 
frigates, 5 corvettes, making-, with trans- 
ports, 43 sail. General Hoehe and the Ad- 
miral in command of the fleet were on hoard 
a frigate ; and the second General in com- 
niaml, of the laud forces was, unfortunately— 
Grouchy — of unlucky memory. A wretched 
fatality was upon this fine expedition from 
the very start. The first night it was at 
sea it lost both its chiefs ; as the Fraternite 
frigate was separated from the others, and 
they never saw more of it until after they 
had" returned to France. An extract, some- 
what condensed, from Wolfe Tone's diary, 
may form the most interesting account of 
the fortunes and fates of the Bantry Bay 
Expedition : — 

"Admiral Morand de Galles, General 
Hoche, General Delielle, and Colonel Shee, 
are aboard the Fraternite, and Go. I knows 
what lias become of them. The wind, too, 
continues against us, and, altogether, I am 
in terrible low spirits. How if these damned 
Euglish should catch us at last, after hav- 
ing gone on successfully thus far. Our 
force leaving Brest water was as follows: 
Indoraptable, so gnu- ; Nestor, Cassard, 
Droits de riloinme, Tourville, Eole, Fou 
gueux, Mucius, Redoutable, Patriote, Flu 



ton, Constitution, Trajan, Watigny, Pegase, 
Revolution, and the unfortunate Soduisunt, 
of 7 I guns ( 17 sail of the line); La Ooearde 
Brave. are, [mmortalite - , Bellone, Coquille, 
Romaine, Sirene, Impatiente, Surveillante, 
Charente, Resolue, Tartare, and Fraternite, 
frigates of 3G guns (13 frigates) ; Scevol.i 
and Fidele annus en flutes, Mutine, Renard, 
Atalante, Yoltigeur, and Affronteur, cor- 
vettes, and Nicodeme, Justine, Ville d'Orient, 
Suffren, Experiment, and Alegre, transports, 
making in all 43 sail. Of these there are. 
missing this day, at three o'clock, the 
Nestor and Sednisant, of 74 ; the Fraternity, 
Cocarde, and Roraaine, frigates ; the Mutine 
and Voltigeur, corvettes ; and three other 
transports. 

"December iOt/i. — Last night, in moderate 
weather, we contrived to separate again, and 
this morning, at eight o'clock, we are but 
fifteen sail in company, with a foul wind, 
and hazy. We shall lie beating about here, 
within thirty leagues of Cape Clear, until 
the Euglish come and catch us, which will' 
be truly agreeable. At ten, several sail in 
sight to wiudward ; I suppose they are our 
stray sheep. It is scandalous to part com- 
pany twice in four days in such moderate 
weather as we have had, but sea affairs I 
see are uot our forte. Captain Bedout is a 
seaman, which I fancy is more than can be 
said for nine-tenths of his confreres. 

"DcAxmber 2lst. — Last night, just at sunset, 
signal lor seven sail in the offing ; all in high 
spirits, in hopes that it is our comrades ; 
stark calm all the fore part of the night ; at 
length a breeze sprung up, ami this morn- 
ing, at daybreak, we are under Cape Clear, 
distant about four leagues, so I have, at all 
events, once more seen my country ; but the 
pleasure I should otherwise feel at this, is 
totally destroyed by the absence of the 
General who has not joined us, and of whom 
we know nothing. The sails we saw last 
night have diwappeared, and we are all in 
uncertainly. It is most delicious weather, 
with a favorable wind, and everything, in 
short, that we can desire, except our absent 
comrades. At the moment I write this we 
are under easy sail, within three leagues, at 
most, of the coast, so that I can discover, 
here and there, patches of snow on the 
mountains. What if the General should 



i Ol 



9 



» 




not joiu as. If we cruise here five days, 
according to our instructions, the English 
will be upon us, iind then all is over. We 
are thirty-five sail iu company, and seven or 
eight absent. Is that such a separation of 
our force, as, under all the circumstances, 
will warrant our following the letter of our 
orders, to the certain failure of the expedi- 
tion? If Grouchy and Bouvet be men of 
spirit and derision, they will land imme- 
diately, and trust to their success for justi- 
fication. If they lie not, and if this day 
passes without our seeing the General, I 
much fear the game is up, I am in un- 
desci'ibable anxiety, and Cherin, who com- 
mands aboard, is a poor creature, to whom 
it, is vain to speak ; not but I believe he is 
brave enough, but he has a little mind. 
There cannot be imagined a situation more 
provokiugly tantalizing than mine at this 
moment, within view, almost within reach 
of my native land, and uncertain whether I 
shall ever set my foot on it. We are now, 
nine o'clock, at. the rendezvous appointed; 
stood iu for tin- coast till twelve, when we 
were near enough to toss a biscuit ashore; 
at twelve, tacked and stood out again, so 
now we have begun our cruise of live davs 
iu all its forms, and shall, in obedience to 
the letter of our instructions, ruin the expe- 
dition, and destroy the remnant of the 
French navy, with a precision and punctual- 
ity which will be truly edifying. We opened 
Bantry Bay, and, in all my life, rage never 
entered so deeply into my heart as when we 
turned our backs on the coast. At half 
after one, the Atalante, one of our missing 
corvettes, hove iu sight, so now again we 
are iu hopes to see the General. Oh ! if he 
were in Grouchy's place, he would not hesi- 
tate one moment. Continue making short 
boards ; the wind foul. 

"December 22d. — This morning, at eight, 
we have neared Bantry Bay considerably, 
but the fleet is terribly scattered; no news 
of the Fraternite ; I believe it is the first 
instance of an Admiral in a clean frigate, 
with moderate weather, and moonlight 
nights, parting company with his fleet. 
Captain Gratnmont, our First Lieutenant, 
told nir his opinion is that she is either taken 
or lost, anil, in either event, it is a terrible 
blow to us. All rests now upon Grouchy, 



I ■.,;■,. 



and I hope he may turn out well ; he has a 
glorious game in his hands, if he has spirit 
and talent to play it. If he succeeds, it will 
immortalize him. I do not at all like the 
countenance of the Btat Major in tins crisis. | c? 
When they speak of the expedition, it is in 
a style of despondency, and, when they are 
not speaking of it, they are playing cards 
and laughing; they are every one of them 
brave of their persons, but I see nothing of 
that spirit of enterprise, combined with a 
steady resolution, whicl r present situa- 
tion demands. They staled at me this 
morning, when I said that. Grouchy was the 
man iu the whole army who had least rea- 
son to regret the absence of the General, 
and began to talk of responsibility and dif- 
ficulties, as if any great enterprise was 
without responsibility and difficulties. I 
was burning with rage, however I said 
nothing, and will say nothing until I get 
ashore, if ever I am so happy as to arrive 
there. We are gaining the Bay by slow 
degrees, with a head wind at east, where it 
has hung these five weeks. To night we 
hope, if nothing extraordinary happens, to 
cast anchor in the month of the Bay, and 
work up to-morrow morning; these delays 
are dreadful to my impatience, I am now 
so near the shore that I can see, distinctly, 
two old castles, yet I am utterly uncertain 
whether I shall ever set foot on it. Ac- 
cording to appearances, Bouvet and Grouchy 
are resolved to proceed; that is a great 
point gained, however. Two o'clock; we 
have been tacking ever since eight this 
morning, and I am sure we have not gained 
one hundred yards; the wind is right ahead, 
and the fleet dispersed, several being far to 
leeward. 1 have been looking over the 
schedule of our arms, artillery, and ammuni- 
tion ; we are well provided : we have 
41,100 stand of arms, twenty pieces of field 
artillery, and nine of siege, including mortars 
and howitzers ; (U,200 barrels of powder, 
1,000,000 musket cartridges, and 700,000 
Hints, besides an infiuite variety of articles 
belonging to the train, but we have neither 
sabres nor pistols for the cavalry; however, 
we have nearly three regiments of hussars 
embarked, so that we can displace with 
them. 1 continue very discreetly to say 
little or nothing, as my situation just uow is 



)£» 




LMi X8LUNB\tS,^ 






m 






■ 





rather a delicate one ; if we were once 
ashore, and things turn out to my mind, I shall 

Boon 1 hi of my trammels, and, perhaps, 

in that respect, I may be better off with 
Grouchy 1 1 1:1 ii wit li Ilnehe. If the people 
act with spirit, as I hope they will, it is no 
mallei' who is General, and, if they do not, 
nil the talents of Hoche would not save ns; 

so it CO s to the same thing at last. At 

half-past six, cast anchor off Beer Island, 
being still four leagnes from our landing 
place; at work with General Cherin, Writing 
and translating proclamations, &c, all our 
printed papers, including my two pamphlets, 
being on board the Fraternity, which is 
pleasant. 

"Decemler I'id. — Last night it blew a 
heavy gale from the eastward, with snow, 
so that the mountains are covered this 
morning, which will render our bivouacs ex- 
tremely amnsing. It is to be observed, 
that of the thirty-two points of the com- 
pass, the E. is precisely the most unfavor- 
able to us. In consequence, we are this 
morning separated for the fourth time; 
sixteen sail, including nine or ten of the 
line, with Bonvet and Grouchy, are at 
anchor with us, and about twenty are blown 
to sea; luckily the gale set from the shore, 
so I am in hopes no mischief will ensue. 
The wind is still high, and, as usual, right 
ahead; ami I dread a visit from the Eng- 
lish, and altogether I am in great uneasi- 
ness. Oli ! that we were once ashore, let 
what might ensue after; I am sick to the 
very soul of this suspense. It is curious to 
±fr how things are managed in this best of 
all possible worlds. We are here, sixteen 
sail, great and small, scattered up and 
down in a noble bay, and so dispersed that 
there are not two together in any spot, 
save one, and there they are now so close, 
that if it blows to-night as it did last night, 
they will inevitably run foul of each other, 
unless one of them prefers driving on shore. 
We lie in this disorder, expecting a visit 
from the English every hour, without 
taking a single step for our defense, even to 
the common one of having a frigate in the 
harbor's month, to give us notice of their 
approach; to judge by appearances, we 
have less to dread here than in Brest water, 
for when we were there, we had four cor- 



vettes stationed off the gnu/el, besides the 
signal posts. I confess this degree of se- 
curity passes my comprehension. The day 
has passed without the appearance of one 
vessel, friend or enemy, the wind rather 
more moderate, but still ahead. To-night, 
on examining the returns with Waudre", 
Chefd'Etat Major of the Artillery, I find our 
means so reduced by the absence of the miss- 
ing, that I think it hardly possible to make 
an attempt here, with any prospect of suc- 
cess; in consequence, I took Cherin into the 
Captain's room, and told him frankly my 
opinion of our actual state, and that I 
thought it our duty, since we must look 
upon the main object as now unattainable, un- 
less the whole of our friends returned to-mor- 
row, and the English gave us our own time, 
which was hardly to be expected, to Bee 
what could be best done for the honor and 
interest of the republic, with the force which 
remained in our hands, and I proposed to 
him to give me the Legion des Francs, a 
company of the Artilkrie legere, and as many 
officers as desired to come volunteers in the 
expedition, with what arms and store re- 
mained, which are now reduced, by our sepa- 
ration, to four field pieces, 20,000 firelocks 
at most, 1,000 lbs. of powder, and 3,000,000 
cartridges, and to land us in Sligo Bay, and 
let us make the best of our way; if we suc- 
ceeded, the republic would gain infinitely in 
reputation and interest, and, if we failed, 
the loss would be trifling, as the expense was 
already incurred, and as for the legion, he 
knew what kind of desperadoes it was com- 
posed of, and for what purpose ; conse- 
quently, in the worst event, the republic 
would be well rid of them; finally, I added, 
that though I asked the command, it was 
on the supposition that none of the Gen- 
erals would risk their reputation on such a 
desperate enterprise, and that if another was 
found, I would be content to go as a simple 
volunteer. This was the outline of my pro- 
posal, which I pressed on him with such 
arguments as occurred tome, concluding by- 
observing that, as a. foreigner in the French 
service, my situation was a delicate one, and 
if I were simply an officer, I would obey 
in silence the orders of superiors, but, 
from my connections in Ireland, having ob- 
tained the confidence of the Directory, so 




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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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far as to induce them to appoint me to the 
rank of Chef-de-LSrigade, and of General 
Iloche, who had nominated me Adjutant- 
General, I thought it ray duty, both to 
France and Ireland, to speak on this occa- 
sion, and that I only offered my plan as a 
pis aller, in case nothing better suggested 
itself. Cherin answered that I did very 
rig-lit to give my opinion, and that as he 
expected a council of war would be called 
to-morrow, he would bring me with him, 
and I should have an opportunity to press 
it. The discourse rested there, and to-mor- 
row we shall see more, if we are not agree- 
ably surprised, early in the morning, by a 
visit from the English, which is highly prob- 
able. I am now so near the shore, that I 
can in a manner touch the sides of Bantry 
Bay with my right and left hand, yet God 
knows whether I shall ever tread again on 
Irish ground. Another thing, we are now 
three days in Bantry Hay; if we do not land 
immediately, the enemy will collect a su- 
perior force, and, perhaps, repay us our vic- 
tory of Qniberon. In an enterprise like 
OUl'S, everything depends upon the prompti- 
tude and audacity of our first movements, 
and we are here, I am sorry to say it, most 
pitifully languid. It is mortifying, but that 
is too poor a word; I could tear my flesh 
with rage and vexation, but that advances 
nothing, and so I hold my tongue in gen- 
eral, and devour my melancholy as I can. 
To come so near, and then to fail, if we are 
to fail 1 And every one aboard seems now 
to have given up all hopes. 

"December Uth. — This morning the whole 
Ktat .Major has been miraculously con- 
vcrtcd, and it was agreed, in full council, 
that General Cherin, Colonel Waudrt, Chef 
d'Etat Major of the Artillery, and myself, 
should go aboard the Immortality, ami 
press General Grouchy in the strongest 
manner to proceed on the expedition, with 
the ruins of our scattered army. Accord- 
ingly, we made a signal to speak with the 
Admiral, and in about an hour we were 
aboard. I must do Grouchy the justice to 
say, that the moment we gave our opinion 
in favor of proceeding, he took his part de- 
cidedly, aud like a man of spirit; he instantly 
set about preparing the ordre de bataitk, 
and we finished it without delay. We are 





not more than 6,500 strong, but they are 
tried soldiers, who have seen fire, and I have 
the strongest hopes that, after all, we shall 
bring our enterprise to a glorious termina- 
tion. It is a bold attempt, and truly 
original. All the time we were preparing 
the ordre de balaille, we were laughing most 
immoderately at the poverty of our means, 
and I believe, under the circumstances, it 
was the merriest council of war that was 
ever held; but 'Des Chevaliers francais tel tst 
le airaclire.' 1 Grouchy, the Commander-in- 
Chief, tiever had so few men under his orders 
since he was Adjutant-General; Wnudre, 
wdio is Lieutenant-Colonel, finds himself 
now at the head of the artillery, which is a 
furious park, consisting of one piece of 
eight, one of four, and two six-inch howit- 
zers; when he was a Captain, he never 
commanded fewer than ten pieces, but now 
that he is in fact General of the Artillery, he 
prefers taking the field with four. He is a 
gallant fellow, and offered, on my proposal 
last night, to remain with me and eoniunuid 
his company, in ease General Grouchy had 
agreed to the proposal I made to Cherin. It 
is altogeiher an enterprise truly unique; wo 
have not one guinea; we have not a tent ; 
we have not a horse to draw our four pieces 
of artillery; the General-in-Chief marches 
onfoot; we leave all our baggage behind 
us; we have nothing but the arms in our 
hands, the clothes on our backs, and a good 
courage, but that is sufficient. With all 
these original circumstances, such as I be- 
lieve never were found united in an expedi- 
tion of such magnitude as that we are about 
to attempt, we are all as gay as larks. I 
never saw the French character better ex- 
emplified, than in this morning's business. 
Well, at last 1 believe we are about to disem- 
bark; God knows how I long for it. But 
this infernal easterly wind continues without 
remorse, and though we have been under 
way three or four hours, and made I be- 
lieve three hundred tacks, we do not seem 
to my eyes to have gained one hundred 
yards in a straight line. One hour and a 
half of good wind would carry us up, anil, 
perhaps, we may be yet two days. My 
enemy, the wind, seems just now, at eight 
o'clock, to relent a little, so we may reach 
Bautry by to-morrow. The enemy has now 



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had four days to recover from his panic, 
and prepare to receive us; so much the 
worse, but I do not mind it. We purpose 
to make a race for Cork, as if the devil 
were in our bodies, and when we are fairly 
there, we will stop for a day or two to 
take breath, and look about us. From 
Bantry to Cork is about forty-five miles, 
which, with all our efforts, will take us three 
days, and I suppose we may have a brush 
by the way, bul I think we are able to deal 
with any force thai can, at a week's notice, 
be brought against us. 

" December 25<A. These memorandums are 
a Strange mixture. Sometimes I am in pre- 
posterously high spirits, and at other times I 
am as dejected, according to the posture of 
our affairs. Last night I had the strongest 
expectations that to-day we should debark, 
but at two this morning 1 was awakened by 
the wind. I rose immediately, and, wrap- 
ping myself in my great coat, walked for an 
hour in the gallery, devoured by the most 
gloomy reflections. The wind continues 
right ahead, so that it is absolutely impos- 
sible to work up to the landing place, and 
God knows when it will change. The same 
wind is exactly favorable to bring the Eng- 
lish upon us, and these cruel delays give the 
enemy time to assemble his entire force in 
this neighborhood, and perhaps (it is, un- 
fortunately, more than perhaps,) by his 
superiority ill numbers, in cavalry, in artil- 
lery, in money, in provisions, in short in every- 
thing we want, to crush us, supposing we 
are even able to effectuate a landing at last, 
at the same time that the fleet will be 
caught as in a trap. Had we been able to 
land the first day and march directly to Cork, 
we should have infallibly carried it by a. amp 
rle main; and then we should have a footing 
in the country, but as it is — if we are taken, 
my fate will not be a mild one; the best I 
can expect is to lie shot as an emigre renlre, 
ijnle-s 1 have the good fortune to be killed 
in the action; for most assuredly if the 
enemy will have as, he must light for us. 
Perhaps I may be reserved for a trial, for 
the sake of striking terror into others, in 
which case I shall be hanged as a traitor, 
and emboweled, &c. As to the embowel- 
ing, 'jt m'enjiclie' if ever they hang me, they 
are welcome to embowel me if they please. 



These are pleasant prospects! Nothing on 
earth could sustain me uow, but the con- 
sciousness that I am engaged in a just and 
righteous cause. For my family, I have, by 
a desperate effort, surmounted my natural 
feelings so far, that I do not think of them 
at this moment. This day, at twelve, the 
wind blows a gale, still from the east, and 
our situation is now as critical as possible, 
for it is morally certain that this day or to- 
morrow on the morning, the English fleet 
will be in the harbor's mouth, and then adieu 
to everything. In this desperate state of 
affairs, I proposed to Cherin to sally out 
with all our forces, to mount to the Shan- 
non, and, disembarking the troops, make a 
forced march to Limerick, which is probably 
unguarded, the garrison being, I am pretty 
certain, on its march to oppose us here; to 
pass the river at Limerick, and, by forced 
marches, push to the North. I detailed all 
this on a paper which I will keep, and 
showed it to Captain Bedout, and all the 
Generals on board, Cherin, Simou, ami 
Chasseloup. They all agreed as to the ad- 
vantages of the plan, but after settling it, 
we find it impossible to communicate with 
the General and Admiral, who are in the 
Immortality, nearly two leagues ahead, and 
the wind is now so high and foul, and the 
sea so rough, that uo boat can live, so all 
communication is impracticable, and to- 
morrow morning it will, most probably, be 
too late; and on this circumstance, perhaps, 
the fate of the expedition and the liberty of 
Ireland depends. I cannot conceive for 
what reason the two Commanders-in-Chief 
are shut up together in a frigate. Surely 
they should be on board the flag-ship. But 
that is not the first misfortune resulting 
from this arrangement. Had General noche 
remained, as he ought, on board the In- 
domptable, with his Etat Major, he would 
not have been separated and taken by the 
English, as he most probably is; nor should 
we be in the difficulties we uow find ourselves 
in, and which most probably to-morrow will 
render insurmountable. Well, it does not 
signify complaining. Our first capital error 
was in setting sail too late from the I! iy of 
Camaret, by which means we were obliged 
to pass the Raz in the night, which caused 
the loss of the Seduisant, the separation of 




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DISTORT OF IRELAND. 




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the fleet, tlie capture of the General, and 
above all, the loss of time resulting from all 
this, and which is never to be recovered. 
Our second error was in losing an entire day 
in cruising off the Bay, when we might have 
entered and effected a landing with thirty- 
five sail, which would have s 'cured every- 
thing, and now our third error is having our 
Commander-in-Chief separated from the Etat 
Major, which renders all communication 
utterly impossible. My prospects at this 
hour are as gloomy as possible. I see noth- 
ing' before me, unless a miracle be wrought 
in our favor, but the ruin of the expedition, 
the shivery of my country, and my own de- 
struction. Well, if I am to fall, at least I 
will sell my life as dear as individual re- 
sistance can make it. So now I have made 
up my mind. 1 have a merry Christmas of 
it to-day. 

December 2 CM.. — Last night, at half after 
six o'clock, in a heavy gale of wind still 
from the east, we were surprised by the 
Admiral's frigate running under our quarter, 
and hailing the Indomptable, with orders to 
cut our cable and put to sea instantly; the 
frigate then pursued her course, leaving as 
all in the utmost astonishment. Our first 
idea was that it might be an English frigate, 
lurking in the bottom of the Bay, which 
took advantage of the storm aud darkness 
of the night to make her escape, aud wished 
to separate our squadron by this stratagem; 
for it seems utterly incredible, that an Ad- 
miral should cut aud run in this manner, 
without any previous signal of any kind to 
warn the fleet, and that the first notice we 
should have of his intention, should be his 
hailing us in this extraordinary manner, 
with such unexpected and peremptory or- 
ders. After a short consultation with his 
officers, (considering the storm, the darkness 
of the night, that we have two anchors out, 
and only oue spare one in the hold,) Captain 
Bedout resolved to wait, at all events, till 
to-morrow morning, in order to ascertain 
whether it was really the Admiral who 
hailed us. The morning is now come, the 
gale continues, and the fog is so thick that 
we cannot see a ship's length ahead; so here 
we lie in the utmost uncertainty and anxiety. 
Iu all probability we are now left without 
Admiral or General; if so, Cherin will com- 



mand the troops, and Bedout the fleet, bat, 
at all events, there is an end of the expe- 
dition. Certainly we have been persecuted 
by a strange fatality, from the very night 
of our departure to this hour. We have 
lost two Commanders-in-Chief; of four Ad- 
mirals not one remains; we have lost one 
ship of the line, that we know of, and prob- 
ably many others of which we know noth- 
ing; we have been now six days in Bantry 
Bay, within five hundred yards of the shore, 
without being able to effectuate a landing; 
we have have been dispersed four times in 
four days, and, at, this moment, of forty- 
three sail, of which the expedition con- 
sisted, we can muster of all sizes but four- 
teen. There only wants our falling in with 
the English to complete our destruction; 
and, to judge of the future by the past, 
there is every probability that that will not 
be wanting. All our hopes arc now re- 
duced to get back in safety to Brest, and 
I believe we will set sail for that port the 
instant the weather will permit. I confers, 
myself, I now look on the expedition as 
impracticable. The enemy has had seven 
days to prepare for us, and three, or per- 
haps four, days more before we could ar- 
rive at Cork; and we are now too much 
reduced, in all respects, to make the at- 
tempt with any prospect of success — so, 
all is over ! It is hard, after having forced 
my way thus far, to be obliged to turn 
back; but it is my fate, and I must sub- 
mit. Notwithstanding all our blunders, it 
is the dreadful stormy weather aud easterly 
winds, which have been blowing furiously, 
and without intermission, since we made 
Bantry Bay, that have ruined us. Well, 
England has not had such an escape since 
the Spanish Armada, and that expedition, 
like ours, was defeated by the weaiher; the 
elements fight against us, and courage is 
here of no avail. Well, let me think no 
more about it; it is lost, and let it go ! 

" December 21lh — Yesterday several ves- 
sels, including the Indomptable, dragged 
their anchors several times, and it was with 
great difficulty they rode out the gale. 
At two o'clock, the Revolution, a 74, 
made signal that she could hold no longer, 
aud, in consequence of the Commodore's 
permission, who now commands our little 









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FLEET ANCHORED IN BANTRY BAY, 



squadron, cut her only cable and pal to sea. 
In tlie night, the Patriote and Pluton, of 
7 1 each, were forced to go to sea, with the 
Nicomede Bate, so that this morning we are 
reduced to seven sail of the line and one 
frigate. Any attempt here is now des- 
perate, but I still think, if we were debarked 
:it the mouth of the Shannon, we might yet 
recover all. At ten o'clock, the Commo- 
dore made signal to get under way, which 
was delayed l>y one of the ships, which re- 
quired an hour to get ready. This hour we 
availed ourselves of to cold a council of 
war, at which were present, Generals 
Cherin, Harty, and Humbert, who came 
from their ships for that purpose; Adjutant- 
Generals Simon, Chasseioup, and myself; 
Lieutenant-Colonel Waudre, commanding 
the artillery, and Favory, Captain of En- 
gineers, together with Commodore Bedout, 
who was invited to assist; General Harty, 
as senior officer, being President. It was 
agreed that, our force being now reduced 
to 4,168 men, our artillery to two four- 
pounders, our ammunition to 1,500,000 
cartridges and 500 rounds for the artillery, 
with 500 pounds of powder — this part of 
the conntry being utterly wild and savage, 
furnishing neither provisions nor horses, and 
especially as the enemy, having seven days' 
notice, together with three more which it 
would require to reach Cork, supposing we 
even met with no obstacle, had time more 
than sufficient to assemble his forces in num- 
bers sufficient to crush our little army; con- 
sidering, moreover, that this province is the 
only one of the four which has testified no 
disposition to revolt; that it is the most re- 
mule from the party which is ready for in- 
surrection ; and, finally, Captain Bedout 
having communicated his instructions, which 
are, to mount as high as the Shannon, aDd 
cruise there five days; it was unanimously 
agreed to quit Bantry Bay directly, and 
proceed for the mouth of the Shannon, in 
hopes to rejoin some of our scattered com- 
panions; and \\\im we are there we will de- 
termine, according to the means in our 
hands, what part we shall take. I am the 
more content with this determination, as it 
is substantially the same with the paper 
which I read to General Cherin and the 
•re.-t, the day before yesterday. The wind, 



it last, has come round to the southward, 
and the s'gnal is now flying to get under 
way. At half after four, there being every 
appearance of a stormy night, three vessels 
cut their cables and put to sea. The Iu- 
domptable, having with great difficulty 
weighed one anchor, we were forced, at 
length, to cut the cable of the other, and 
make the best of our way out of the Bay, 
being followed by the whole of our little 
sqnadron, now reduced to ten sail, of which 
seven are of the line, oue frigate, and two 
corvettes or luggers. 

"December 2Slh. — Last night it blew a 
perfect hurricane. At one this morning, a 
dreadful sea took the ship in the quarter, 
stove in the quarter gallery, and one of the 
dead-lights in the great cabin, which was 
instantly filled with water to the depth of 
three feet. Immediately after this blow, 
the wind abated, and, at daylight, having 
run nine knots an hour, under one jib only, 
during the hurricane, we found ourselves at 
the rendezvous, having parted company with 
three ships of the line and the frigate, which 
makes our sixth separation. The frigate 
Coquille joined us in the course of the day, 
which we spent standing off and on the 
shore, without being joined by any of our 
missing companions. 

"December 29/A. — At four this morning, 
the Commodore made the signal to steer for 
France: so, there is an end of our expedi- 
tion for the present; perhaps, forever. I 
spent all yesterday in my hammock, partly 
through sea-sickness, and much more through 
vexation. At ten, we made prize of an un- 
fortunate brig, bound from Lisbon to Cork, 
laden with salt, which we sunk. 

"December ZO/h and olst. — On our way to 
Brest. It will be well supposed I am in no 
great humor to make memorandums. This 
is the last day of the year 1796, which has 
been a very remarkable one in my history. 

"January \st, 1797. — At eight this morn- 
ing made the island of Ushant, and at twelve 
opened the Goidct. We arrive seven sail: 
the Indomptable, of 80; the Watigny, Cas- 
sard, and Eole, 7-1; the Coquille, 36; the 
Atalante, 20, and the Vautonr lugger, of 
1 4. We left Brest forty-three sail, of which 
seventeen were of 
astonished that 



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English ship-of-wai going nor coming bac 
They must have tanen their measures very 
ill, not to intercept us, bat, perhaps, they 
have picked up some of our missing ships. 
Well, this evening will explain all, and we 
shall see now what is become of our four 
Admirals, and of our two Generals-in- 
Chief." 

So ended the great " Bantry Bay Expe- 
dition." Fifteen days after the arrival of 
Tone at Brest, the missing frigate La Frater- 
nitd, with General Iloehe and the Admiral 
onboard, mad" her way after many dangers 
into the port of La Roehellc. 

In addition to the hostility of the ele- 
ments, this attempt at an invasion of Ireland 
had certain other disadvantages to contend 
with: it was directed to that portion of the 
island which was the least ripe for insurrec- 
tion, and in which the United Irish Society 
was least extended and organized. It ar- 
rived at a part of the coast surrounded by 
desolate mountains, where there were but 
small resources fur a commissariat, where no 
good horses could be found for the artillery 
and wagons, and where the wretched popu- 
lation had scarcely ever heard either of a 
French Republic or of an United Irish 
Society, or of Liberty, Equality, and Fra- 
ternity. This was against the wishes and 
counsels of Wolfe Tone, who was in favor 
of the lauding somewhere near Dublin or 
Belfast. So ignorant and so ill-prepared 
were the natives of Bear and Bantry, that 
they regarded the liberating force as a hostile 
invasion; and Plowden informs us that when 
a boat was sent ashore from the squadron 
to reconnoitre the country, " it was imme- 
diately captured, and multitudes appeared 
on the beach in readiness to oppose a land- 
ing." In addition to this, the English Gov- 
ernment, had always full and accurate 
information as to the whole plan of invasion, 
and had thus been enabled to deceive the 
leaders of the United Irishmen by false in- 
formation. The whole affair is thus accu- 
rately explained in the Report of the Secret 
Committee of the House of Lords in 119S, 
(viii Lord's Journal, p. 14'2): — 

" It appears by the Report of the Secret 
Committee of this House, made in the last 
session of Parliament, that, a messenger had 
been dispatched by the Society of United 



Irishmen to the Executive Directory of the 
French Republic, upon a treasonable mis 
sion, between the month of June, one thou 
sand seven hundred and ninety-five, and the 
mon'h of January, one thousand seven 
hundred and ninety-six, at which time the 
messenger so sent had returned to Ireland. 
and your committee have strong reason to 
believe, that Edward John Lewins, who 
now is, and has been, for a considerable 
time, the accredited resident ambassa- 
dor of the Irish Rebellious Union to the 
French Republic, was the person thus dis- 
patched in the summer of one thousand 
seven hundred and ninety-five. It. appears 
to your committee, that the proposition so 
made by the French Directory, of assistance 
to the rebels of this kingdom, was taken into 
consideration by the Executive Directory 
of the Irish Union immediately after it was 
communicated to them, that they did agree 
to accept the proffered assistance, and that 
their determination was made known to the 
Directory of the French Republic by a 
special messenger; and your committee have 
strong reason to believe, that the invasion 
of this kingdom which was afterwards at- 
tempted, was fully arranged at an interview 
which took place in Switzerland, in the sum- 
mer of one thousand seven hundred and 
ninety-six, near the French frontier, between 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the aforesaid 
Mr. Arthur O'Connor, and General Hoche. 
It appears to your committee, that in the 
month of October or November, one thou- 
sand seven hundred and ninety-six, the hos- 
tile armament which soon after appeared in 
Bantry Bay, was announced to the Irish 
Directory by a special messenger dispatched 
from France, who was also instructed to in- 
quire into the slate of preparation in which 
this country stood, which armament was 
then stated to the Irish Directory to consist 
of fifteen thousand troops, together with a 
considerable quantity of arms and ammuni- 
tion, intended for the use of the Irish Repub- 
lican Union. In a few clays alter the de- 
parture of the messenger, who had been thus 
sent to announce the speedy arrival of this 
armament on the coasts of this kingdom, it 
appears to your committee, that a letter from 
France was received by the Irish Directory, 
which was considered by them us authentic, 



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itating that the projected descent was post- 
poned for some months, ami to this circum- 
stance ii baa been fairly acknowledged to 
your committee, l>y one of the Irish Direc- 
tory, that this country was indebted for the 
good conduct of the people in the Province 
of Munster, when the enemy appeared in 
Bantry Bay. lie has confessed, that these 
contradictory communications threw the Irish 
Directory off their guard, in consequence of 
which they omitted to prepare the people 
for the reception of the enemy. He has con- 
fessed, that the people were loyal because 
they were left to themselves." 



% 



CHAPTER XXX. 
1797. 

Reign of Terror in Armagh County — No Orangemen 
ever Punished — "Defenders' 1 called Banditti — 
'• Faulkner's Journal,'' Organ of the Castle— 
Cheers on the Orangemen— Mr. Curran's State- 
ment of the Havoc in Armagh — Increased Rancor 
against Catholics and U. I. after the Bantry Bay 
Affair — Efforts of Patriots to Establish a Permanent 
Armed Force — Opposed by Government — And 
Why— Proclamation of Counties — Bank Ordered to 
Suspend Specie Payments — Alarm — Dr. Duigenan 
— Secession from Parliament of Grattan, Curran, 
&c. — General Lake in the North — " Northern Star" 
Office Wrecked by Troops — Proclamation — Out- 
rages in the Year 1737 — Salutary Effect of the 
United Irish System on the Peace of the Country 
— Armagh Assizes — Slanderous Report of a Secret 
Committee — Good Effects of United Irishism in the 
South — Miles Byrne — Wexford County. 

During the whole of the year that saw 
Tone negotiating in France for the great 
Bantry Bay expedition, the Government in 
Ireland, well seconded by magistrates, 
sheriffs, military officers and Orangemen, 
was steadily proceeding, with a ferocious 
deliberation, in driving the people to utter 
de-pair. Many districts of Armagh County 
were already covered with the blackened 
ruins of poor cabins, lately the homes of in- 
nocent people, thousands of whom, with 
their old people, their women and little 
children, were wandering homeless and starv- 
ing, or were already dead of hunger and 
cold, when the Grand Jury of Armagh, at 
the Lent Assizes, bethinking them that it 
would be well lo soften or do away with the 
impressions produced by these horrible 
events, and the comments of which they 
were the subject, agreed to an address and 
resolutions expressive of their full determin- 



ation to put the coercion laws in force, and 
to enforce strict justice. Mr. I'lowden savs, 
artlessly: "Their annunciation of impartial 
justice, and a resolution to punish offendew 
of every denomination, was rather unseason- 
able, when there remained no longer any of 
one denomination to commit outrages upon, 
or to retaliate injuries." He might have 
added that, many of the gentlemen composing 
that Grand Jury had themselves encouraged 
and participated in the extermination of the 
Catholics. But they knew very well that no 
coercion law of that Parliament was at all in- 
tended to be enforced against Orangemen; 
that the " unlawful oaths forbidden under 
pain of death," did not mean to include the 
purple oath of Orangemen to extirpate Cath- 
olics, but only the United Irish oath, to en- 
courage brotherly union, and seek "an im- 
partial representation for all the people of 
Ireland." In fact, no Orangeman was ever 
prosecuted; nor was any punishment ever 
inflicted ou the exterminators of Armagh 
Catholics. 

This statement might seem almost incred- 
ible in any civilized nation; but the proofs 
of the gross partiality of the Legislature 
and Government, or rather of their strict 
alliance with the Orange faction, are too 
numerous and clear to be doubted. For 
example, a report of a secret committee of 
the Commons, shortly after this time, in- 
forms us, " that in the summer of 1790, the 
outrages committed by a banditti, calling 
themselves Defenders, in the Counties of 
Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Meath, 
Westmeath, and Kildare, together with a 
religious feud prevailing in the County of 
Armagh, induced the Legislature to pass a 
temporary act of Parliament, generally called 
the Insurrection act, by which the Lord- 
Lieutenant and Council were enabled, upon 
the requisition of seven magistrates of any 
county, assembled at a sessions of the peace, 
to proclaim the whole or any part thereof, 
to be in a state of disturbance; within which 
limits this law, giving increased power to 
the magistracy, was to have operation." 
What is here mildly called a "religious 
feud " was the extirpation of one sect of 
people by another, on account of their re- 
ligion alone. 

The British Government in Irelaud ha 



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never been able to dispense with an organ 
at the Press, in the pay of the Castle. The 
chief Government paper of that d;iy was 
Faulkner's Journal, which was then savage 
in its denunciations of Catholics, Defenders, 
and United Irishmen, hut had only praise 
for the Armagh Orangemen. 

The Dublin Evening Post of the 24th of 
September, 1796, contained the following 
observations: "The most severe stroke 
made against t ho character and conduct of 
the Viceroy, as a moral man and first magis- 
trate of a free people, who 'ought not to 
hold the sword lit rain,' nor to exercise it 
partially, has been in Faulkner's Journal of 
this day. That hireling print is undeniably 
in the pay of his lordship's administration; 
and what administration permits, it is sup- 
posed to prompt or patronize. In that 
print, the blind fury of the banditti, which 
usurps and disgraces the name of Orange in 
the North is applauded, and all their bloody 
excesses justified. Murder in all its horrid 
forms, assassinations in cold blood, the 
mutilation of members without respect to 
Oge or sex, the firing of whole hamlets, so 
that when the inhabitants have been looked 
after nothing but their ashes were to be 
found; the atrocious excursions of furious 
hordes, armed with sword, fire, and faggot, 
to exterminate a people, for presuming to 
obey the divine command, written by the 

finger of God himself, ' Honor thy fatherand 
thy mother,' and walking in the religion 
which seemed good in their eyes. These are 
the flagitious enormities which attract the 
mercenary applause of Faulkner's Journal, 
the literary pro]) of the Camden administra- 
tion." 

And in this very same month of Septem- 
ber, while Faulkner's Journal was doing 
this kind of service for Castle pay, the 
Northern Star of Belfast, an able and mod- 
erate organ of the United Irishmen, had its 
office attacked and ransacked by soldiers; 
Samuel Neilson, its editor, and several 
others, were arrested, carried to Dublin, 
thrown into prison, and kept there for more 
than a year without having been brought to 
any trial. 

Onthe 13th of October, HOC, Parlia- 
ment met. In his speech from the throne, 
His Excellency uow for the first time took 



tender and oblique notice of the disturbances 
of Armagh. " I have, however, to lament, 
that in one part of the country good order 
has not yet been entirely restored; and that 
in other districts a treasonable system of 
secret confederation, by the administering 
of illegal oaths still continues, although no 
means within the reach of Government have 
been left untried to counteract it." 

Mr. Grattan, in the debate upon the ad- 
dress, objected to this speech, as betraying 
gross partiality, and moved the following 
amendment: — 

"To represent to His Majesty, that tho 
most effectual method for strengthening tho 
country and promoting unanimity, was to 
take such measures, and to enact such laws, 
as to ensure to all His Majesty's subjects 
the blessings and privileges of the constitu- 
tion, without any distinction of religion." 
The amendment was seconded by Mr. W. 
B. Ponsonby. 

The debate was carried on till two o'clock 
in the morning with extreme heat and viru- 
lence. Mr. G rattan's amendment was op- 
posed, as unseasonable and violent, by 
several of those who had been in the habit 
of voting with him on all occasions; inso- 
much that the minority on the division con- 
sisted only of 12 against 149. In the 
course of this debate Lord Castlcreagh re- 
plied with great warmth to Mr. Grattan; 
and Mr. Pclham spoke more at length than 
he usually did. He particularly adverted to 
the two topics, which had formed the prin- 
cipal ground of the debate; namely, the 
question of Catholic Emancipation, and the 
disturbances of Armagh. "As to the first, 
he thought it very improperly brought, for- 
ward at that juncture. It was then no time 
to make distinctions between Catholics and 
Protestants; no such distinction was made 
lni Government.'' 

As for the disturbances in Armagh, of 
course Mr. Secretary I'clham defended the 
Government and the magistrates; and said, 
if the Insurrection act had not been applied 
there, as in some other counties, it was be- 
cause the magistrates had not thought the 
nature of the troubles " would justify the 
application of that very severe law." 

It was in this session that the Ilaheai 
Corpus act was suspended. This suspension, 







MiiliMMifvjt* 




EFFORTS OF PATRIOTS TO ESTABLISH A PERMANENT ARMED FORCE. 









'Si! 





together with the Insurrection and Indem- 
nity nets, completed the arrangements fur 

putting out of the pale of the law about 
nine-tenths of the population. 

When Mr. Secretary Pelham moved, on 
the 26th of October, U96, that the House 
should adjourn for about a fortnight; Mr. 
Our. in strongly opposed it; particularly 
upon the grounds of the necessity of putting 
an immediate cheek upon the still contin- 
uing outrageous disturbances of Armagh, 
which surpassed in honor everything he had 
ever heard or read. He had on the first 
day of the session stated the number of 
fanaliei that had become the victims of that 
infernal barbarity at 100; it was with great 
pain he mentioned, that upon more minute 
inquiry, he found as many more must be 
added to the miserable catalogue: he was 
in possession of.evideuce, ready to be exam- 
ined at their liar, and whom lie hoped they 
would hear, that would satisfy them upon 
oath, that not less than 1,400 families had 
been thus barbarously expelled from their 
houses, and then were wandering about the 

neighboring counties, save such of them as 
might have been murdered, or burned in 
their cottages, or perished in the fields, or 
highways, by fatigue and famine, and 
despair; and that horrid scene had been 
transacted, and was still continuing in the 
open day, in the heart of the kingdom, 
without any effectual interference whatsoever. 
This public testimony of Mr Curran, 
which he would not have dared to give in 
open Parliament if it could have been con- 
tradicted, may finish the picture of the 
north of Ireland in this year. There were 
now several successive adjournments until 
the 6th of January, 1197. In the meantime, 
the French Meet had appeared in Bantry 
Bay, and disappeared again, giving rise to 
numberless rumors throughout the island, 
and rousing sentiments of rage and horror 
in one party, of hope and joy in another, but 
on the whole, intensifying the bitterness and 
vindictive passion of the "Ascendancy" 
against Catholics and United Irishmen, who 
had so nearly succeeded in bringing upon 
them such terrible visitors. On the re-as- 
sembling of Parliament, many members 
brought forward resolutions of inquiry or 
complaint as to the remiss conduct of the 



Government on occasion of the threatened 
invasion, of which it was well known Gov- 
ernment had possessed timely intelligence. 
The reformers and emancipators of the 
House showed what the Castle thought a 
very suspicious anxiety for the defense of 
the country, when they proposed very large 
additions to the armed yeomanry of tin? 
country. The administration did not forget 
that in 1782 it had been this same alleged 
lack of sufficient defense against foreign 
enemies which gave occasion to the volun- 
teering, and that when the volunteers were 
enrolled and armed, they very naturally 
ailed as if they considered England the 
only foreign enemy they had. The Gov- 
ernment, therefore, would not suffer any 
measure of general armament to pass, but 
assented to a proposal of Sir John 
Blaqniere, for raising an additional force of 
10,000 men; this, however, to be in the 
nature of militia, officered by Government, 
and the Government was to have entire 
control of its organization and its personnel. 
On a subsequent night, Sir Lawrence 
Parsons made another attempt, by a resolu- 
tion that it was necessary to have a per- 
manent force for protection of the country. 
The motion was opposed with bitter violence 
by Mr. Secretary Pelham. Mr. Grattan 
followed; ami the real nature of the ques- 
tion at issue will be manifest in this ex- 
tract from his speech : " The Secretary 
asked, who could be more interested for the 
safety of Ireland than the British Minister ? 
He would answer, Ireland herself. To refer 
to the British Minister the safety of that 
country was the most sottish folly; it was 
false and unparliamentary to say, that the 
House had no right to recommend a meas- 
ure, such as the honorable baronet pro- 
posed. Had it been a proposition to in- 
crease the regular standing army, it might, 
perhaps, have been a little irregular; but 
when an increase of 10,000 to the standing 
army was proposed by a right honorable 
baronet the other night, it was not consid- 
ered as an affront. Now another honor- 
able baronet comes forward to give an 
army five fold as many, and five fold as 
cheap, and administration are affronted. 
Why ? Because that army was of the 
people. It the dc 



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FIIKT0KY OF IRELAND. 




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nble member advanced were true, and that 
the duty of Parliament now were become 
nothing more tliiin merely to vote taxes, and 
echo three million-;, when the Minister said 
three millions are wanted, then, indeed, 
actum est tic parliamenlo; a reform of the 
representation was become then more than 
ever necessary." 

It was easy for the Ministers to perceive 
what was in the minds of Mr. (Jratlan and 
lis friends: to have another popular army 
strong euough at once to preserve the pub- 
lic peace and to protect the Constitution of 
the country; and Ministers were fully re- 
solved that neither of these things should be 
done: the public peace was to be destroyed 
by insurrection, in order that the Constitu- 
tion should be destroyed by legislative 
"union." On this motion of Sir Lawrence 
Parsons there was a division at four o'clock 
in the morning — '25 voted for it, 125 
against it. 

In December, January, and February, of 
this winter, many districts in the Counties of 
Ulster were "proclaimed" under the Insur- 
rection act; and more than the horrors of 
martial law were now raging there. The 
anxiety and excitement of the country had 
re-acted disastrously upon trade and general 

business interests; and in the midst of this 
came a sudden order from the Privy Council 
to the Governor and Company of the Bank 
of Ireland to suspend specie payments. The 
manifest, object of this measure was still 
further to aggravate that "alarm of the 
better classes," which is a needful and un- 
failing agency of British domination in Ire- 
land; and it had the desired effect. But it 
also excited some attention in England; 
and Mr. Whitbread, in the English Com- 
mons, and Lord Moira, in the Lords, made 
ineffectual efforts to procure an inquiry into 
the conduct of Ministers with regard to 
Ireland. It is needless to say, these attempts 
were vehemently resisted by the administra- 
tion, and were defeated by vast majorities. 
British Ministers wanted no inquiry; they 
already knew all; and all was proceeding 
precisely as they had ordered and intended. 
A singular feature of this incident is, that 
the debates on the slate of Ireland in the 

English Parliament roused the patriotic in- 
dignation of the notorious Doctor Duigeuan, 



then a member of the Irish Parliament for 
Armagh, a doctor of the civil law and a 
renegade Papist, therefore more desperately 
vindictive against Papists, and more abusive 
of their tenets than any Orangeman in the 
land. The Doctor was seized with a sudden 
lit of Irish patriotism; and gave notice in 
the House, on the 30th of March, that after 
the recess he would move a resolution con- 
demnatory of such nnconstitutional inter- 
ferences, and refuting the false statements 
made in the other Parliament respecting 
Ireland by Lord Moira, Mr, Whitbread, 
and Mr. Fox. Mr. (irattan desired him to 
give due notice of that motion; as it was his 
intention to demonstrate that the state- 
ments were both true, and also constitu- 
tional. But Mr. Grattan had now, at length, 
come to perceive that labors in that Parlia- 
ment were utterly thrown away. Accord- 
ingly, he determined to secede from the body. 
In a speech of his upon the state of the 
North, where General Lake was now 
dragooning the people with unexampled 
ferocity, he protested solemnly, but molt 
hopelessly, that the true remedy for all the 
troubles lay in a just government and reform 
of Parliament ; and speaking of the United 
Irish Society : " Notwithstanding your Gun- 
powder act, it has armed and increased its 
military stores under that act; notwithstand- 
ing your Insurrection act, another bill to 
disarm, it has greatly added to its maga- 
zines; and not withstanding the suspension of 
the Habeas Corpus bill and General Lake's 
proclamation, it has multiplied its prose- 
lytes. I should have asked, had I been on 
the Secret Commit tee, whether the number 
of United Irishmen had not increased very 
much since General Lake's proclamation, 
and by General Lake's proclamation. It 
appears, I say, from that report, that just 
a< your system of coercion advanced, the 
United Irishmen advanced ; that the meas- 
ures you took to coerce, strengthened; to 
disperse, collected; to disarm, armed ; to 
render them weak and odious, made them 
popular and powerful ; whereas, on the other 
hand, you have loaded Parliament and Gov- 
ernment with the odium of an oppressive 
system, and with the further odium of re- 
jecting these two popular topics, which you 
allow are the most likely to gain the heart 





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GENERAL LAKE IN THE NOItTII. 




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of the nation, and be the beloved objects of 
the people." 

Mr. Grattan closed his speech and the 
debate with these words : " We have offered 
yon oar measure ; yon will reject ii ; we 
deprecate yours ; you will persevere ; having 
ii < > hopes left to persuade or dissuade, and 
having discharged our duty, we shall trouble 
yov no more, and after this day, shall not at- 
tend the House of Commons." 17 Par. Deb., 
p. 570. 

Accordingly, at the next general election, 
Mr. Grattan and Lord Henry Fitzgerald 
declined to be returned for Dublin. Mr. 
Curron, Arthur O'Connor, and Lord Ed- 
ward Fitzgerald followed the example. 
There has been much discussion upon this 
"secession." It lias been urged on the one 
hand, that Grattan and Curran and Lord 
Henry Fitzgerald, who still appealed to the 
Constitution, and acknowledged the cxist- 
ence and authority of a British Government 
in Ireland, were wrong to abandon the 
legal and constitutional field. On the other, 
it has been argued, that, having abandoned 
that, the only manly and rational course left 
them was to join the United Irishmen, as 

O'C ir and Lord Edward had already 

done. It is hard to blame those excellent 
men and true Irishmen, Grattan and Curran. 
If they had joined the United Irish Society, 
they would have probably found themselves 
immediately in Newgate, as O'Connor and 
Lord Edward Fitzgerald soon after did, be- 
sides, they were not republicans, and abhor- 
red " French principles ''as earnestly as Lord 
Clare himself. 

When Wolfe Tone, in his French exile, 
heard of the secession, his observation in his 
journal is : "I see those illustrious patriots 
are at last forced to bolt out of the House 
of Commons, and come amongst the people, 
as .lolm Keogh advised Grattan to do long 
Bince." They did boll from the House of 
Commons, but did not come amongst the 

people. 

In short, he saw now that the unhappy 
country was delivered over to its bloody 
agony, and that he could do DO more than 
look on in silence. General Lake had en- 
tered upon his mis, ion with zeal; many seiz- 
ures of concealed arms and ammunition were 
made. In the execution of these orders, 



some barbarous Outrages were committed by 
the military, which tended to inflame and 
exasperate the minds of the people, which 
were already too highly inflamed. Not only 

some women and children had been murder- 
ed, but the houses of some respectable per- 
sons were pillaged and demolished, upon the 
bare suspicion of their being United Irish- 
men. 

The newspaper, called the Morning Slur, 
in Belfast, after it had been sacked a few 
months earlier, had been refitted, and was 
again carried on with spirit, exposing the 
evil designs of the Ministers, and publishing 
boldly essays and letters in favor of civil 
liberty. It was, of course, necessary now 
that the paper should be suppressed alto- 
gether. Neilson, its first editor, and the 
two Simms, its proprietors, were all now in 
Newgate prison, though not accused of any 
offence whatever. The newspaper was re- 
quired by military authority to insert an 
article reflecting ou the loyalty of the peo- 
ple of Belfast; the article did not appear as 
ordered ; the next morning, a detachment 
of soldiers marched out of the barracks, 
attacked the printing office, and utterly 
demolished every part of it, breaking the 
presses, scattering the types, and seizing the 
books. Thus disappeared the Morning 
Star, and it never rose again. There was 
after that nobody daring enough to even 
record, or allude to, far less to denounce, 
the hideous atrocities which the policy of 
the Castle required to be perpetrated. 

It was now the avowed opinion of Gov- 
ernment, that the treason was in the course 
of the winter of 1790, and the spring of 
1797, too deeply moled to yield to the 
remedy of the law, even where it was put iu 
force by the magistrates with activity. Such 
an assumption was prominently calculated to 
open the door to the strongest measures, and 
the general command given to the civil and 
military officers, by proclamation, to use the 
exertions of their utmost force, and to op- 
pose with their full power all such as should 
resist them in the execution of their duty, 
which was to search for and seize concealed 
arms, admitted of a latitude of power, not 
very likely to be temperately regulated by 
raw ti'oops let in upon a country denounced 
rebellious, aud devoted to military rigor, as 






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a necessary substitute for the inefficacy of 
the municipal law. A regiment of Welsh 

cavalry, called the Ancient Britons, com- 
manded by Sir Watkin William Wynne, 
were at all times prominently conspicuous 

for the rigorous execution of any orders for 
devastation, destruction, or extermination. 
They were marked for it by the rebels, and 
in the course of the rebellion they were cut 
to pieces almost to a man. 

That proclamation, above mentioned, 
which was published Oil the nth of May, 
was sent to Lord Carhampton, with a letter 
from Mr. Pelbam, on the 18th of May, in 
consequence of which his lordship imme- 
diately published the following order: "In 
obedience to the order of the Lord-Lieute- 
nant in Council, it is the Commander-iu- 
J^J Chief's commands, that the military do act, 
without waiting for directions from the civil 
magistrates, in dispersing any tumultuous or 
unlawful assemblies of persons threatening 
the peace of the realm, and the safety of 
the lives and properties of His Majesty's 
loyal subjects wheresoever collected." 

This proclamation, together with the laws 
then in existence, and the known wishes of the 
authorities, left everything at the discretion 
of the soldiery; they were to determine what, 
was an unlawful assembly; and we shall 
find that, they often treated as such, families 
asleep in their own beds at night, provided 
there were any pretext for suspecting the 
existence of weapons in the house, or any 
information of an United Irish oath having 
been administered there. 

Of the outrages done in the course of 
this year, 1197, it is now impossible to pro- 
cure anything like a complete account. Yet 
"j^l a few examples well authenticated must be 
given, to show how martial law worked in 
those days. Doctor Madden, the indefati- 
gable Collector of Documents relating to the 
period, has re-published the pamphlet, before 
cited, called, " View of the Present State 
of Ireland." It was published the' same 
year in London, because no printer in Ire- 
land could have dared to print it. The 
statements of this pamphlet have never 
been contradicted; and old James Hope, 
one of the last, survivors of the United 
Irishmen, and a person of intelligence and 
integrity, thus indorsed it to Dr. Madden: 



" This pamphlet contains more truth than 
all the volumes I have seen written on the 
events of 1797 and 1798." Wc select a 
few extracts : — 

" In the month of May last, a party of 
the Essex Fencibles, accompanied by the 
Enniskillen Yeomen Infantry, commanded 
by their First-Lieutenant, marched to the 
house of a Mr. Potter, a very respectable 
farmer, who lived within live miles of Ennis- 
killen, in the County of Fermanagh. On 
their arrival, they demanded Mr. Potter, 
saying they were ordered to arrest him, as 
he was charged with being an United Irish- 
man. His wife, with much firmness, replied, 
'that to be an United Irishman was an 
honor, not a disgrace; that her husband 
had gone from home the preceding day on 
business, and had not yet returned.' They 
assured her that if he did not surrender him- 
self in three hours they would burn his house. 
Mrs. Potter answered, 'that she did not 
know exactly where he then was, but, if she" 
did know, she believed it would be impossible 
to have him home in so short a lime.' In 
less than three hours they set fire to the 
house, which was a very neat one, only 
about five years built; the servants brought 
out some beds and other valuable articles, 
in the hope of preserving them, but the mili- 
tary dashed all back into the flames. The 
house and properly, to the amount of six 
or seven hundred pounds, were consumed, 
and Mrs. Potter, with seven children, one 
of them not a month old, were turned out, 
at the hour of midnight, into the fields. 

"In June, 1797, a party of the Ancient 
Britons (a feucible regiment, commanded 
by Sir Watkin William Wynne,) were 
ordered to examine the house of Mr. Rice, 
an inn-keeper in the town of Coolavil, 
County of Armagh, for arms; but on making 
very diligent, search, none could be found. 
There were some country people drinking 
in the house, and discoursing in their native 
language; the soldiers damned their vicinal 
Irish stalls, said they Were Speaking treason, 
and instantly fell on them with their sword-, 
and maimed several desperately. Miss 
Hice was so badly wounded that her life was 
despaired of, and her father escaped with 
much difficulty, after having received many 
cuts from the sabres of these assassius. 



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OUTRAGES IN THE TEAR 1707. 



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" In June, some persons had been refresh- 
ing themselves sit an inn in Newtownards, 
County of Down, kepi by a Mr. WCormick, 
and it was alleged that they wire over- 
henrd ottering winds termed seditious. 
M'Cormick was afterwards called on to give 
information who they were; In' denied hav- 
ing any knowledge of them, observing that 
many people might come into his house 
whom he did nol know, and for whom he 
could not be accountable. He was taken 
into custody, and next, day his house and 
extensive property were reduced to ashes. 
The house of Dr, Jackson was torn down 
on suspicion of his being an I'ni/ril Irish- 
vnni; and many oilier houses in that town 
and barony were destroyed, or otherwise de- 
molished, by English Fencibles, on similar 
pretexts. 

"On the 22dof June, Mr. Joseph Clot- 
nev, of Ballinahiuch, was committed to the 
Military Barracks, Belfast, and his house, 
furniture, and hooks, worth three thousand 
ponnds, destroyed; also the valuable house 
of Mr. Armstrong, of that place, was totally 
demolished. 

A parly of fencibles, then quartered 
in Enniskiilen, were ordered, underthe com- 
mand of a captain and adjutant, accom- 
panied by the First Fermanagh Yeomanry, 
into all adjoining county lo search for arms. 
About two o'clock in the morning they ar- 
rived at the house of one Durnian, a farmer, 
which, without any previous intimation 
whatever, they broke open, and, on entering 
it, one of the fencibles fired his musket 
through the root' of the house; an officer 
instantly discharged his pistol into a bed 
where two young men were lying, and 
wounded them both. One of them, iheonly 
cJnld of Durnian, rose with great difficulty, 
and on making this effort, faint with the loss 
of blood, a fencible stabbed him through 
the bowels. His distracted mother ran to 

support, him, but. in a few moments she 
Bank upon the floor, covered with the Id 1 

which issued from the side of her unfor- 
tunate son; by this time the other young 
man had got on his knees to implore mercy, 
declaring most solemnly that they had not 
bein guilty of any crime, when another 
fencible dehheralely knelt dotcn, leveled his 
uiu-ket at him, and was just going to Ore, 



when a sergeant of yeomanry rushed in, 
seized, and prevented his committing the 
horrid deed. There were persona who smiled 
at the humanity of the sergeant. 

"Information had been lodged that a 
house near Newry contained concealed 
arms. A party of the Ancient Britons re- 
paired to the house, but not finding the ol>- 
ject of their search, they set it on fire. 
The peasantry of the neighborhood came 
running from all sides to extinguish the 
flames, believing the fire to have been acci- 
dental — it was the first military one in that 
part of the country. As they came up they 
were attacked in all directions, and cut 
down by the fencibles; thirty were killed, 
among whom were a woman and two 
children. An old man (above seventy 
years,) seeing the dreadful slaughter of his 
neighbors and friends, fled for safety to some 
adjacent rocks; he was pursued, and, though 
on his knees imploring mercy, a brutal 
Welshman cut off his head at a blow. 

" 1 have stated incontrovertible truths. 
Months would be insufficient to enumerate 
all the acts of wanton cruelty which were 
inflicted on the inhabitants of Ireland from 
the 1st day of April to the 24th day of 
July, 1191." 

The same authority narrates this fact also, 
but without date: "The house of Mr. 
Bernard Crosson, of the parish of Mullana- 
brack, was attacked by Orangemen, in con- 
sequence of being a reputed Catholic. His 
son prevented them from entering by the 
front door, upon which they broke in at 
the back part of the house, and, firing on U 1 
the inhabitants, killed Mr. Crosson, his son, 
and daughter. Mr. Hugh MTay, of the 
parish of Seagoe, had his house likewise 
attacked on the same pretence, himself 
wounded, his furniture destroyed, and his 
wife barbarously used." 

The same writer mentions that, "informa- 
tion having been lodged against a few in- 
dividuals living in the village of Kilrca, in 
the County of Derry, for being United 
Irishmen, a party of the military were or- 
dered to apprehend them; the men avoided 
the capture, and about three o'clock in the 
morning, a reverend magistrate, accom- 
panied by a clergyman and a body of 
soldiers, came to 










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H1ST0ET OF IRELAND. 



the men, who bad avoided capture, they 
burned nil their houses, except four, which 
could not be burned without endangering 
the whole village. These they gutted, and 
consumed their contents." 

1 1 must l>e remembered that these scenes, 
which are but a few samples, all took place 
in the year 1797, and before there was 
any insurrection in Ireland; and all in two 
or three counties of one province. But if 
there was no insurrection, it was fully re- 
solved at the Castle to provoke one. A re- 
markable saving used a short time before by 
a remarkable man, and a very lit partisan 
of the Irish (iovernment, leaves but little 
doubt upon the real aims and wishes of the 
"Ascendancy." The man was John Claudius 
Beresford, of the noble house of Tyrone and 
Waterford, and one of the most ferocious 
tyrants in the world — we shall hear of him 
again at the " Hilling School." On the 30th 
of March, in this year, in his place in Parlia- 
ment, he thus corrects, or rather confirms, 
the saying attributed to him : — 

" Mr. J. ('. Beresford begged to correct 
a misstatement which had gone abroad, of 
what he had said in a former debate, on the 
Insurrection bill. It had been stated in a 
country paper, and from thence copied into 
those of Dublin, that he had expressed a 
wish 'that the whole of the North of lie- 
land were in open rebellion, that the Gov- 
ernment might Cut them off.' This had been 
very assiduously circulated, to the detriment 
of his character; and was, he could confi- 
dently say, a falsehood. What he had said 
was, 'that there were certain parts of the 
the North of Ireland in a state of concealed 
rebellion; and that he wished those places 
were rather in a state of open rebellion, that 
the Government might seethe rebellion, and 
crush it.'" 

It was observed that after the late exten- 
sive spread of the United Irish Society in 
the North, " Defenderism " had in a great 
measure ceased there. Many thousands of 
those who had been Defenders joined their 
Presbyterian neighbors in the " Union." 
This, in fact, was the great object of the 
Union, and the warmest hope of its pro- 
moters. The United Irish Societies of Ul- 
ster alone, according to a return seized by 
Government in Belfast, counted, at least on 



paper, one hundred thousand men in the 

month of April. They became more confi- 
dent in their strength; and having resolved 
to defer any general rising until the follow- 
ing year, they would not be goaded into a 
premature outbreak. During the Summer 
Assizes, although there were very numerous 
convictions for the usual class of offenses 
attributed to United Irishmen and Defenders, 
(for it was never thought of to prosecute 
Orangemen — the only criminals,) yet there 
were also several acquittals, greatly to the 
satisfaction of the United Irish, and to the 
dismay of the Government. This certainly 
arose from the greater difficulty which the 
sheriffs now had in pocking sure juries, not 
being able to tell now who might, or might 
not, be United Irishmen. Mr. Cmran de- 
fended many cascsoutho Northeast Circuit; 
amongst which may be mentioned those 
which occurred in Armagh. There were in 
the jail of that town twenty-eight persons 
accused of this species of alleged offense; 
of whom, however, two trials only were 
brought to trial. In the former, a suborned 
soldier, who was brought forward to prose 
cute one Doghcrty, was, upon Dogherty's 
ar, initial, put into the dock in his place, to 
abide his trial for perjury, The Grand 
Jury found bills against him, and he re- 
mained in custody to abide his trial. 

The only other trial was that of the King 
against Uanlon and Xogher, charged with 
contemptuously, maliciously, and feloniously 
tendering to the prosecutor an unlawful oath 
or engagement, to become one of an unlaw- 
ful, wicked, and seditious society called 
United Irishmen. 

One witness only was produced in sup- 
port of this indictment, a soldier of the 
Twenty-fourth Light Dragoons, of the 
name of Fisher, who swore to the adminis- 
tration of an oath, "to be united in brother- 
hood to pull down the head clergy ami half- 
pay olliccrs." He, upon his cross-examina- 
tion, said that the obligation had been shown 
and read to him, in a small book of four 
leaves, which he had read and would know 
again. The Constitution of the United 
Irishmen was then put into his hands by 
the defendant's counsel, and he admitted the 
test contained in it to be the same that he 
had takeu. 



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On the part of the prisoners, A. T. 
Stewart, Esq., of A.cton, woe examined and 
cross-examined by the Crown. The sum of 
his testimony was, that this Society had 
made a rapid progress throngh the people 
of all religions, ranks, and classes; that be- 
fore its introduction into that country, the 
in. i i horrible religions pevsecotions existed, 
attended with murder and extirpation; that 
since its introduction these atrocities bad 
subsided, as far ns he could learn. He ad- 
mitted he had heard of murders laid to their 
charge, bnl could hardly believe such 
charges, as he conceived them incompatible 
with anything lie ever could learn of the 
principles or consequences of their insti- 
tution. 

Tlie jailor was also examined, who said, 
thai fewer persons had been sent to him 
upon charges of wrecking orrobbing houses, 
or of murder, than before, and that he un- 
derstood the religions parties began to 
agree better together, and to fight less. 

There was no other material evidence. 
Mr. Cm-ran spoke an hour and three-quar- 
ters in defense of the United Irishmen. That 
lie was delighted to find, after so many of 
them had been immured in dungeons, with- 
out trial, that at length the subject had 
come fairly before the world— and that in- 
stead of being a system of organized treason 
and murder, it proved to be a great bond 
of national union, founded upon the most 
acknowledged principle of law, and every 
sacred obligation due to our country and 
Creator. 

Mr. Baron George gave his opinion de- 
eidedlv, that the obligation was, under the 
act of Parliament, illegal. The Jury with- 
drew, and acquitted he prisoner, and thus 
ended the Assizes of Armagh. 

The "Union" continued to recruit its 
numbers in the North; but, with still greater 
secrecy, and the country remaining perfectly 
tranquil, notwithstanding the cruel outrages 

Of magistrates and military, trade somewhat 
revived, and most people seemed to be re- 

tnrning peacefully to their ordinary pursuits, 

In short, the United Irish of l'l>ter were 
resolved not to rise until they should be at 
least assured of the co-operation of the Other 
three provinces, if not of aid from France. 
A report of the " Secret Committee" of the 



Commons, made this summer, congratulated 

the country Upon this apparent decline in 

the treasonable spirit. Such, the Commit- 
tee stated, had been the beneficial conse- 
quences of the " measures adopted in the 
year 1197" — that is, of the rigors of martial 
law, searches for arms, burnings of houses, 
and slaughters of women and children. We 
have already seen, however, that the greater 
tranquillity and good order of the North 
arose precisely from the spread of this very 
" treason," which the Committee pretended 
to regard ns being itself the only disturb- 
ance. This Committee goes on to report, 
that the leaders of the treason, apprehensive 
lest the enemy might be discouraged from 
any further plan of invasion, by the loyal 

dispositi nanifested throughout Minister 

and Connaught on their former attempt, de- 
termined to direct all their exertions to the 
propagation of the system in those pro- 
vinces, which had hitherto been but, par- 
tially infected. With this view emissaries 
were sent into the South and West in great 
numbers, of whose success in forming new 
societies and administering the oaths of the 
Union, there were, in the course of some 
few months, but too evident proofs in the 
introduction of the same disturbances and 
enormities into Minister, with which the 
northern province had been so severely 
visiied. 

In May, 1797, although numbers had 
been sworn both in Minister and Leinster, 
the strength of the organization, exclusive 
of Ulster, lay chiefly in the metropolis, and 
in the neighboring Counties of Dublin, Kil- 
dare, Meath, Westmeath, and the King's 
County. It was very observable, that- the 
counties in which Defenderism had prevailed, 
easily became converts to the new doctrines; 
and in the summer of 1797, the usual con- 
comitants of this species of treason, namely, 
the plundering houses of arms, the fabrica- 
tion of pikes, and the murder of those who 
did not join their party, began to appear in 
the midland counties. 

" In order to engage the peasantry in the 
southern counties, particularly in the Coun- 
ties of Watcrford and Cork, the more 
eagerly in their cause, the United Irishmen 
found it expedient in nrging their general 
principles, to dwell with pi 



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the supposed oppressiveness of tithes, which 
had been the pretext for the old White 
Boy's insurrections. And it is observable, 
that in addition to the acts of violence 
usually resorted to by the party for the 
furtherance of their purposes, the ancient 
practice of burning the corn, and houghing 
the cattle of tliose against whom their resent- 
ment was directed, was revived, and very 
generally practised in those counties. 

" With a view to excite the resentment of 
the Catholics, and to turn that resentment 
to the purposes of the party, fabricated and 
false tests were represented as having been 
taken to exterminate Catholics, and were in- 
dustriously disseminated by the emissaries 
of the treason throughout the provinces of 
Leinster, Minister, and Connanght. Reports 
were frequently circulated amongst the ig- 
norant of the Catholic persuasion, that large 
bodies of men were coming to put them to 
death. This fabrication, however extrava- 
gant and absurd, was one among the many 
wicked means by which the deluded peas- 
antry were engaged the more rapidly and 
deeply in the treason." * 

So far the Committee; and this document 
is but one of many examples of legislative 
slander at the time, and of histories written 
by " loyal men " since. The report classes 
under the same head of " enormities" the 
fabrication of pikes and the murder of those 
who did not join their party. It is true the 
United Irishmen did everywhere get pikes 
forged; but utterly untrue that they did in 
any instance murder any one for not joining 
them. As for "burning the corn and 
houghing the cattle of those against whom 
their resentment was directed " — it is true 
that the " supposed oppressiveness of tithes," 
and of church rates, had for many years been 
the occasion of such acts of outrage against 
tithe proctors, &c, butqnite untrue that out- 
rages of this kind, or any other kind, in- 
creased when the United Irish Societies 
spread into the midland and southern coun- 
ties. On the contrary, they diminished. 
We have already seen the strong testimony 
to this effect in the North; and it may be 
laid down as universally true, that the Irish 
people on the eve of an insurrection, or in 
any violent political excitement, are always 
* riowden. 



free from crime to a most exemplary extent; 
which is always considered an alarming 
symptom by the authorities. 

"The good effects of the United Irish 
system in the commencement," says Miles 
Byrne,* " were soon felt and seen throughout 
the Counties of Wexford, Carlow, and 
Wicklow, which were the parts of the coun- 
try I knew best. It gave the first alarm to 
the Government; they suspected something 
extraordinary was going on, finding that 
disputes, fighting at fairs and other places 
of public meeting, had completely ceased. 
The magistrates soon perceived this change, 
as they were now seldom called on to grant 
summons or warrants to settle disputes. 
Drunkenness ceased also; for an United 
Irishmen to be found drunk was unknown 
for many months. . . . Such was the 
sanctity of our cause." f Even Mr. Plow- 
den, though an enemy of the United Irish- 
men, and ready enough to call them 
miscreants for their " treason," is obliged to 
vindicate them from the charge of encourag- 
ing or favoring other kinds of crime. But 
it is true, that if it be an " enormity " to 
"fabricate pikes," they were guilty of that 
atrocity, f 

So much, it is right to say, in vindication 
of as pure, gallant, and self-sacrificing a 
political party as ever appeared in any coun- 
try under the sun. 

As for the last-cited statement in the 

* The excellent, chivalrous Miles Byrne, who died 
only in 1SJ2, a Clief-de-Bataillon in the French service, 
was one of the first United Irishmen in Wexford 
County. His Memoirs, edited by his widow, and 
published in New York and in Paris in L863, form one 
of the most valuable documents for the history of his 
time, and the insurrection in Wexford. 

t The question at one time much agitated — whether 
the United Irishmen, or any of them, did or did not 
theoretically hold tyrannicide, that is, political as- 
sassination, to be lawful, is nothing to the purpose; 
it is enough to know they never practised it, and 
their leaders professed their abhorrence of it. 
Singular to say, the only United Irishman who ever, 
by any writing of his, gave even a pretext tor such 
an imputation, was the gentle poet, who sings " The 
Loves of the Angels," and " The Last Hose of Sum- 
mer." A letter of his, when a student in Triuity 
College, signet! Sophisler, contains some rhetoric of 
that sort ; and resolutions written by him and ofiered 
in one of the U. I Clubs in College, were the chief 
occasion of Lord Clare's celebrated Visitation to 
the University; but Lord Clare himself admitted that 
the resolution advising tyrannicide had bee 




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GOOD EFFECTS OF UNITED IRISHISM IN THE SOUTH. 



267 




Committee's report, it was most accurately 
true that large bodies of men were at that 
moment " coming to pat them (the Cath- 
olics) to death." Twelve English and 
Scottish militia regiments, besides nn im- 
meiisi' force of the regular army, were com- 
ing, or already come, for that express pur- 
pose; which purpose was also carried into 
effect upon a very great scale. And it was 
most natural, therefore, that those Catholics 
should In' urged to unite for their own de- 
fense with those of their countrymen who 
were objects of the same conspiracy ; namely, 
thr Society of United Irishmen. 

When this monstrous report was presented 
in the House of Commons, there was 
naturally some debate. Mr. Fletcher said, 
that if coercive measures were to be pur- 
sued, the whole country must be coerced, 
for the spirit of insurrection had pervaded 
every part of it. 

Mr. M. Beresford ordered the clerk to 
take down these words, and the gallery was 
instantly cleared. When strangers were 
again admitted, the debate on the address 
still continued, and in the course of it M. J. 
C. Beresford thought himself called on to 
defend the Secret Committee against an as- 
sertion which had fallen from Mr. Fletcher 
in the course of his speech. The assertion 
was, in substance, that he feared the people 
would be led to look on the report of the 
Committee, as fabricated rather to justify 
the past measures of Government, than to 
state facts. 

One statement, however, in the report 
was true — that during this summer the 
United Irish system did strike vigorous 
roots in all the Counties of Leinster, except, 
perhaps, Kilkenny. It has been affirmed 
that Wexford, which soon made the most 
formidable figure in the insurrection, had so 
few United Irishmen within its bounds up 
to the end of the year 1797, as not to be 
counted nt all in the official returns of the 
organized counties in February; and it is 
probable that as the peasantry of Wexford 
were comparatively comfortable and thrifty, 
and lived on good terms with their landlords, 
tlere was less disposition to rush into insur- 
rectionary organizations at first. Vet Mis 
Byrue, who was himself sworn in an United 
Irishman in the summer of 1797, tells us: 



" Before a month had elapsed, almost every 
one had taken the test." He adds: "We 
soon organized parochial and baronial meet- 
ings, and named delegates to correspond 
with the county members. Robert Graham, 
of Corcaunon, a cousin of my mother's, was 
named to represent the county at the meet- 
ing to lie held in Dublin at Oliver Bond's." 
Whatever may have been the case in Wex- 
ford, it is certain that Kildare, Carlow, 
Meath, and Dublin, were in the course of 
the summer completely organized. Miles 
Byrne says: "Nothing could exceed the 
readiness and good will of the United Irish- 
men to comply with the instructions they 
received to procure arms, ammunition, &c, 
notwithstanding the difficulties and perils 
they underwent in purchasing those articles. 
Bikes were easily had at this time, for al- 
most every blacksmith was an United Irish- 
man. The pike-blades were soon had, but 
it was more difficult to procure poles for 
them; and the cutting down of young ash 
trees for that purpose awoke great attention 
and caused great sucpicion of the object in 
view." It is certain, however, that the 
County of Wexford neither suffered so 
much, nor was so ripe for insurrection, as 
many other counties, until after the 1st of 
April, 179*, when Lord Castlereagh's 
" well-timed measures" were taken. In the 
meantime Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the 
other leaders were eagerly and impatiently 
awaiting news of approaching succors from 
France; keeping the people as quiet as pos- 
sible, and letting them prepare their arms 
and steel their hearts, in full view of the 
corpses blackening upon many a gibbet, and 
heads impaled on spikes over many a gaol 
door-way, for the crime of swearing to pro- 
mote the union of Irishmen, in order to ob- 
tain a full and fair representation of the 
people,* and deliverance from their savage 
oppressors. 

* It is right to bear in mind throughout, that the 
original test of the United Irish Society, whichbound 
them to unite to procure fair representation of all 
the Irish people in Parliament, was changed in 17'.';. 
into an engagement to unite for the purpose of ob- 
taining a fair representation of all the people — ■ 
dropping the words " in Parliament." From that 
time, separation and a republican government be- 
came tli" fixed objects of the principal leaders, but 
not thr avowed ones till a little later, when, at the. 
conclusion of every meeting, the chairman waB 



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CHAPTER XXXI. 

1797—1798. 
Wolfe Tone's Negotiations in France and Holland — 
Lewins — Expedition of Dutch Government Des- 
tined for Ireland — Tone at the Texel — His Journal 
— Tone's Uneasiness about Admitting Foreign 
Dominion over Ireland — MaeNeven's Memoir — 
Discussion as to Proper Point for a Landing — Tone 
on Board the Vryheid — Adverse Winds — Rage and 
Impatience of Tone— Disastrous Fate of the Ba- 
tavian Expedition — Camperdowu. 

The great French armament, destined 
for the liberation of Ireland, which had 
looked iu at Bantry Bay, had returned to 
Brest, without so much loss by the bad 
weather as might have been expected, and 
without having met a single British ship- 
of-war. The frigate Fraternitd, carrying 
General Hoche and the Admiral Morand 
de Galles, arrived safely at La Rochelle a 
fortnight after. Hoche was appointed to 
the command of the Army of the Sambre 
and Meuse; and Theobald Wolfe Tone went 
with him, attached to his personal staff. A 
great mutual regard seems to have sprung 
up between the young General and his 
gallant Aide; and the latter, who had by 
no means given up the project of a French 
liberating invasion of Ireland, always 
cherished the hope of seeing Hoche ap- 
pointed to the chief command. On the 
10th of March, he writes to his wife : 
"This very day the Executive Directory 
has ratified the nomination of General 
Hoche, and I am, to all intents and pur- 
poses, Adjutant-General, destined for the 
Army of Sambre and Meuse." 

In the end of May, after a short stay 
w ith his family, who had arrived in France, 
we find him at Cologne, at the headquarters 
of that army. In the meantime, Mr. John 
Edward Lewins, already mentioned as an 
agent of the United Irishmen, had arrived 

obliged to inform the members of each society, 
" they had undertaken no light matter," and he was 
directed to ask every delegate present what were 
his views and his understanding of those of his 
society, and each individual was expected to reply, 
" a republican government and a separation from 
England." P ieces of Irish History Madden. 

All this was, of course, as well kuowu to the Gov- 
ernment as to the members; so that it cannot in 
candor be said, that the U. I. were treated as crim- 
inals for the mere fact of uniting — it was for uniting 
to destroy British domioioa m Ireland, and erect a 
republic in its place. 



in France, empowered to treat for another 
expedition, and to negotiate a loan. When 
Lewins arrived in Holland, then called the 
"Batavian Republic," one of the republics 
dependent upon France, and at war with 
Eogland, he found the Government very 
well disposed to essay this bold enterprise 
of a descent upon Ireland, and to risk their 
whole navy and army in the effort. An 
extract from Tone's journal will now af- 
ford the best insight into the state of this 
negotiation. While with General Hoche, 
at his Quartier General, at Friedberg, he 
writes, under date of June 12th, 1797 : — 

" This evening the General called me into 
the garden and told me he had some good 
news for me. He then asked, ' Did I know 
one Lewins?' I answered I did, perfectly 
well, and had a high opinion of his talents 
and patriotism. ' Well,' said he, ' he is at 
Neuwied, waiting to see you ; yon must set 
off to-morrow morning ; when you join him, 
you must go together to Treves, and wait for 
further orders.' The next morning I set ojf, 
and, on the 14th, in the evening, reached — 

June lith, ~Neuwied; where I found Lew- 
ins waiting for me. I cannot express the 
unspeakable satisfaction I felt at seeing him. 
I gave him a full account of all my labors, 
and of everything that had happened since 
I have been in France, and he informed me, 
in return, of everything of consequence re- 
lating to Ireland, and especially to my friends 
now iu jeopardy there. 

June 17th, Treves ; where we arrived on 
the 17th. What is most material is, that 
he is sent here by the Executive Committee 
of the United People of Ireland, to solicit, 
on their part, the assistance in troops, arms, 
and money, necessary to enable them to take 
the field, and assert their liberty; the organ- 
ization of the people is complete, and nothing 
is wanting but the point d'appui. His in- 
structions are to apply to France, Holland, 
and Spain. At Hamburgh, where he passed 
almost two months, he met a Seuor Nava, 
an officer of rank iu the Spanish navy, sent 
thither by the Prince of Peace, on some 
mission of consequence ; he opened himself 
to Nava, who wrote off, in consequence, to 
his court, and received an answer, general, 
it is true, but iu the highest degree favora- 
ble ; a circumstance which augurs well, is. 



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■WOLFE TONE'S NEGOTIATIONS IN FRANCE AND HOLLAND. 



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that, in forty days from t lie date of Nava's 
letter, be received the answer, which is less 
time than be ever knew a courier to arrive 
in, and shows the earnestness of the Spanish 
Minister. Lewins' instructions are to de- 
mand of Spain ,t. r )00,000 sterling, and 
30,000 stand of arms. At Treves, on the 
19th, Dalton, the General's Aid-de-Camp, 
came express with orders for us to return 
to— 

June 1\st, Coblentz; where we arrived 
on the 21st, and met General Hoche. He 
told us that, in consequenco of the arrival 
of Lewins, be had sent off Simon, one of his 
Adjutant-Generals, who was of our late 
expedition, in order to press the Executive 
Directory and Minister of the Marine ; that 
he had also sent copies of all the necessary 
papers, including especially those lately pre- 
pared by Lewins, with his own observations, 
enforcing them in the strongest manner ; 
that he had just received the answers of all 
parlies, which were as favorable as we could 
desire ; but that the Minister of the Marine 
was absolutely for making the expedition on 
a grand seale, for which two months, at the 
very least, would still be necessary ; to 
which J, knowing Brest of old, and that 
two months, in the language of the Ma- 
rine, meant four at least, if not five or six, 
remarked the necessity of an immediate ex- 
ertions in order to profit of the state of mu- 
tiny and absolute disorganization in which 
the English navy is at this moment, in which 
Lewins heartily concurred ; and we both ob- 
served that it was not a strong military force 
that we wanted at this moment, but arms 
and ammunition, with troops sufficient to 
serve as a hdjuii, tie armce, and protect the 
people in their first assembling; adding, that 
5,000 men sent now, when the thing was 
feasible, would lie far better than 25,000 in 
three months, when, perhaps, we might find 
ourselves again blocked up in Brest Harbor; 
and 1 besought the General to remember 
that the mutiny aboard the English fleet 
would most certainly be soon quelled, so that 
there was not a moment to lose ; that if we 
were lucky enough to arrive in Ireland be- 
fore that took place, I looked upon it as 
morally certain, that, by proper means, we 
might gain over the seamen, who have al- 
ready spoken of steering the fleet iuto the 




Irish harbor, and so settle the business, per- 
haps, without striking a blow. We both 
pressed these, and such other arguments as 
occurred, in the best manner we were able; 
to which General Hoche replied, he saw 
everything precisely in the same light we 
did, and that he would act accordingly, and 
press the Directory and Minister of the Ma- 
rine in the strongest manner. He showed 
Lewins Simons' letter, which contained the 
assurance of the Directory, ' that they 
would make no peace with England wherein 
the interests of Ireland should not be fully 
discussed agreeably to the wishes of the 
people of that country.' This is a very 
strong declaration, and has most probably 
been produced by a demand made by Lewins 
in his memorial, ' that the French Govern- 
ment should make it an indispensable con- 
dition of peace, that all the British troops 
be withdrawn from Ireland, and the people 
left at full liberty to declare whether they 
wished to continue the connection with Eng- 
land or not.' General Hoche then told us 
not to be discouraged by the arrival of a 
British negotiator, for that the Directory 
were determined to make no peace but on 
conditions which would put it out of the 
power of England longer to arrogate to 
herself the commerce of the world, and dic- 
tate her laws to all the maritime powers. 
He added that preparations were making 
also in Holland for an expedition, the par- 
ticulars of which he would communicate to 
us in two or three days, and, in the mean- 
time, desired us to attend him to— 

June 2Uh, Cologne; for which place we 
set off, and arrived the 24 th. 

June Ibth. — At nine o'clock at night the 
General sent us a letter from General Daen- 
dels, Commander-in-Chief of the Army of 
the Batavian Republic, acquainting him that 
everything was in the greatest forwardness, 
and would be ready in a very few clays ; 
that the army and the navy were in the 
best possible spirit; that the Committee for 
Foreign Affairs (the Directory per interim 
of the Batavian Republic) desired most earn- 
estly to see him without loss of time, in order 
to make the definitive arrangements; and es- 
pecially they prayed him to bring with him 
the deputy of the people of Ireland, which 
Daendels repeated two or three times in his 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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letter. In consequence of this, I waited on 
the General, whom I found in his bed in the 
Court Imperiale, and received his orders to 
set off with Lewins without loss of time, 
and attend him at — 

June 27//;, the Hague; where we ar- 
rived accordingly, having traveled day and 
night. In the evening we went to the Com- 
edie, where we met the General in a sort of 
public incognito ; that is to say, he had 
combed the powder out of his hair, and was 
in a plain regimental frock. After the play, 
we followed him to his lodgings at the Lion 
d'or, where he gave us a full detail of what 
was preparing in Holland. lie began by 
telling us that the Dutch Governor-General 
Daendels, and Admiral Dewinter, were sin- 
cerely actuated by a desire to effectuate 
something striking to rescue their country 
from that state of oblivion and decadence into 
which it had fallen ; that by the most inde- 
fatigable exertions on their part, they had 
got together, at the Texel, sixteen sail of 
the line, and eight or ten frigates, all ready 
for sea, and in the highest condition; that 
they iutended to embark 15,000 men, the 
whole of their national troops, 3,000 stand 
of arms, 80 pieces of artillery, and money 
for their pay and subsistence for three 
months; that he had the best opinion of the 
sincerity of all parties, and of the courage 
and conduct of the General and Admiral, 
but that here was the difficulty : The French 
Government had demanded that at least 
5,000 French troops, the elite of the army, 
should be embarked, instead of a like num- 
ber of Dutch, in which case, if the demand 
was acceded to, he would himself take the 
command of the united army, and set off 
for the Texel directly; but that the Dutch 
Government made great difficulties, alleging 
a variety of reasons, of which some were 
good; that they said the French troops 
would never submit to the discipline of the 
Dutch navy, and that, in that case, they 
could not pretend to enforce it on their own, 
without making unjust distinctions, and giv- 
ing a reasonable ground for jealousy and 
discontent to their army; 'but the fact is,' 
said Hoche, ' that the Committee, Daendels, 
and Dewinter, are anxious that the Batavian 
Republic should have the whole glory of 
the expedition, if it succeeds ; they feel that 




their country has been forgotten in Europe, 
and they are risking everything, even to 
their last stake : for, if this fails, they are 
ruined — in order to restore the national 
character. The demand of the French Gov- 
ernment is now before the Committee; if it 
is acceded to, I will go myself, and, at all 
events, I will present you both to tile Com- 
mittee; and we will probably then settle the 
matter definitively.' Both Lewins and I 
now found ourselves in a considerable diffi- 
culty. On the one side, it was an object of 
the greatest importance to have Iloche and 
his 5,000 grenadiers ; on the other, it was 
most unreasonable to propose anything 
which could hurt the feelings of the 
Dutch people, at a moment when they were 
making unexampled exertions in our favor, 
and risking, as Hoche himself said, their 
last ship and last shilling to emancipate us. 
1 cursed and swore like a dragon ; it went 
to my very heart's blood and midriff to give 
up the General and our brave lads, 5,000 
of whom I would prefer to any 10,000 ui 
Europe ; on the other hand, I could not but 
see that the Dutch were perfectly reasonable 
in the desire to have the whole reputation 
of an affair prepared and arranged entirely 
at their expense, and at such an expense. 
I did not know what to say. Lewins, how- 
ever, extricated himself and me with con- 
siderable address. After stating very well 
our difficulty, he asked Hoche whether he 
thought that Daendels would serve under 
his orders, and, if he refused, what effect 
that might have on the Batavian troops ? 
I will never forget the magnanimity of 
Hoche on this occasion. He said he be- 
lieved Daendels would not, and, therefore, 
that the next moruing he would withdraw 
the demand with regard to the French 
troops, and leave the Dutch Government at 
perfect liberty to act as they thought proper. 
When it is considered that Hoche has a de- 
vouring passion for fame ; that his great 
object, on which he has endeavored to es- 
tablish his reputation, is the destruction of 
the power of England ; that he has, for 
two years, in a great degree, devoted him- 
self to our business, and made the greatest 
exertions, including our memorable expedi- 
tion, to emancipate us; t. at he sees, at last, 
the business likely to be accomplished by an- 



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TONE AT THE TEXEL HIS JOURKAL. 







oilier, and, of course, nil the glory he had 
promised to himself ravished from him ; 
when, in addition to nil this, it is considers 
that he could, by n word's speaking, prevent 
the possibility of that rival's moving one 
Btep, and find, at the same time, plausible 
reasons sufficient to justify his own conduct, 
— I confess his renouncing the situation 
which he might command is an effort of very 
great virtue. It is true he is doing exactly 
what an honest man and a good citizen ought 
to do; tie is preferring the interests of his 
country to his own private views; that, how- 
ever, does not prevent my regarding his con- 
duct, in this instance, with great admiration, 
ami I shall never forget it. This important 
difficulty being removed, after a good deal 
of general discourse on our business, we part- 
ed late, perfectly satisfied with each other, 
and having fixed to wait, on the Committee 
to-morrow in the forenoon. All reflections 
made, the present arrangement, if it has its 
dark, has its bright sides also, of which 
more hereafter. 

June 28th. — This morning, at ten, Lewins 
and I went with General Hoehe to the 
Committee for Foreign Affairs, which we 
found sitting. There were eight or nine 
members, of whom I do not know all the 
names, together with General Daendels. 
Those whose names I learned, were citizens 
Hahn, (who seemed to have great influence 
among them,) Bekker, Van Leyden, and 
Grasveldt. General Hoche began by stat- 
ing extremely well the history of our affairs, 
since he had interested himself in them; he 
pressed, in the strongest manner that we 
could wish, the advantages to be reaped 
from the emancipation of Ireland, the almost 
certainty of success, if the attempt were 
once made, and the necessity of attempting 
ii, if at all immediately. It was citizen 
llahu who replied to him. He said he was 
heartily glad to fmd the measure sanction- 
ed by so high an opinion as that of General 
Hoche ; that originally the object of the 
1 bitch Government was to have invaded 
England, in order to have operated a diver- 
sion in favor of the French army, which it 
was hoped would have been in Ireland ; that 
Circumstances being totally changed in that 
regard, they had yielded to the wishes of 
the French Government, and resolved to go 



into Ireland; that, for this purpose, they had 
made the greatest exertions, and had now 
at the Texel an armament of 16 sail of the 
line, 10 frigates, 15,000 troops in the best 
condition, 80 pieces of artillery, and pay for 
the whole three months; but that a difficulty 
had been raised within a few days, in conse- 
quence of a requisition of the Minister of 
.Marine, Truget, who wished to have 5,000 
French troops, instead of so many Dutch, to 
be disembarked in consequence. That this 
was a measure of extreme risk, inasmuch as 
the discipline of the Dutch navy was very 
severe, and such as the French troops would 
probably not submit to ; that, in that case, 
they could not pretend to enforce it with re- 
gard to their own troops, the consequence of 
which would be a relaxation of all discipline. 
This was precisely what General Iloehe told 
us last night. He immediately replied, that, 
such being the case, he would take on him- 
self to withdraw the Minister of Marine, 
and satisfy the Directory as to the justice 
of their observations ; and that he hoped,' 
all difficulty on that head being removed, 
they would press the embarkation without 
a moment's delay. It was easy to see the 
most lively satisfaction on all their faces, at 
this declaration of General Hoche, which cer- 
tainly does him the greatest honor. General 
Daendels, especially, was beyond measure 
delighted. They told us then that they 
hoped all would be ready in a fortnight, and 
Halm observed, at the same time, that, as 
there was an English squadron which ap- 
peared almost everyday at the mouth of the 
Texel, it was very much to be desired that 
the Brest fleet should, if possible, put to 
sea, in order to draw off at least a part of 
the British fleet, because, from the position 
of the Texel, the Dutch fleet was liable to 
be attacked in detail, in sailing out of the 
port; and even if ihey beat the euemy, it 
would not be possible to proceed, as they 
must return to relit. To this, General 
Hoche replied, that the French fleet could 
not, he understood, be ready before two 
months, which put it out of the question ; 
and as to the necessity of returning to refit, 
he observed that, during the last war, the 
British and French fleets had often fought, 
joth in the East ami West Indies, and kept 
the seas alter ; all that was necessary being 



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t<> have on board the necessary articles of 
rtchamge; besides, it was certainly the busi- 
ness of the Dutch fleet to avoid an action by 
all possible means. Genera] Daendels ob- 
served that Admiral Dewinter desired noth- 
ing better than to measure himself with the 
enemy, but we all, that is to say, General 
Hoche, Lewins, and myself, cried out against 
it, his only business being to bring his con- 
voy safe to its destination. A member of 
the committee, I believe it was Van Leyden, 
then asked us, supposing everything succeed- 
ed to our wish, what was the definite object 
of the Irish people. To which we replied 
categorically, that it was to throw off the 
yoke of England, break forever the connec- 
tion now existing with that country, and 
constitute ourselves a free and independent 
people. They all expressed their satisfaction 
at this reply, and Van Leyden observed that 
he had traveled through Ireland, and to 
judge from the luxury of the rich, and ex- 
treme misery of the poor, no country in Eu- 
rope had so crying a necessity for a revolu- 
tion. To which Lewins and I replied, as is 
most religiously the truth, that one great 
motive of our conduct in this business, was 
the conviction of the wretched state of onr 
peasantry, and the determination, if possi- 
ble, to amend it. The political object of our 
visit being now nearly ascertained, Halm, in 
the name of the Committee, observed that he 
hoped either Lewins or I would be of the 
expedition. To which Hoche replied, ' that 
I was^ready to go,' and he made the offer, 
on my part, in a manner peculiarly agree- 
able to my feelings. It was then fixed that 
I should set off for the army of Sambre et 
Meuse lor my trunk, and especially for my 
papers, and that Lewins should remain at 
the Hague, at the orders of the Committee, 
until my return, which might be seven or 
eight days. The meeting then broke up. 
We could not possibly desire to find greater 
attention to us, personally, or, which was far 
more important, greater zeal and anxiety to 
forward this expedition, in which the Dutch 
Government has thrown itself 'a corps per- 
du! They venture no less than the whole 
of their army and navy. As Hoche ex- 
pressed it, 'they are like a man stripped to 
is breeches, who has one shilling left, which 
he throws in the lottery, in the hope of being 
enabled to buy a coat." 



The mutations of history are sometimes 
strange. Here, in 171)7, we find the Dutch 
nation preparing for a grand national effort 
tii liberate and redeem the very same people 
whom a century before it had so powerfully 
contributed, witli the Prince of Orange and 
its "Dutch Blues," to hurl, prostrate under 
the feet of this very England which the 
Dutch Republic was now so eager to over- 
throw. 

It deserves to be noticed, injustice to the 
Irish agents, both in Holland and in 
France, that they never contemplated 
bringing an overwhelming force to Ireland, 
such as might subdue the country to hold it 
in a state of subjection to France, like the 
Ligurian, or Cisalpine Republic. The 
"Secret Committee," already so often cited, 
which had under examination Messrs. Em- 
met, MacNeven, ami O'Connor, admit this 
fact. " It appeared to the Committee, that 
the Executive of the Union, though de- 
sirous of obtaining assistance in men, arms, 
and money, yet were averse to a greater 
force being sent than might enable them to 
subvert the Government, and retain the 
power of the country in their own hands ; 
but that the French showed a decided disin- 
clination at all times to send any force to 
Ireland, except such as from its magnitude 
might not only give them the hopes of con- 
quering the kingdom, but of retaining it af- 
terwards as a French conquest, and of sub- 
jecting it to all the plunder and oppressions 
which other nations subdued or deceived by 
that nation had experienced. In Tone's 
journal, under date of 1st of July, oc- 
curs a passage showing how earnestly 
that true Irishman deprecated a French con- 
quest of his country : " I then took occa- 
sion to speak on a subject which had 
weighed very much upon rav mind, I mean 
i he degree of influence which the French 
might be disposed to arrogate to themselves 
in Ireland, and which I had great reason to 
fear would be greater than we might choose 
to allow them. In the Gazelle, of that day, 
there was a proclamation of Buonaparte's, 
addressed to the Government of Genoa, 
which I thought most grossly improper and 
indecent, as touching on the indispensable 
rights of the people. I read the most ob- 
noxious passages to Hoche, and observed, 
that if Buonaparte commanded in Ireland, 



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ami were to pnblish there so indiscreet a 
proclamation, it would have a most ruinous 
effect; that in Italy such dictation might 
pass, but never in Ireland, where we under- 
stood our rights too well to submit to it. 
Hoche answered me, ' I understand you, but 
you may be at, ease in that respect ; Buona- 
parte has been my scholar, but he shall 
never be my master.' " 

lli fore proceeding to narrate the fortunes 
of this second grand expedition bound for 
Ireland, it will be well to consider the views 
of those Irishmen who had studied the sub- 
ject, with regard to a point then extremely 
interesting, and which may again become 
interesting in the course of human events — 
namely, the most advisable or convenient 
harbors of Ireland for purposes of a landing 
hostile to England. This question is treated 
at length in a memoir, which was, during 
this same summer, intrusted to Dr. Mac- 
Is'even, and was by him carried over to 
France, in order that no such blunder might 
again be made as the approach to the deso- 
late mountainous coasts of Bear and Bantry. 
This memoir, singular to relate, fell into the 
hands of the British Government; but cer- 
tainly not through any treachery on the 
part of Dr MacNeven, who was a most ex- 
cellent man ; but O'Connor, Emmet and 
MacNeven tell us, in their memoirs, that on 
their examination before the Secret Com- 
mittee of the Lords the next year, they were 
astonished beyond measure to see the rery 
original of that memoir lying on the table 
— so perfect was the spy system of England, 
both at home and abroad, maintained by an 
enormous expenditure of "Secret Service 
money." 

The account which the Secret Committee 
has given us of that memoir is as follows : 
The next communication of consequence was 
in June, 1797, when an accredited person 
went from hence to communicate with the 
French Directory by their desire ; he went 
by Hamburg, where he saw the French 
Minister, who made some difficulty about 
granting a passport, ami demanded a me- 
morial, which was written by the accredited 
person, and given to the French Minister 
nnder the impression that the passport was 
not to be granted. 

The memoir was written in English, and 
35 



: 



contained the objects of his mission accord- 
ing to the instructions which he had received 
from the Executive. It began by stating, 
that the appearance of the French iu Ban- 
try Bay, had encouraged the least confident \s3 
of the Irish in the hope of throwing off the 
yoke of England with the assistance of 
France ; that the event of that expedition 
had proved the facility of invading Ireland ; 
that in the event of a second expedition, if 
the object were to take Cork, Oj-ster Haven 
would be the best place of debarkation; 
that the person who had been before accred- 
ited was instructed to point out Oyster 
Haven as the best place of debarkation; 
and it stated the precautions which had been 
taken, by throwing up works at Bantry, 
Fermoy, and Mallow. It further stated, 
that the system of the United Irishmen had 
made a rapid progress in the County of 
Cork, and that Bandon was become a second 
Belfast; that the system had made great 
progress in other counties, and that, the 
people were now well inclined to assist the 
French; that 150,000 United Irishmen were 
organized and enroled in Ulster, a great 
part of them regimented, and one-third ready 
to march out of the province. It detailed 
the number of the King's forces in Ulster, 
and their stations ; recommended Lough- 
swilly as a place of debarkation in the 
North, and stated, that the people in the 
peninsula of Donegal would join the French. 
It stated, also, the strength of the garrison 
in Londonderry, and that one regiment 
which made a part of it was supposed to be 
disaffected. It mentioned Killybegs also as 
a good place of debarkation, and stated that 
the Counties of Tyrone, Fermanagh, and 
Monaghan, were amongst the best affected 
to the cause. In case of a landing at Killy- 
begs, it recommended a diversion in Sligo, 
and stated, that a force of 10,000 United 
Irishmen might be collected to fall upon 
Enniskillen, which commanded the pass of 
Lough Erne; that it was easy to enter the 
Bay of Galway, but very difficult to get out 
of it ; that the Counties of Louth, Armagh, 
Westmcath, King's County, and City of 
Dublin, were the best organized; that the 
Catholic priests had ceased to be alarmed 
at the calumnies which had been propa- 
gated of French irreligion, and were well 





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affected to the cause; that some of them 
had rendered great service in propagating 
with discreet zeal the system of the Union. 
It declared that the people of Ireland had a 
lively sense of gratitude to France for the 
part which she took, and also to Spain for 
the interest she took in the affairs of Ire- 
land. It engaged on the part of the Na- 
tional Directory, to reimburse the expenses 
of France in the expedition which had failed, 
and of another to be undertaken. The 
number of troops demanded was a force not 
exceeding 10,000, and not less than 5,000 
men. It staled that a brigade of English 
artillery had been already sent over, and 
that a large body of troops would probably 
be sent if Ireland were attacked. A con- 
siderable quantity of artillery and ammuni- 
tion, with a large staff, and a body of 
engineers, and as many Irish officers as pos- 
sible, whose fidelity they were assured of 
were demanded as necessary to accompany 
the expedition. A recommendation was 
given to separate the Irish seamen who were 
prisoners of war from the British, suppos- 
ing they would be ready to join in an expe- 
dition to liberate their country. It further 
recommended a proclamation to be published 
by the French General, on his arrival there, 
that the French came as allies to deliver 
the country, not to conquer it; it also 
recommended to the Directory to make the 
independence of Ireland an indispensable 
condition of the treaty of peace then pend- 
ing; and stated, that a proceeding so au- 
thentic could not be disguised or misrepre- 
sented, and would very much enconrage the 
people of Ireland. It contained also an as- 
surance, that the Irish Militia would join 
the French if they landed in considerable 
force.* 

The difficulty in the way of the Batavian 
expedition being removed, by the generous 
self-abnegation of General lloche, (though 
his heart was set upon this service,) great 



* The topographical researches into the capabili- 
ties of harbors for invasion, must be much facilitated 
by tbe many excellent maps of Ireland published 
Within these last few years; some of which also 
afford a very perfect idea of the nature of the coun- 
try inland. At the period spoken of in the text, the 
best map of Ireland was, perhaps, that of Beaumont, 
a very useless one for strategical purposes. 




activity was exerted to make everything 
ready. Tone was to accompany the Dutch 
force, with the same rank which he held ia 
the French. What greatly increased the 
hopes and spirits of Tone and his allies, was 
the famous " Mutiny of the Nore," on board 
the English fleet, off the mouth of the 
Thames, which threatened for a few weeks to 
disable completely the naval power of Eng- 
land. The mutiny, however, was with some 
difficulty quelled by some sanguinary pun- 
ishments, and also by increasing the pay of 
the seamen; so that the British Channel 
Fleet was ready for service again, as the 
Dutch soon found out to their cost. On the 
4th of July, we find Wolfe Tone at the 
Hague, ready to undertake his duties. Wo 
copy the following extracts from Tone's 
Journal : — • 

"July Mh. — Instantly on my arrival I 
wailed on General Daendels, whom I found 
on the point of setting out for the Texel. 
lie read the letter, and told me everything 
should be settled with regard to my rani?, 
and that I should receive two months' pay 
in advance, to equip me for the campaign. 
His reception of me was extremely friendly. 
I staid with Lcwins, at the Hague, three or 
four days, whilst my regimentals, &c, were 
making up, and at length, all being ready, 
we parted, he setting off for Paris, to join 
General lloche, and I for the Texel, to join 
General Daendels. 

"July 8<A. — Arrived early in the morning 
at the Texel, and went immediately on board 
the Admiral's ship, the Vryheid, of 74 guns, 
a superb vessel. Found General Daendels 
aboard, who presented me to Admiral De- 
winter, wdio commands the expedition. I 
am exceedingly pleased with both one and 
the other ; there is a frankness and candor 
in their manners which is highly interesting. 

"July \<Mi. — I have been boating about 
the fleet, and aboard several of the vessels ; 
they are in very fine condition, incomparably 
better than the fleet at Brest, and I learn 
from all hands that the best possible spirit 
reigns in both soldiers and sailors. Admiral 
Duncan, who commands the English fleet 
off the Texel, sent in yesterday an officer 
with a flag of truce, apparently with a let- 
ter, but in fact to reconnoitre our force. 
Dewinter was even with him : for he de- 



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tained bis messenger, and sent back the 
answer by an officer of his own, with instruc- 
tions to bring back an exact account of the 
force of the enemy. 

"July 1 \th — This day our flag of truce is 
returned, and tiie English officer released. 
Duncan's fleet is of eleven sail of the liue, of 
which three are tliree-deekers.'' 

When both lleet and army were quite 
ready, by some fatality similar to that which 
delayed the Brest fleet before, the wind set 
in Steadily in an adverse direction, and so 
continued day after day, week after week.* 
During the whole of the two months of July 
and August the departure was postponed ; 
the supplies put on board the fleet were 
nearly exhausted ; and it was known that 
Admiral Duncan, who cruised outside, had 
been reinforced considerably. Changes of 
plan were proposed, and England or Scot- 
land was to be the object of the attempt, 
not Ireland. When General Daendels men- 
tioned these new projects to Wolfe Tone, 
the latter became seriously alarmed. He 
says iu his journal : " These are, most cer- 
tainly, very strong reasons, and, unfor- 
tunately, the wind gives them every hour 
fresh weight. I answered, that I did not 
see at present any solid objection to pro- 
pose to his system ; and that all I had to 
say, was, that, if the Batavian Republic 
sent but a corporal's guard to Ireland, I 
was ready to make one. So here is our ex- 
pedition in a hopeful way. It is most ter- 
rible. Twice, within nine months, has 
England been saved by the wind. It seems 
as if the very elements had conspired to per- 
petuate onr slavery, and protect the insolence 
and oppression of our tyrants What cau I 
do at this moment ? Nothing. The people 
of Ireland will now lose all spirit and coufl- 

* It is painful to sec how Tone's fiery spirit, already 
Irritated by disappointment, chafed at this cruel de- 
lay. July 17th, he Bays in his diary: "I hope the 
wind will not play us a trick. It is terribly foul this 
evening. Wane it. and damn it for me! lamina 
rage, which is truly astonishing, and can do nothing 
to hi Ip : ■ i % -elf. Well! well ! 

"July ls//t. The wind is as foul as possible this 

morning; it cannot he worse. Hell! Hell! Hell! 

Allah! Allah! Allah! I am in a most devouring 

****** 

"July 19fl».— Wind foul still. Horrible ! Horrible ! 
Admiral Dewinter and l endeavor to paRa away the 
time, playing the Bate, which he does very well; 
we have some good duets, and that is some relief." 



deuce iu themselves and their chiefs, and 
God only knows whether, if we were even 
aide to effectuate a landing with 3,000 men, 
they might act with courage and decision." 

Iu the interval of waiting at the Texel, 
two additional agents of the Irish Union 
made their appearance in Holland. These 
were Tennant and Lowry; with instruction* 
to make sure, if possible, of some effectual 
aid, either from France or Holland. They 
put themselves at once iuto communication 
with Tone and Lewins. Nothing seemed 
immediately possible in that direction, at 
least until after this Dutch armament should 
be definitely given up ; and the Batavian 
authorities were very reluctant to give it up. 
General Daendels charged Tone with a mis- 
sion to the headquarters of the Army of 
the Saiubre and Mcuse, in order to confer 
with General Hoche ; and when he arrived, 
he found Hoche dying. He writes : — 

"September \Bth and ]9lh — My fears, 
with regard to General Hoche, were, but 
too well founded. He died this morning at 
four o'clock. His lungs seemed to me quite 
gone. This most unfortunate event has so 
confounded and distressed me that I know 
not what to think, nor what will be the con- 
sequences. Wrote to my wife, and to Geu- 
eral Daendels instantly." 

Tone evidently believed that Dewinter's 
Dutch fleet would never sail at all ; there 
fore, after the death of Hoche, he obtained 
leave to go to Paris, where he was to meet 
his wife and children. 

It is impossible to over-estimate the im- 
portance of the loss which the Irish cause in 
Fiance sustained iu the death of General 
Hoche. He had thoroughly made that 
cause his own, through his warm admiration 
for his Irish aide, as well as from his settled 
conviction, formed on military principles, 
that to strike England in Ireland is the 
surest and easiest way to destroy her power. 
It is now known that Napoleon Buonaparte, 
then the rival of Hoche, came afterwards to 
entertain strongly this opinion concerning 
Ireland, although, unfortunately, he was not 
then duly impressed with its importance. 
At St. Helena, he said of Hx-he, that "he 
was one of the first of French generals ;" 
and that if he had landed in Ireland he 
would have succeeded iu the great enter- 



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prise. And if lie had but livid another 
year, his influence might hare availed to di- 
rect upon the coast of Ireland that fine fleet 
nnd army which made the unavailing and 
disastrous invasion of Egypt. 

While Tone seems to have abandoned 
every hope of decisive action on the part of 
the Batavian Republic, a sudden resolution 
was taken at the Hague. In the beginning 
of October, the British Commander quitted 
bis station, mid went to Yarmouth Roads to 
refit. A peremptory order was dispatched 
by the Dutch Government to Admiral De- 
wiuter to put to sea. On the morning of 
the 11th of October, Duncan, having made 
great haste, came in view of the Dutch fleet 
near the coast of Holland, off a place called 
Camperdown. The two fleets were nearly 
equal in number of ships, but the English 
were much superior in weight of metal. 
Dewinter, seeing a battle inevitable, engaged 
with the utmost gallantry. After a bloody 
fight, which the Dutch sustained with an 
intrepidity approaching desperation, De- 
winter's ship struck, a sinking wreck. Ten 
Dutch ships (if the line and two frigates 
were captured ; Duncan became Lord Cam- 
perdown ; and there was an end of Holland 
as a great naval power. 

Thus (here was, and continued to be, a 
strange fatality dooming the hopes of Ire- 
land in foreign aid to a series of painful dis- 
appointments. There were, after this, two 
more expeditions on a small scale, both 
French, and both intended to aid the Irish 
insurrection. As for the "Army of Eng- 
land," which began to be formed in this 
very month of October, it is needless to en- 
ter into the detail of that operation, as it 
was really never intended for England at all, 
still less for Ireland. Napoleon Buonaparte 
was made Commander-in-Chief. While there 
was apparently busy preparation in the 
Channel ports of France, Wolfe Tone was 
in the highest spirits ; and had several inter- 
views with the conqueror Of Italy, who seemed 
bent at last upon the grand enterprise of 
going straight to London, promised Tone 



that he should be employed in the expedi- 
tion, and requested him to make out a list 
of the leading Irish refugees then in Paris, 
who "would all," he said "be undoubtedly 
employed." So passed the winter and the 
spring. Two passages from Tone's journal 
will tell all that, is needful to be told of the 
Annie d' Angle! cr re. : — 

"May 19//*. — I do not know what to 
think of our expedition. It is certain that 
the whole left wing of the Army of England 
is, at this moment, in full march back to the 
Rhine ; Buonaparte is, God knows where, 
and the clouds seem thickening more and 
more in Germany, where 1 have no doubt 
Pitt is moving heaven and hell to embroil 
matters, and divert the storm which was al- 
most ready to fall on his head. 

" Mai/ 21/7/ and 2f>//i. — It is certain that 
Bnonaparte is at Toulon, and embarked 
since the 14th; his speech, as I suspected, 
is not as it was given in the last journals. 
The genuine one I read to-day, and there 
are two sentences in it which puzzle lire 
completely. In the first, at the beginning 
of the address, he tells the troops that they 
form a wing of the Army of England ; in 
the second, towards the end, he reminds 
them that they have the glory of the French 
name to sustain in countries and seas the 
most distant. What docs that mean '! Is 
he going, after all, to India ? Will he make 
a short cut to London by way of Calcutta ? 
I begin foully to suspect it." 

In fact, the expedition to Egypt was al- 
ready at sea ; Tone remained attached to 
that portion of the "Army of England " which 
was still quartered in the North of France, 
and passed his time between Rouen and 
Havre; Lcwins continued to represent the 
United Irishmen at Paris with great tact 
and honesty. Hut in the meantime, Lord 
Castlereagh had already, by his "judicious 
measures," caused the premature explosion 
of the insurrection in Ireland; and tha 
island was now ringing with the combat of 
Oulart Hill and the storm of Enniscorthy. 



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RHUS —SECRET SERVICE MONEY. 



277 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

17 OS. 
Bpies— -Secret Service Money — Press Prosecution— 
"Remember Orr!"- Account of Orr — Curran's 
Bpeech Mis Description of Informers— Arts of 
Government— Sowing Dissensions -Forged Assas- 
sination List— •' Union" Declines— Addresses of 
■■ Loyalty" Maynooth Grant Enlarged -Catholic 
Bishops "Loyal"— For olng a "Premature Explo- 
sion " — Camden and Carhampton — Outrages on the 
People, to Force Insurrection— -Testimony of Lord 
Hoira— Inquiry Demanded in Parliament Repulsed 
ami Defeated by Clare and Castlereagh— Insolence 
and Unlimited Power Of Ministers— General Aber- 
crombie Resigns Remarkable General Order — 
Pelhara Quits Ireland •Castlereagh's Secretary — 
The Hessians' Pree Quarters— The Ancient Britons 
— Proclamation of Martial Law — (Irattan'a Picture 
of the Timee— Horrible Atrocities In Wexford— 
Massacres — The Orangemen —Their Address of 
Loyalty — All these Outrages before any Insurrec- 
tion. 

During all the time of these negotiations 
in France, the British Government was most 
intimately acquainted with everything the 
United Irishmen were doing or contemplat- 
ing, by means of great multitudes of spies; 
many, or most of these spies being them- 
selves sworn members of the United Irish 
Society; whose business was not only to 
wateh and report, but also to urge on and 
promote the preparations for insurrection, 
and who were duly paid at the Castle out 
of the "Secret Service Money."* The sys- 
tem of not merely paying informers for in- 
formation, but hiring them beforehand t<> 
join illegal societies, and there recommend 
and urge forward the boldest and most ille- 
gal counsels, in order to betray their trusting 
confederates, is a system peculiar to the 
British Government in Ireland ; and not par- 
alleled in atrocity and baseness by anything 

* Dr. Madden has procured and published the ac- 
eounts of Hiis important branch of the public service 
for 1797-8. These Bpfes were of all grades of society, 
and their functions were va\y various. Some, like 
Reynolds ami Armstrong, men of education and 
position, were to associate with the leaders, and 
carry all their Becrets to the ('astir; others, like 
James O'Brien, were to foment treasons in public 

houses, aud swear away, at assizes, the lives of those 

who trusted them. The record is a very carious one; 

and It may be some satisfaction to us, that if our 
G iliy has I n always bought and sold for money, 

we can at least examine and check the accounts, 
bihI estimate with considerable accuracy the money 

valii'- ol a traitor, (or "loyal man'') according to 
Ins talents and opportunities. For seventy years 
post] it has eost the treasury heavily to purchase 
"loyal iinu" in Iiiland, from Reynolds down to 

Nagle. 



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known to us in the functions of a French or 
Austrian police. Daring the whole year 
171)7 this " battalion of testimony" was in a 
state of high organization and efficiency; 
and greatly aided in causing the insurrection 
to burst out at the very day and hour when 
the Castle wished for it. It would be an 
endless task to recount all the oppressions 
which in the latter part of this year goaded 
the people at last to seek a remedy in des- 
perate resistance ; but the case of Orr is too 
remarkable and notorious to be passed over. 

A prosecution was instituted against the 
Press newspaper in 17DK, for seditious libel 
on Lord Camden's government; contained in 
certain letters which appeared in that paper 
in the latter part of 1797. The subject 
matter of the libel in the Press, signed 
Marcus, (for the publication of which the 
printer was prosecuted by the Government,) 
was the refusal of Lord Camden to extend 
mercy to a person of the name of William 
Orr, of respectability, and remarkable for 
his popularity, who had been capitally con- 
victed at Carrickfergus of administering the 
oath of the United Irishmen's Society, and 
was the first person who had been so con- 
victed. Poems were written, sermons were 
preached ; after-dinner speeches, and after 
supper still stronger speeches, were made, 
of no ordinary vehemence, about the fate of 
Orr and the conduct of Lord Camden, which 
certainly, in the peculiar circumstances of 
this case, was bad, or rather stupidly base 
and odiously unjust. 

The scribes of the United Irishmen wrote 
up the memory of the man whom Camden (7f\bsL 
had allowed to be executed with a full ^ Y Pv>v 
knowledge of the foul means taken to obtain 
a conviction, officially conveyed to him by 
persons every way worthy of credit aud of 
undoubted loyalty. 

The evident object of the efforts to make 
this cry, "Remember Orr," stir up the peo- 
ple to rebellion, cannot be mistaken — that 
object was to single out an individual case 
of suffering in the cause of the Union, for 
the sympathy of the nation, and to turn that 
sympathy to the account of the cause. Orr's 
case presented to the people of Ireland, at 
that period, a few extraordinary features of 
iniquity and of injustice, lie was a noted, 
active, aud popular country member of the 




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society of United Irishmen, He was exe- 
cuted on account of the notoriety of Unit 
circumstance, not on account of the suf- 
ficiency of the evidence or the justice of the 
conviction that was obtained against him ; 
for the crown witness, Whcatly, immediate- 
ly after the trial, acknowledged that he had 
perjured himself ; and some of the jury came 
forward likewise, and admitted that they 
were drunk when they gave their verdict ; 
and these facts, duly deposed to and attest- 
ed, were laid before the viceroy, Lord Cam- 
den, by Sir John Macartney, the magistrate 
who had caused Orr to be arrested, and 
who, to llU honor be it told, when he found 
the practices that had been resorted to, 
used every effort, though fruitlessly, to move 
Lord Camden to save the prisoner. 

William Orr, of Ferranshane, in the Coun- 
ty of Antrim, was charged with administer- 
ing the United Irishman's oath, in his own 
house, to a soldier of the name of Whcatly. 
lie was the first person indicted under the 
act which made that offense a capital felony 
(36 (ieo. HI.). His father was a small 
farmer in comfortable circumstances, and the 
proprietor of a bleach green. James Hope, 
who was intimately acquainted with all the 
circumstances of the case, informed Dr. Mad- 
den, "that William Orr was not actually the 
person who administered the oath to the sol- 
dier. The person who administered the oath 
was William M'kcevcr, a delegate from the 
City of Derry to the Provincial Committee, 
who afterwards made his escape to Amer- 
ica." 

lu a letter of Miss M'Cracken, dated 
21th of September, 1797, addressed to her 
brother, then in Ivilniaiuhain Jail, is found 
the following reference to the recent trial of 
Orr: " Orr's trial has clearly proved, that 
there is neither justice nor mercy to be ex- 
pected. Even the greatest aristocrats here 
join in lamenting his fate ; but his greatness 
of mind renders him an object of envy 
and of admiration rather than of com- 
passion. I am told that his wife is gone 
with a letter from Lady Londonderry to her 
brother on his behalf. . . . You will 
be surprised when I tell you that old 
Archibald Thompson, of Cusheudall, was 
foreman of I he jury, and it is thought will lose 
his senses if Mr. Orr's sentence is carried 




HISTORY OF IRELAND 



into execution, as he appears already quite 
distracted at the idea of a person being con- 
demned to die through his ignorance, as it 
seems he did not at all understand the busi- 
ness of a juryman. However, he held out 
from the forenoon till six o'clock in the morn- 
ing of the day following, though, it is said, 
he was beaten, and threatened with being 
wrecked, and not left a sixpence in the world, 
on his refusing to bring in a verdict of guilty. 
Neither would they let him taste of the sup- 
per and the drink which was sent to the rest, 
and. of. which they partook to such a beastly 
degree. It was not, therefore, much to be 
wondered at, that an infirm old man should 
not have sufficient resolution to hold out 
against such treatment. 

(Signed,) Mart M'Crackkn." 

Orr was defended by Curran and Samp- 
son. The judges before whom he was tried 
were Lord Yelverton and Judge Chamber- 
laine. The jury retired at six in the evening 
to consider tliclr verdict. They sat up, dellb- 
trating, all night, and returned into cofirt 
at six the following morning. The jury in- 
quired if they might find a qualified verdict 
as to the prisoner's guilt. The Judge di- 
rected them to give a special verdict on the 
general issue. They retired again, and re- 
turned shortly with a verdict of guilty, and 
a strong recommendation of the prisoner to 
mercy. Next day, Orr was brought up for 
judgment, when, after an unsuccessful mo- 
tion in arrest of judgment, chiefly on the 
the grounds of the drunkenness of the jury, 
which Judge Chamberlaine would not admit 
of being made " the foundation of any 
motion to the Court," Yelverton pro- 
nounced sentence of death, " in a voice 
scarcely articulate, and at the conclusion of 
his address burst into tears." Orr said, 
pointing to the jury, "That jury has con- 
victed me of being a felon. My own heart 
tells me that their conviction is a falsehood, 
and that I am not a felon. If they have 
found me guilty improperly, it is worse for 
them than for me. /can forgive them. I 
wish to say only one word more, and that is, 
to declare on this awful occasion, and in the 
presence of God, that the evidence against 
me was grossly perjured — grossly and wick- 
edly perjured ! " 

The witness, Whcatly, made an affidavit 



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before a magistrate acknowledging bis hav- 
ing sworn falsely iigainst Orr. Two of the 
jury mode depositions, setting forth that 
they had been induced to give a verdictcon- 
trary to their opinion, when under the in- 
fluence of liqnor. Two others made state- 
ments that they had been menaced by the 
other juror-; with denunciations and the 
wrecking of their properties, if they did not 
comply with their wishes. 

James Orr, in the Press newspaper of die 
28th of October, 1797, published a state- 
ment respecting his interference, with a 
view of saving his brother's life, to the fol- 
lowing effect : " He, .lames Orr, had been 
applied to by many gentlemen to get his 
brother William to make a confession of 
his guilt, as a condition on which they would 
use their interest to have his life spared. 
The high sheriff, Mr. Skeffington, and the 
sovereign of Belfast, the Rev. Mr. Bristowe, 
were among the number — the former under- 
taking to get the Grand Jury to sign a 
memorial in his favor. James Orr imme- 
diately went to his brother, anil the latter 
indignantly refused to make any such con- 
fession, for ' he had not been guilty of the 
crime he was charged with.' James Orr not 
being able to induce him to sign it, returned 
to Belfast and wrote out a confession, simi- 
lar in terms to that required by Skeffington 
and Bristowe, and forged his brother's name. 
The forged document was then turned to 
the account it was required for. A respite 
had been granted ; but the weakness of the 
In-other was made instrumental to the death 
of the prisoner. The shaken verdict of the 
drunken jury, of the perjured witness, was 
not suffered to preserve the prisoner. The 
forged testimony of his guilt was brought 
against him. The promises under which that 
document was obtained were forgotten, and 
thus ' a surreptitious declaration,' swindled 
from the fears of an afflicted family, was 
made the instrument to intercept the stream 
of mercy, and counteract the report of the 
Judge (one of the Judges, namely, Yel- 
verton,) who tried him." Orr was exe- 
cuted outside of t'arrick Fergus, on the 14th 
of October, I7H7, in bis thirty-first year, 
solemnly protesting his innocence of the 
crime laid to his charge. 

The act of James Orr might have led the 




executive into error ; but William Orr wrote 
a letter to Lord Camden, dated the 10th of 
October, plainly informing his lordship of 
the forgery committed by his brother, and 
that the confession imputed to him " was 
base and false ;" but stating, if mercy was 
extended to him, " he should not fail to en- 
tertain the most dutiful sense of gratitude 
for such an act of justice as well as mercy." 
On the day of the execution, the great body 
of the inhabitants of Carrickfergus quitted 
the town, to avoid witnessing the fate of 
Orr. 

A person who visited Orr previously to his 
trial, speaks of his personal appearance and 
address as highly prepossessing. His ap- 
parel was new and fashionable — there was a 
remarkable neatness in his attire. The only 
thing approaching the foppery of patriotism 
was a narrow piece of green ribbon round 
his neck. He was six feet two inches in 
height, particularly well made — in fact, his 
person was a model of symmetry, strength, 
and gracefulness. He wore his hair short 
and well powdered. The expression of his 
countenance was frank and manly. He pos- 
sessed a sound understanding, strong affec- 
tions, and a kindly disposition. In speaking 
of the state of the country to his visitor, 
who remarked that the Government was 
disposed to act in a conciliatory spirit 
towards the country, he said: "No, no; 
you may depend upon it that there is some 
system laid down, which has for its object 
murder and devastation." lie added, re- 
specting the treatment of the Dissenters as 
well as the Catholics, "Irishmen of every 
denomination must now stand or fall to- 
gether." 

Thus a variety of depositions establishing 
the drunkenness of the jury and the perjury 
of Wheat ly were laid before the Lord- 
Lieutenant. One deposition was of the Rev. 
George Macartney, a magistrate of the 
County of Antrim, respecting Wheatly's 
being brought forward by Mr. Kemmis, and 
on his (Wheatly's) coming into court, re- 
lating to Mr. Macartney his having seen a 
Dissenting clergyman, of the name of Eder, 
whom be had known elsewhere, and was sure 
he was brought there to invalidate his testi- 
mony. Another deposition was that of the 
clergyman referred to, stating that he had 




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accompanied a brother clergyman, the Rev. 
A. Montgomery, to visit a sick soldier, ap- 
parently deranged, named Wheatly, a 
Scotchman, who had attempted to commit 
suicide ; that he confessed to Mrs. Ilueys, 
in whose house lie then was, that he was in 
Colonel Durham's regiment, and had commit- 
ted a murder, which weighed heavily upon his 
mind, and that he had been instigated to 
give false evidence against William Orr, of 
which crime he sincerely repented. A simi- 
lar deposition, before Lord O'Ncil, was made 
by the Rev. Mr. Montgomery. Two of 
the jury made depositions respecting their 
drunkenness. Two others made statements 
of the menaces t hat had been used by the 
other jurors. But all were of no avail. 
Lord Camden was deaf to all the represent- 
ations made to him. All the waters of the 
ocean will not wash away the stain his ob- 
duracy on this occasion has left on his 
character. Better fifty thousand times for 
his fame it were, if he had never seen Ire- 
land. The fate of Orr lies heavy on the 
memory of Lord Camden. 

The friends of Earl Camden in vain seek 
to cast the responsibility of this act on his 
subordinates in the Irish Government. They 
say he was a passive instrument in the hands 
of others. The prerogative of mercy, how- 
ever, was given to" him, and not to them. 
On the 26th of October, 1797, a letter ad- 
dressed to Earl Camden appeared in the 
Press, signed Marcus, ably and eloquently 
written, but unquestionably libellous, com- 
menting on the conduct of his lordship in 
this case. Marcus used these words in 
reference to it: "The death of Mr. Orr, 
the nation has pronounced one of the most 
sanguinary and savage acts that has dis- 
graced the laws. Let not the nation be 
told that you are a passive instrument in 
the hands of others. If passive you be, 
then is your office a shadow indeed. If an 
.active instrument, as you ought to be, you 
did not perform the duty which the laws re- 
quired of you. You did not exercise the 
prerogative of mercy — that mercy which 
the law entrusted to you for the safety of 
the subject. Innocent, it appears, he was. 
His blood has beeu shed, and the precedent 
is awful. . . . Feasting in your castle, 
in the midst of your myrmidons and bishops, 



you have little concerned yourself about the 
expelled and miserable cottager, whose 
dwelling at the moment of your mirth was 
in flames, his wife or his daughter suffer- 
ing violence at the hands of some com- 
missioned ravager, his son agonizing on the 
bayonet, and his helpless infants crying iu 
vain for mercy. These are lamentations 
that disturb not the hour of carousal or in- 
toxicated counsels. The constitution has 
reeled to its centre — -Justice herself is not 
only blind, but drunk, and deaf, like Festus, 
to the words of soberness and truth. 

" Let the awful execution of Mr. Orr be 
a lesson to all unthinking jurors, and let 
them cease to flatter themselves, that any 
interest, recommendation of theirs and of 
the presiding judge, can stop the course of 
carnage which sanguinary, and I do not 
fear to say, unconstitutional, laws have or- 
dered to be loosed. Let them remember 
that, like Macbeth, the servants of the 
Crown have waded so far in blood, that 
they find it easier to go on than to go bacjs." 

Finnerty was found guilty, and sentenced 
to be imprisoned for two years, to pay a fine 
of £20, and to give security for future good 
behavior for seven years. Mr. Curran's 
speech in defence of this printer, Finnerty, is 
a model of bold, impassioned, and indignant 
pleading, which has, perhaps, never been 
matched since in a court of justice. One 
passage of this great speech rises above the 
immediate case of the orator's client, and 
gives a bold and true picture of the policy 
of the Government : " The learned counsel 
has asserted that the paper which he prose- 
cutes (the Press) is only part of a system 
formed to misrepresent the state of Ireland 
and the conduct of its Government. Do 
you not therefore discover that his object is 
to procure a verdict to sanction the Parlia- 
ments of both countries iu refusing all in- 
quiry into your grievances? Let me ask 
you, then, are you prepared to say, upon 
your oaths, that those measures of coercion 
which are daily practised are absolutely 
necessary, and ought to be continued ? It 
is not upon Finnerty you are sitting in judg- 
ment ; but you are sitting in judgment upon 
the lives and liberties of the inhabitants of 
more than half of Ireland. You are to say 
that it is a foul proceeding to condemn the 



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Government of Ireland ; that it is a foul act, 
founded in foul motives, and originating in 
falsehood ami sedition ; that it is an attack 
upon a government under which the people 
ore prosperous and happy ; that justice is 
here administered with mercy ; that the 
statements made in Great Britain are false — 
are the effusions of party and of discontent ; 
that all is mildness and tranquillity ; that 
there are no burnings, no transportations ; 
that you never travel by the light of con- 
Qagrations ; that the jails are not crowded 
month after month, from which prisoners 
are taken out, not for trial, but for embark- 
ation ! These are the questions upon which, 
I say, you must virtually decide. . . I 
tell you, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, it 
is not with respect to Mr. Orr or Mr. Fin- 
nerty that your verdict is now sought ; you 
are called upon, on your oaths, to say that 
the Government is wise and merciful ; the 
people prosperous and happy ; that military 
law ought to be continued ; that the Consti- 
tution could not with safety be restored to 
Ireland ; and that the statements of a con- 
trary import by your advocates in either 
country are libellous and false. I tell you 
these are the questions ; and I ask you if 
yon can have the front to give the expected 
answer in the face of a community who 
know the country as well as you do. Let 
me ask you how you could reconcile with 
such a verdict the jails, the tenders, the 
gibbets, the conflagrations, the murders, the 
proclamations that we hear of every day in 
the streets, and see every day in the coun- 
try'! - What are the processions of the 
learned counsel himself, circuit after circuit? 
Merciful God ! what is the state of Ireland, 
and where shall you find the wretched in- 
habitant of this land? You may find him, 
perhaps, in jail, the only place of security, 
I had almost said of ordinary habitation 1 
If you do not find him there, you may see 
him flying with his family from the flames 
of his own dwelling — lighted to his dungeon 
by the conflagration of his hovel ; or you 
may find his bones bleaching on the green 
fields of his country ; or you may find him 
tossing on the surface of the ocean, and 
mingling his groans with those tempests, 
l savage than his persecutors, that drift 
him to a rcturuless distance from his family 



and his 
sentence." 

When Mr. Curran came to speak of that 
part of the publication under trial, which 
stated that informers were brought forward 
by hopes of remuneration — " Is that," he 
said, " a foul assertion ? Or will you, upon 
your oaths, say to the sister country that 
there are no such abominable instrument: 
of destruction as informers used in the state 
prosecutions of Ireland ? Let me honest!} 
ask you, what do you feel, when in my hear 
ing — when in the face of this audience — yoc 
are asked to give a verdict that every man 
of us, and every man of you, know, by the 
testimony of your own eyes, to be utterly and 
absolutely false ? I speak not now of the 
public, proclamation for informers, with a 
promise of secresy and extravagant reward. 
I speak not of those unfortunate wretches 
who have becu so often transferred from tho 
table to the dock, and from the dock to the 
pillory. I speak of what your own eyes 
have seen, day after day, during the pro- 
gress of this commission, while you attended 
this court— the number of horrid miscreants 
who acknowledged, upen their oaths, that 
they had come from the seat of Govern- 
ment — from the very chambers of the Castle, 
(where they had been worked upon by the 
fear of death and hope of compensation to 
give evidence against their fellows,) that 
the mild, the wholesome, and the merciful 
councils of this Government arc holden over 
those catacombs of living death, where the 
wretch, that is buried a man, lies till his 
heart has time to fester and dissolve, and is 
then dug up a witness. Is this a picture 
created by a hag-ridden fancy, or is it a 
fact ? Have you not seen him, after his 
resurrection from that tomb, make his ap- 
pearance upon your table, the image of life 
and death, and supreme arbiter of both ? 
Have you not marked, when he entered, 
how the stormy wave of the multitude re- 
tired at his approach ? Have you not seen 
how the human heart, bowed to the awful 
supremacy of his power in the undissembled 
homage of deferential horror ? How his 
glance, like the lightning of heaven, seemed 
to rive the body of the accused, and mark it 
for the grave, while his voice warned the 
devoted wretch of woe and death — a death 







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282 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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which no innocence can escape, no art elude, 
no force resist, no antidote prevent 1 There 
was an antidote — a juror's oath ; but even 
that adamantine chain, which bound the in- 
tegrity of man to the throne of eternal jus- 
tice, is solved and molten in the breath 
which issues from the mouth of the informer. 
Conscience swings from her moorings ; the 
appalled and affrighted juror speaks what 
his soul abhors, and consults his own safety 
in the surrender of the victim — 

Et quae sibi quisqno timebat, 

Unius in uiiseri cxitium convcrsa tulcre. 

Informers are worshipped in the temple of 
justice, even as the Devil lias been wor- 
shipped by pagans and savages— even so in 
this wicked country is the informer an ob- 
ject of judicial idolatry — even so is he 
soothed by the music of human groans — even 
so is he placated and incensed by the fumes 
and by the blood of human sacrifices." 

This extraordinary speech of Mr. Curran 
is not given here as an example of rhetoric. 
In fact, there is no rhetoric in it ; his de- 
scription is but a faint and pale image of 
the horrible truth; and the informer, O'Brien, 
was only one of that immense " battalion of 
testimony/' which was now regularly drilled 
and instructed at the Castle of Dublin. 
Through these foul means the administra- 
tion was kept, fully informed of the designs, 
the force and the personnel of the United 
Irishmen ; it was also enabled, by Che same 
means, to make considerable progress in the 
grand English policy of sowing dissensions 
and bad feeling between Catholics and Dis- 
seuters. On one side were the honest, tole- 
rant and self-sacrificing leaders of the United 
Irish Society endeavoring to heal the ani- 
mosities of ages, to make the people know 
and trust one another in order to unite for 
the common good of their unhappy country. 
On the other was Air. Pitt, ably seconded 
by Lord Clare and by Castlereagh, and 
their dreadful army of spies and secret emis- 
saries, carrying all over the country and 
scattering broadcast mysterious rumors of 
intended massacres and assassinations — in- 
dustriously renewing all the old stories of 
the " horrors of the Inquisition," (which, iu- 
deed, were never so horrible as the horrors 
of the penal laws.) A paper was even care- 



fully circulated purporting to contain a 
printed list of persons marked out for assas- 
sination. Lord Moira, in his place in the 
English House of Lords, produced this docu- 
ment in debate, describing thus : " He held 
now in his hand a paper printed, the con- 
tents of which were too shocking to read ; 
its avowed object was to point out innocent 
men, by name, to the poniard of assassins. 
It loaded His Majesty with the most op- 
probrious epithets, and reviled the English 
nation with every term of contumely, affirm- 
ing it to be the duty of every Irishman to 
wrest from the hands of English ruffians the 
property which these English ruffians had 
wrested from their ancestors." 

That this pretended list was the production 
of some of the Castle emissaries, there can 
be no doubt. The Lord Chancellor of Eng- 
land declared that he believed the list to be 
a genuine programme of the " horrid con- 
spiracy " then hatching in Ireland. Lord 
Moira said, in reply : "As to the paper to 
which the noble and learned lord, and tkc 
noble Secretary had alluded, concerning the 
names of persons who were marked out for 
future assassination, he confessed, he suspect- 
ed it to be an invention to justify or to sup- 
port the measures which had been adopted in 
Ireland, and of which he had already com- 
plained. He suspected this the more, be- 
cause no printer of a newspaper could have 
had it from any authentic source, for no man 
concerned in a conspiracy for assassination 
would communicate the intention of himself 
and colleagues. He wished to speak of as- 
sassins as he felt, with the greatest indigna- 
tion and abhorrence ; but he must also add, 
that he believed that they originated in 
Ireland from private malice and revenge, 
ami would do so from any party that hap- 
pened to be predominant, while the present 
dreadful system continued. It was not by 
a general system of terror that it was to be 
prevented.'' 

It is easy to conceive, however, what 
fearful use could be made of all these bold 
forgeries and wild rumors in the hands of 
the Castle agents, to exasperate the Protes- 
tants, create " alarm," and stop the good 
work of Union. From one cause or another, 
it is evident, that towards the close of the 
year 1197, the Union rather abated than 



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CATHOLIC BISHOPS LOYAL. 



increased. One unequivocal symptom of 
its decline was the renovation of dissension 
between the Dissenters and the Catholics in 
the North. Sir Richard Musgrave, from 
an anonymous acquaintance, reports, that 

mosl of the Presbyterians separated from 
the Papists in the year 1797 ; some from 
" principle, some because they doubted the 
sincerity of persons in that order ; and 
others, foreseeing that the plot must fail 
anil cud in their destruction, took advantage 
of the proclamation of the 17th of May, and 
renounced their associates. Numbers with- 
drew because they doubted of success with- 
out foreign assistance. The Presbyterians 
of the Counties of Down and Antrim, where 
they are very numerous, and where they are 
warmly attached to the Union from pure 
republican principles, thought they could 
succeed without the Papists." 

Mr. Plowden bears nearly the same testi- 
mony : " Certain it is," says he "that the 
Northern Unionists generally held back from 
this time ; the Protestants of Ulster were 
originally Scotch, and still retain much of 
that guarded policy, which so peculiarly 
characterizes the inhabitants of North 
Britain. Some barbarous murders in differ- 
ent parts of the kingdom were committed ; 
but they do not appear to have been perpe- 
trated by members of the Union, or persons 
in any manner connected with them. By 
the report of the Secret Committee, it ap- 
pears, that from the summer of 1797 the 
disaffected entertained no serious intention 
of hazarding an effort independent of foreign 
assistance, until the middle of March. Their 
policy was to risk nothing so long as their 
party was gaining strength. Whatever 
were the immediate cause of the Union's 
falling off, we find that from the autumn of 
1797 the Roman Catholics, Crst in the 
North, and afterwards successively through- 
out the kingdom, published addresses and 
re olutions expressive of their horror of the 
principles of the United Irishmen, and 
pledging themselves to be loyal and zealous 
in the defence and support of the King and 
Constitution. The northern addresses ad- 
mitted the fact, and lamented that many of 
the Catholic body had been seduced into the 
Union, and they deprecated the attempts 
which were made to create dissensiou 




amongst persons of different religions. This 
example was followed by the generality of 
the Dissenters. If addresses were tests of 
loyalty, His Majesty had not more loya 
subjects throughout the whole extent of the 
British Empire, than the Irish in the be- 
ginning of 1798. Scarcely a parish through- 
out the kingdom, scarcely a dissenting 
meeting-house, from which an address of 
loyalty was not issued, signed by the priest 
or minister of the flock." 

The Catholic addresses, of which Mr. 
Plowden speaks, were chiefly procured by 
the influence of the bishops and higher cler- 
gy, who were much relied upon at this time, 
as well as frequently since, to keep the high- 
er classes of Catholics " loyal " to the Eng- 
lish Government. The Catholic College of 
Maynooth had been incorporated by law in 
June, 1795, and had been opened in the fol- 
lowing October for students. Thus for the 
first .time Catholic young men could be edu- 
cated for the priesthood in their own coun- 
try without incurring the penalty of death 
or transportation. The Parliamentary 
grant, which had amounted to £8,000, was 
increased to £10,000 in February, 1798, on 
motion of Mr. Secretary Pelham, who under- 
took, in this debate, to reply to the furious 
and foaming declamation of Dr Duigenan. 
This was a great step in the way of concili- 
ation ; and it is further certain that mem- 
bers of the Government deceived the Catho- 
lic bishops by implied promises to complete 
the emancipation at an early day. Indeed, 
Dr. Hussey, Bishop of Waterford, in a pas- 
toral of his this year, assures his flock very 
positively : " The Popery laws are upon the 
eve of being extinguished forever ; and may 
no wicked hand ever again attempt to divide 
this land, by making religious distinctions a 
mask to divide, to disturb, to oppress it." 
Thus the bishops and most of the clergy 
were secured to the English party in the 
approaching struggle — and by the same 
treacherous artifice by which they were 
made generally favorable to the Legislative 
"Union" two years later ; namely, by hold- 
ing out the hope of speedy emancipation. 
These hopes were disappointed ; the pro- 
mises were broken, and the Catholics suffered 
under all their disabilities for thirty years 
louder. 





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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



The strength of the United Irish Society 
then, as we have seen, was in the North in 
a great measure broken up. In the other 
provinces it was, however, growing and 
strengthening ; but without occasioning 
either disorder or crime ; rather, indeed, 
preventing all evil of that description. This 
state of things began to surprise and alarm 
Mr. Pitt, who found the " conspiracy " be- 
coming rather too extensive and dangerous 
for his purposes ; for a moment he felt he 
might possibly get beyond his depth, and he 
conceived the necessity of forcing a prema- 
ture explosion, by which he might excite 
sufficient horror throughout the country to 
serve his purpose, and be able to suppress 
the conspiracy iu the bud, which might be 
beyond his power should it arrive at its ma- 
turity. 

Individually, Lord Camden was an excel- 
lent man, and, in ordinary times, would 
have been an acquisition to the country, but 
he was made a cruel instrument in the hands 
of Mr. Pitt, and seemed to have no will of 
his own ; so that, although we are assured 
by Sir Jonah Barring ton that he was per- 
sonally and privately a most amiable person, 
his name will always be pronounced with 
horror and execration by Irishmen, as the 
official head of the Irish Government in 
these dreadful years of the reign of terror. 

On a review of the state of Ireland at 
that period, it must be obvious that the de- 
sign of Mr. Pitt to effect some mysterious 
measure in Ireland was now, through the 
unaccountable conduct of the Irish Govern- 
ment, beginning to develope itself. The 
seeds of insurrection, which had manifested 
themselves in Scotland and in England, 
were, by the vigor and promptitude of the 
British Government, rapidly crushed ; and, 
by the reports of Parliament, Lord Melville 
had obtained and published prints of the 
different pikes manufactured iu Scotland, 
long before that weapon had been manufac- 
tured by the Irish peasantry. But in Ire- 
land, though it appeared, from public docu- 
ments, that Government had full and accu- 
rate information of the Irish United Socie- 
ties, and that their leaders and chiefs were 
well known to the British Ministry, at the 
same period, and by the same means that 
England and Scotland were kept tranquil, 
so niitrht have been Ireland. 



Mr. Pitt, however, found he had tempo- 
rized to the extremity of prudence ; the dis- 
affected had not yet appeared as a collected 
army, but, in his opinion nevertheless, 
prompt and decisive measures became abso- 
lutely indispensable. The Earl of Carhamp- 
ton, Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, first 
expressed his dissatisfaction at Mr. Pitt's 
inexplicable proceedings. His Lordship had 
but little military experience, but he was a 
man of courage and decision, ardent and 
obstinate ; he determined, right or wrong, 
to annihilate the conspiracy. Without the 
consent of the Irish Government he had 
commanded the troops that, on all symptoms 
of insurrectionary movements, they should 
act without waiting for the presence of any 
civil power. Martial law had not then been 
proclaimed. He went, therefore, a length 
which could not possibly be supported ; his 
orders were countermanded by the Lord 
Lieutenant ; but he refused to obey the 
Viceroy, under color that he had no rank in 
the army. 

Lord Carhanfpton found that the troops in 
the garrison of Dublin were indoctrinated by 
the United Irishmen; he, therefore, withdrew 
them, and formed two distinct camps on the 
south and north, some miles from the capital, 
and thereby, as he conceived, prevented all 
intercourse of the army with the disaffected 
of the metropolis. Both measures were dis- 
approved of by the Lord-Lieutenant, whom 
Lord Carhampton again refused to obey. 

The King's sign manual was at length 
procured, ordering him to break up his 
camps and bring back the garrison ; this he 
obeyed, and marched the troops into Dublin 
barracks. " He then resigned his command, 
and publicly declared that some deep and 
insidious scheme of the Minister was in agi- 
tation ; for, instead of suppressing, the Irish 
Government was obviously disposed to ex- 
cite an insurrection. 

" Mr. Pitt counted on the expertness of 
the Irish Government to effect a premature 
explosion. Free quarters were now ordered, 
to irritate the Irish population ; slow tortures 
were inflicted under the pretence of forcing 
confessions ; the people were goaded and 
driven to madness." * 

General Abercrombie, who succeeded as 



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OUTRAGES ON THE PEOPLE TO FORCE INSURRECTION. 



285 



Commander-in-Chief, was not permitted to 
abate these enormities, anil therefore re- 
signed with disgust ; but not before delib- 
erately stating, in general orders, that the 
army placed under his command, from their 
state of disorganization, would soon be much 
more formidable to their friends than to their 
enemies ; and that he would not countenance 
or admit free quarters. 

About this time occurred an episode in 
the history of the United Irishmen — the ar- 
rest and trial of Arthur O'Connor, Coigley, 
and others, in England. 

From the time O'Connor became a mem- 
ber of the Leinster Directory of the society 
of the United Irishmen, he was the foremost 
leader in their affairs. When the United 
Irishmen solicited the intervention of Prance 
in 1796, O'Connor negotiated the treaty 
with the agent of the French Directory. 
He and Lord Edward had an interview sub- 
sequently with Hoche, and arranged the 
place of landing, and consequent military 
operations. 

i In the early part of 1197 O'Connor had 
been arrested and committed to the Tower, 
" vehemently suspected of sundry treasous," 
rather than charged with any specific crime 
against the state. After an imprisonment 
of six mouths he was liberated. In Febru- 
ary, 1798, he came to England, with an in- 
tention, as it afterwards appeared, of pro- 
ceeding to Fiance, in conjunction with John 
Binns, member of the London Correspond- 
ing Society, James Coigley, an Irish priest, 
and a person of the name of Allen. In the 
latter end of February they went to Mar- 
gate, intending to hire a small vessel to con- 
vey them to France. Some circumstances 
iu their conduct, however, exciting suspicion, 
they were all apprehended, and first com- 
mitted prisoners to the Tower, and after- 
wards to Maidstone jail. At Maidstone 
they were tried by a special commission on 
the 21st and 22d of May, and all of them 
acquitted, except Coigley, on whom had 
been found a paper, purporting to be an 
address from " the Secret Committee of Eng- 
land to the Executive Directory of France." 
Coigley was condemned and executed ; and 
Mr. O'Connor and Binns, after their ac- 
quittal, were detained on another charge of 
treason preferred against them. Iu the 



meantime, and in consequence of the motion 
of Mr. O'Donnel, an act had passed the 
Irish Parliament, authorizing grand juries 
to present any newspaper containing sedi- 
tious or libellous matter as a nuisance ; and 
also authorizing the magistrates, on such 
presentation, to suppress the paper, and 
seize and destroy the printing materials, &c. 
The paper called The Press was, therefore, 
suppressed, and some of its principal sup 
porters taken into custody ; but no discovery 
of importance resulted from this transac- 
tion. 

During the first three months of 1798 the 
outrages committed by the magistrates, with 
the aid of the troops and yeomanry, upon 
the simple and defenceless people of Leins- 
ter, became fearful and notorious. But, 
painful as must be the details of a slow and 
uniform agony of a whole people, there can 
be no history of Ireland in which sucli de- 
tails do not hold a conspicuous place. As 
a perfectly authentic historical document, 
the speech of the Earl of Moira, in the Brit- 
ish House of Peers, (uot one statement of 
which has ever been contradicted,) may be 
taken as a sufficient picture of the state of 
the country, even as early as the November 
of 1797. Here follows an extract: "My 
lords, I have seen in Ireland the most ab- 
surd, as well as the most disgusting tyranny, 
that any nation ever groaned under. I have 
been myself a witness of it in many instances ; 
I have seen it practiced and unchecked ; and 
the effects that have resulted from it have 
been such, as I have stated to your lord- 
ships. I have said that, if such a tyranny 
be persevered in, the consequence must iuevi- 
tably be the deepest and most universal dis- 
content, and even hatred to the English 
name. I have seen in that country a marked 
distinction made between the English and 
Irish. I have seen troops that have been 
sent full of this prejudice — that every inhab- 
itant in that kingdom is a rebel to the Brit- 
ish Government. I have seen the most 
wanton insults practiced upon men of all 
ranks and conditions. I have seen the most 
grievous oppressions exercised, in conse- 
quence of a presumption that the person 
who was the unfortunate object of such op- 
pression was iu hostility to the Government ; 
and yet that has been done iu a part of the 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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country as quiet and as free from disturb- 
ance as the city of London. Who states 
these things, my lords, should, I know, be 
prepared with p roofs. I am prepared with 
them. Many of the circumstances I know 
of my own knowledge ; others I have re- 
ceived from such channels as will not permit 
me to hesitate one moment in giving credit 
to them. 

" His lordship then observed that, from 
education and early habits, the air f no was 
ever considered by Britons as a badge of 
slavery and oppression. It then was prac- 
ticed in Ireland with brutal rigor. He had 
known an instance where a master of a 
house had in vain pleaded to be allowed the 
use of a candle to enable the mother to ad- 
minister relief to her daughter struggling in 
convulsive (its. In former times, it had been 
the custom for Englishmen to hold the infa- 
mous proceedings of the inquisition in detes- 
tation. One of the greatest horrors with 
which it was attended was that the person, 
ignorant of the crime laid to his charge, or 
of his accuser, was torn from his family, im- 
mured in a prison, and in the most cruel un- 
certainty as to the period of his confinement, 
or the fate which awaited him. To this in- 
justice, abhorred by Protestants in the 
practice of the inquisiton, were the people 
of Ireland exposed. All confidence, all se- 
curity were taken away. In alluding to the 
inquisition he had omitted to mention one 
of its characteristic features. If the sup- 
posed culprit refused to acknowledge the 
crime with which he was charged he was 
put to the rack, to extort confession of 
whatever crime was alleged against him by 
the pressure of torture. The same proceed- 
ings had been introduced in Ireland. When 
a man was taken up on suspicion he was put 
to the torture ; nay, if he were merely ac- 
cused of concealing the guilt of another. 
The rack, indeed, was not at hand ; but the 
punishment of picqueting was in practice, 
which had beeu for some years abolished, as 
too inhuman even in the dragoon service. 
He had known a man, in order to extort 
confession of a supposed crime, or of that of 
some of his neighbors, picqueted till he actu- 
ally fainted — picqueted a secoud time till he 
fainted again, and, as soon as he came to 
himself, picqueted a third time till he once 



more fainted ; and all upon mere suspicion I 
Nor was this the only species of torture. 
Men had beeu taken and hung up till they 
were half dead, and then threatened with a 
repetition of the cruel treatment unless they 
made confession of the imputed guilt. These 
were not particular acts of cruelty, exercised 
by men abusing the power committed to 
them, but they formed a part of our system. 
They were notorious, and no person could 
say who would be the next victim of this 
oppression and cruelty, which he saw others 
endure. This, however, was not all ; their 
lordships, no doubt, would recollect the fa- 
mous proclamation issued by a military com- 
mander in Ireland, requiring the people to 
give up their arms. It never was denied 
that this proclamation was illegal, though 
defended on some supposed necessity ; but 
it was not surprising that some reluctance 
had been shown to comply with it by men 
who conceived the Constitution gave them 
a right to keep arms in their houses for their 
own defence ; and they could not but feel 
indignation in being called upon to give up 
their right. In the execution of the order 
the greatest cruelties had been committed. 
If any one was suspected to have concealed 
weapons of defence his house, his furniture, 
and all his property was burnt ; but this 
was not all. If it were supposed that any 
district had not surrendered all the arras 
which it contained, a party was sent out to 
collect the number at which it was rated ; 
and, in the execution of this order, thirty 
houses were sometimes burnt down in a sin- 
gle night. Officers took upon themselves to 
decide discretionally the quantity of arms ; 
and upon their opinions these fatal conse- 
quences followed. Many such cases might 
be enumerated; but, from prudential mo- 
tives, he wished to draw a veil over more 
aggravated facts which he could have stated, 
and which he was willing to attest before 
the Privy Council, or at their lordships' bar. 
These facts were well known in Ireland, but 
they could not be made public through the 
channel of the newspapers, for fear of that 
summary mode of punishment which had 
been practiced towards the Northern Star, 
when a party of troops in open day, and in 
a town where the General's headquarters 
were, went and destroyed all the offices and 



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INQUIRY DEMANDED IN PARLIAMENT. 



287 



property belonging to that paper. It was 
llais authenticated accounts were sup- 
pressed." 

The same system of horrors had proceed- 
ed, with aggravations of brutality, from No- 
vember, \~'J1 ; ami it was in vain that any 
patriotic Irishman, who still attended Par- 
liament, attempted, from time to time, to 
procure some kind of inquiry into the neces- 
sity for all this. Both Houses of Parlia- 
ment were entirely in the hands of the Cas- 
tle ; and Clare and Castlereagh bore down 
nil such efforts by the most insolent audacity 
of assertion. 

On the 5th of March, Sir Lawrence Par- 
sons, after a long and interesting speech, 
made a motion that a committee should be 
appointed to inquire into the state of the 
country, and to suggest such measures as 
were likely to conciliate the popular mind. 
Lord Caultield, in a maiden speech of much 
ability, seconded the motion. Lord Castle- 
reagh, with whom the majority of the House 
went, vehemently opposed it. He entered 
into a history of the country for some years 
back, and concluded from the events that 
the United Irishmen were not men who 
would be contented or conciliated by any 
measures of concession short of a separation 
from England, aud fraternity with the 
French Republic ; that they were in open 
rebellion, aud, therefore, only to be met by 
force. He reasoned also to prove that the 
coercive measures of the Government had 
been the consequences, nut the causes, of the 
discontents ; that the excesses charged on 
the soldiery were naturally to be expected 
from the state of tilings, though he did not 
cease to lament them ; and he also contend- 
ed that where excesses had taken place the 
laws were open, and able to punish them. 

This last assertion of his lordship, about 
the law, was well known by every man who 
heard him to be simply false ; but not more 
false than his assertion that military out- 
rages were the consequences, not the cause, 
of the existing troubles. But being sure of 
an immense majority at his back, lie could 
gny what he pleased. The resolution offered 
by Sir Lawrence Parsons was negatived by 
an immense majority. 

It was the same case in the House of 
Lords. Lord Moira, after vainly trying to 



make an impression on the peers of England, 
came over to make a last effort with those 
of Ireland. He made a speech very similar 
to that which he had made at Westminster, 
and reciting the same facts ; ending with a 
motion for an address to the Viceroy. 
Lord Clare, the Chancellor, replied in the 
same tone of cool and dashing insolence 
which had now become the settled aud pre- 
concerted style of debate with the partisans 
of the Castle. 

The Lord-Chancellor, after paying a just 
compliment to the character of the noble 
earl, attributed to his residence out of his 
own country his iguorance of it. "He as- 
serted, that the system of Government had 
been a system of conciliation ; that in no 
place had the experiment been so fairly tried 
as in Ireland ; in none had it so completely 
failed." 

Lord Moira's motion was also negatived, 
of course ; and it was evident that, so far as 
Parliament was concerned, the people were 
to be delivered over without reprieve to the 
picketinga of the soldiery aud the knotted 
scourges of the yeoman. 

Some degree of color began at last to be 
given to the constant statements of Lord 
Castlereagh — that the country was in open 
rebellion ; for in the months of February 
and March, there were several tumul- 
tuous assemblages at night ; their object 
was to search for arms ; and assuredly no 
people ever stood in more deadly need of 
arms than the Irish people theu did. On 
one day in March, a party of mounted men 
even entered the little town of Cahir, 
County of Tipperary, in the open day, and 
took away all the arms they could find 
there. They appear to have gone as they 
came, without committing any violence or 
outrage.* Still there was not that general 
insurrectionary movement for which Mr. 
Pitt was waiting; and it was now, therefore, 
resolved to give another turn to the screw 

* Plowden Hist. Review. This writer, indeed, al- 
leges that the peasants in those two mouths " com- 
mitted many murders;" but though a Catholic writer, 
his well-known political principles make him always 
too ready to charge crimes, on very doubtful evi- 
dence, upon all Catholics who were not "loyal'' to 
the King of England. He does not particularize any 
of these " man; murders;" aud it may, therefore, be 
fairly doubted that there were any murders, except, 
perhaps, of an occasional tithe-proctor. 



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of coercion. It was in the mouth of April 
that Sir Ralph Abercroinbie, after two 
or three months' experience of his command, 
when he found that the army was expected 
to be used to goad the people to despair, 
while habits of marauding and " free quar- 
ters" were fast destroying the discipline of 
the troops themselves, resigned his post as 
Commander-in-Chief. His resignation was 
undoubtedly caused, as Lord Carhampton's 
had been, by his discovery that he was ex- 
pected to act, not for the repression of re- 
bellion, but in order to excite it. Of course, 
his military habits and principles would not 
permit him to say as much, nor to hint at 
any fault on the part of the Lord-Lieute- 
nant ; yet the first paragraph of his famous 
"General Order" was at once seen to be so 
wholly at variance with the plans and 
policy of the Government, that there was 
nothing left for Sir Ralph but to resign, 
and seek some more honorable employment 
for his sword. The General Order is as 
follows : — 

" Adjutant-General's Office, Dublin, ) 
February 26th, 1798. \ 

["General Orders.] 
"The very disgraceful frequency of 
courts martial, and the many complaiuts of 
the conduct of the troops in this kingdom, 
having too unfortunately proved the army 
to be in a state of licentiousness, which must 
render it formidable to every one but the 
enemy ; the Commander-in-Chief thinks it 
necessary to demand from all generals com- 
manding districts and brigades, as well as 
commanding officers of regiments, that they 
exert themselves, and compel, from all of- 
ficers under their command, the strictest and 
most unremitting attention to the discipline, 
good order, and conduct of their men ; such 
as may restore the high and distinguished 
reputation the British troops have been ac- 
customed to enjoy in every part of the world. 
It becomes necessary to recur, and most 
pointedly to attend to the standing orders 
of the kingdom, which at the same time 
that they direct military assistance to be 
given at the requisition of the civil magis- 
trate, positively forbid the troops to act 
(but in case of attack) without his presence 
and authority ; and the most clear and pre- 



cise orders are to be given to the officer 
commanding the party for this purpose. 

"The utmost prudence and precaution 
are also to be used in granting parties to 
revenue officers, with respect to the person 
requiring such assistance and those employed 
on the duty ; whenever a guard is mounted, 
patrols must be frequently out to take up 
auy soldier who may be found out of his 
quarters after his hours. 

"A very culpable remissness having also 
appeared on the part of officers respecting 
the necessary inspection of barracks, quar- 
ters, messes, &c, as well as attendance at 
roll-calls, and other hours ; commanding of- 
ficers must enforce the attention of those 
under their command to those points, and 
the general regulations ; for all which the 
strictest responsibility will be expected from 
them. 

"It is of the utmost importance that the 
discipline of the dragoon regiments should 
be minutely attended to, for the facilitating 
of which the Commander-in-Chief has.dis- 
pensed with the attendance of orderly 
dragoons on himself, and desires that they 
may not be employed by any general or 
commanding officers but on military and 
indispensable business. 

"G. HEWIT, 
"Adjutant-General. 
"Lieut-Gen. Craig, 

"Eastern District Barracks, Dublin." 

The resignation of Sir Ralph Abercrom- 
bie was immediately followed by the de- 
parture of Mr. Secretary Pelham ; who, as 
Mr. Plowden alleges, also disapproved of 
the new plan of "prematurely exploding the 
rebellion " by the simple machinery of goad- 
ing the people to despair. It is notorious 
that in Ireland the active Minister, upon 
whom the odium or merit of the Govern- 
ment measures personally fell, was the first 
Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant. Through 
his mouth did His Excellency speak to the 
House of Commons ; from him did the na- 
tion expect the reason, and upon him chic-fly 
rested the responsibility of the Government 
measures iu the belief of the public. His 
sentiments were, of course, concluded to be 
in perfect unison with the Lord-Lieutenant, 
as his voice was the organ of His Excellency. 
It appears that Mr. Pelham, however earn- 



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est and firm he had been in opposing Catho- 
lic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform', 
which two questions Earl Camden had 
avowedly been senl to oppose, was very far 
from approving the harsh aud sanguinary 
mi atis of dragooning the people which had 
been for some time practiced, and were in- 
tended to be persevered in.* He resolved, 
therefore, to retire from a situation in which 
he was under the necessity of giving official 
countenance and support to a system, which 
in principle he abhorred, and which he knew 
to have been extorted from the Chief Gov- 
ernor, whose immediate and responsible 
agent he was before the public. The last 
time he spoke in public was on Sir Law- 
rence Parsons' motion, which he opposed in 
a manner that evidently betrayed the un- 
easiness of his own situation. Mr. Pelham, 
however, did not resign. Indeed, Sir Jonah 
Barrington, and other authorities, affirm 
that he only went to England on account of 

* We do not desire to use stronger language than 
the facts will warrant, nor to advance, without suf- 
ficient authority, against any government so atro- 
cious a charge as that of resolving to goad a people 
into Insurrection, in order to make a pretext for 
slaughtering them first, and depriving their country 
of its national existence afterwards. This system at 
this time, viz., 5th April, 1798, Mr. Grattan has thus 
described: "Here we perceive and lament the ef- 
fects of inveteracy, conceived by His Majesty's Min- 
isters against the Irish. ' Irritable and quellable, 
devoted to superstition, deaf to law, and hostile to 
property;' such was the picture, which at different 
times bis Ministers in Ireland have painted of his peo- 
ple, with a latent, view to (latter the English by the 
idation of the Irish, and by such sycophantship 
and malice, they have persuaded themselves to con- 
sider their fellow subjects as a different species of 
human creature, fair objects of religious proscription 
and political incapacities, but not of moral relation- 
ship, or moral obligation; accordingly, they have 
afforded indemnity for the rich, and new pains and 
penalties for the people; they have given felonious 
descriptions of His Majesty's subjects, and have 
easily persuaded themselves to exercise felonious 
practices against their lives and properties; they 
have become as barbarous as their system, and 
as savage as their own description of their country- 
men and their equals: and now it seems they have 

, aunicated to the British Minister, at once, their 

deleterious maxims and their foul expressions, and 
he too indulges and wantons in villainous discourses 
against the people of Ireland, sounding the horrid 
trumpet of camage and separation. Thus the lan- 
guage of the Ministers 1 omes an encouragement to 

tie- army to murder the Irish. 

" We leave these scenes, they are dreadful; a Min- 
istrv in league with the abettors of the Orange Boys 
and at war with the people : a people unable to pro- 
cure a»hearing in either country, while the loquacity 
of their enemies besieges the throne." 
37 



ill-health. At any rate, his successor in 
active duly (lint only at first as /<,cnm tenens) 
was Lord Castlereagli — afterwards Lord 
Londonderry — perhaps the ablest, and cor 
tainly the worst, man who ever "did the 
King's business" in Ireland, lie was not 
gazetted as Secretary till the next, year. 

General Lake was placed provisionally in 
command of the forces ; and the way was 
now open for the full development of the 
bloody conspiracy of the Government 
against the people. There was now concen- 
trated in Ireland a force of at least 1:'>0,000 
men, including regular troops, English and 
Scottish fencible regiments and Irish militia. 
But even this was not enough. On the 
23d of April, the new Secretary announced 
to the House of Commons that two regi- 
ments of " foreign troops " had been ordered 
to Ireland. These were the Hessians, Ger- 
man mercenaries from Hesse Darmstadt and 
Hesse Casscl, who had been for some time 
favorite instruments of the British Govern- 
ment for dragooning any refractory popula- 
tion. 

On the 30th of March, the whole country 
was placed uuder martial law by proclama- 
tion. It was the first time that the County 
of Wexford had been proclaimed uuder the 
"Insurrection act;" aud "from that mo- 
ment," says Miles Byrne, " every one con- 
sidered himself walking on a mine, ready to 
be blown up ; and all sighed for orders to 
begin." Orders were at once issued from 
the Castle that the military should proceed 
at their own absolute discretion in all meas- 
ures which any officer should judge needful 
for suppressing that rebellion which did not 
yet exist, but which it was fully determined 
should immediately break out. A favorite 
measure of Lord Castlereagli was the sys- 
tem of " free quarters." His lordship knew 
thoroughly the people of his country ; aud 
was aware that nothing could so certainly 
and promptly goad them into desperate re- 
sistance as the quartering of an insolent aud 
licentious soldiery in their houses and 
amongst their families. "Free quarters," 
therefore, were at once ordered ; the magis- 
trates of the "Ascendancy" were at, the 
same time assured that whatever they should 
think fit to do against the people should be 
considered well doue. They had already 



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(l>y the "Indemnity act") carte blanche, at 
any rate ; and now, under the new impul- 
sion given by the new Secretary, they vied 
with one another in atrocity. In the Coun- 
ties of Kildare, Meath, Dublin, Carlow, 
Wicklow, and Wexford, the horrors of th ; s 
oppression were especially grievous. The 
good Miles Byrne, every word of whose nar- 
ration is thoroughly worthy of implicit trust, 
says : " The military placed on free quar- 
ters with the inhabitants were mostly fur- 
nished by the Ancient Britons ; a cruel 
regiment, which became obnoxious from the 
many outrages they committed, wherever 
they were stationed ; being quartered in 
houses where the men had to absent them- 
selves, the unfortunate females who re- 
mained had to suffer all sorts of brutality 
from these ferocious monsters. What hard- 
ships, what calamities and miseries had not 
the wretched people to suffer, on whom 
were let loose such a body of soldiery as 
were then in Ireland 1 " 

This gallant old Miles Byrne, writing from 
his notes sixty years afterwards, (he was but 
eighteen years old in 1798,) thus details 
some few of the scenes which passed in his 
county, and within his own knowledge :— 

" Many of the low-bred magistrates 
availed themselves of the martial law, to 
prove their vast devotion to Government, 
by persecuting, and often torturing, the in- 
offensive country-people. Archibald Ham- 
ilton Jacob and the Enniscorthy yeomen 
cavalry never marched out of the town with- 
out being accompanied by a regular execu- 
tioner, with his ropes, cat o' nine tails, &c. 

" Hawtry White, Solomon Richards, and a 
Protestant minister of the name of Owens, 
were all notorious for their cruelty and perse- 
cuting spirit ; the latter particularly so, put- 
ting on pitch caps, and exercising other tor- 
ments. To the credit of some of his victims, 
when the vile fellow himself was in their 
power, and was brought a prisoner to the in- 
surgent camp at Gorey, they sought no other 
revenge than that of putting a pitch cap on 
him. I had often difficulty in preventing the 
others, who had suffered so much at his 
hands, from tearing him to pieces. He, in 
the end, escaped, with many other prisoners, 
being escorted and guarded by men who did 
not consider that revenge, or retaliation of 



any kind, would forward the sacred cause 
they were embarked in ; particularly, as 
they were desirous it should not be thought 
that it was a religions war they were en- 
gaged in. Although several of the principal 
chiefs of the United Irishmen were Protes- 
tants, the Orange magistrates did all they 
could to spread the belief, that the Catholics 
had no other object in view but to kill their 
Protestant fellow-subjects, and to give weight 
to this opinion, they did what they could to 
provoke the unfortunate people to commit 
outrages and reprisals, by killing some and 
burning their houses. 

" In short, the state of the country pre- 
vious to the insurrection, is not to be 
imagined ; except by those who witnessed 
the atrocities of every description committed 
by the military and the Orangemen, who 
were let loose on the unfortunate, defence- 
less population. 

" The infamous Hunter Gowan * now 
sighed for an opportunity to vent his fero- 
cious propensity of murdering his CatTiolic 
neighbors in cold blood. When the yeo- 
manry corps was first formed, he was not 
considered sufficiently respectable to be 
charged with the command of one ; but in 
consequence of the proclamation of martial 
law, he soon obtained a commission of the 
peace and was created a captain, and 
was commissioned to raise a cavalry corps ; 
in a short time he succeeded in getting about 
thirty or forty low Orangemen, badly 
mounted ; but they soon procured better 
horses, at the expense of the unfortunate 
fanners, who were plundered without redress. 
This corps went by the name of the black 
mob ; their first campaign was, to arrest all 
the Catholic blacksmiths, and to burn their 
houses. Poor William Butter, James Hay- 
don, and Palton, smiths whom we employed 
to shoe our horses and do other work, for 
many years before, were condemned to be 
transported, according to the recent law 
enacted, that magistrates upon their own 
authority could sentence to transportation. 

* This Hunter Gowan had been horsewhipped by 
one of the Byrnes, old Garrett Byrne, of Ballynianus. 
Miles Byrne says, "Gowan took the law of Garrett 
Byrne, and ran him into great expense." He soon, 
however, found out even a more effectual rnathod of 
having his revenge upon the Byrnes. 



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But the monster Hunter Gowan, thinking 

tins kind of punishment too slight, wished to 
give his yonng men an opportunity to prove 
they were staunch blood-honnds. Poor 
Garrett Fennel), who hud just landed from 
England, and was on his way to see his 
father and family, was met by I his corps, and 
tied by his two hands up to a tree ; they 
then stood at a certain distance and each 
man lodged the contents of his carabine in 
the body of poor Pennell, at their captain's 
command. 

"They then went (o a house close by, where 
they shot James Darcy, a poor inoffensive 
man, the father of live children. The 
bodies of these two murdered victims were 
waked that night in the chapel of Monaseed, 
where the unhappy women and children as- 
sembled to lament their slaughtered rela- 
tives. This chapel was afterwards burned. 
Poor Fennell left a young widow and two 
children. This cruel deed took place on the 
road between our house and the chapel. 
The day after, the 25th of May, 1198, dis- 
tant about three miles from our place, one 
of the most bloody deeds took place that 
was ever recorded in Irish history since the 
days of Cromwell. Tweuty-eight fathers of 
families, prisoners, were shot and massacred 
in the Ball Alley of Caruew, without trial. 
Mr. Cope, the Protestant minister, was one 
of the principal magistrates who presided at 
this execution. I knew several of the mur- 
dered men ; particularly, Pat Murphy, of 
Knockbrandon, at whose wedding I was two 
years before ; he was a brave and most 
worthy man, and much esteemed. Wil- 
liam Young, a Protestant, was amougst the 
slaughtered. 

"At Dunlavin, County of Wieklow, pre- 
vious to the rising, thirty-four men were 
shut without auy trial; officers, to their 
disgrace, presiding and sanctioning these 
proceedings. But it is useless to enumerate 
or continue the list of cruelties perpetrated ; 
it will suffice to say, that where the military 
were placed on free quarters, and where all 
kinds of crime were committed, the people 
were not worse off than those living where 
no soldiers were quartered ; for in the latter 
instance, the inhabitants were generally 
called to their doors, and shot without cere- 
mony ; their houses being immediately 
burned or plundered. 



"This was the miserable state our part 
of the country was in at the beginning of 
.May, 1198. All were obliged to quit their 
houses and hide themselves the best way 
they could. Ned Fennell, Nicholas Murphy 
and I, agreed, the last time we met, previous 
to the insurrection, that through the means 
of our female friends, we should do every- 
thing in our power to keep the people from 
desponding, for we had every reason to hope, 
that ere long, there would be orders received 
for a general rising from the Directory. 
We also promised to endeavor to get news 
from Dublin, if possible, and at least from 
Arklow, through Phil Neilland young Gar- 
rett Graham, of that town ; both of them 
very active and well-known to the principal 
men in Dublin, and through them and 
Anthony Perry, we expected shortly to re- 
ceive instructions for what was best to be 
done, under the critical circumstances in 
which we were placed. I was daily in hopes 
of getting some information from my step- 
brother Kennedy (at Dublin), and on this 
account I remained as long as I could iu the 
neighborhood of our place, keeping away, 
however, from my mother's house ; sleeping 
at night in the fields, watching iu the day- 
time from the hills and high grounds, to 
see if the military or yeomen were ap- 
proaching." 

It was a needful part of the general plan 
of Government to extend and encourage the 
Orange societies, and to exasperate them 
against their Catholic neighbors. Of the 
precise connection between the Castle and 
the Orange lodges, it is not, of course, easy 
to ascertain the precise terms and extent. It 
is, however, notorious, that while the Irish 
and English Government has always pro- 
fessed to disapprove the sanguinary princi- 
ples of the Orangemen, they have always re- 
lied upou that body in seasons of threatened 
revolt, as a willing force to crush the mass 
of the people ; and that even so late as 
1848, arms were secretly issued to the 
lodges from Dublin Castle. We have al- 
ready seen Mr. G rattan's distinct that "the 
Ministry was in league with the abettors of 
the Orange Boys, and at war with the peo- 
ple." Iu the examination of Mr. Arthur 
O'Connor before the Secret Committee, we 
find O'Connor describing the proceedings of 
the Government in tlnsj terms : — 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND, 




" Finding how necessary it was to have 
some part of the population on their side, 
they had recourse to the old religious fends, 
and set an organization of Protestants, 
whose fanaticism would not permit them to 
see they were enlisted under the banners of 
religion, to fight for a political usurpation 
they abhorred. No doubt, by these means 
you have gained a temporary aid, but by 
destroying the organization of the Union, 
and exasperating the great body of the peo- 
ple, you will one day pay dearly for the aid 
you have derived from this temporary shift. 

"Committee. — Government had nothing to 
do with the Orange system, nor their extermi- 
nation,. 

' O'Connor. — You, my lord, (Castle- 
reagh) from the station you fill, must be 
sensible that the executive of any country 
has in its power to collect a vast mass of in- 
formation, and you must know from the 
secret nature, and the zeal of the Union, 
that its executive must have the most minute 
information of every act of the Irish Gov- 
ernment. As one of the executive it came 
to my knowledge, that considerable sums 
of money were expended throughout the na- 
tion in endeavoring to extend the Orange 
system, and tiiat the oath of extermination 
was administered. When these facts are 
coupled, not only with general impunity, 
which has been uniformly extended towards 
the acts of this infernal association, but the 
marked encouragement its members have re- 
ceived from Government, I find it impossible 
to exculpate the Government from being the 
parent and protector of these sworn extir- 
pators.'' 

In commou fairness, we must give the 
Orange body the benefit of whatever credit 
can possibly be accorded to their own denial 
of their alleged oath of extermination. Early 
in this year, while the Government was 
scourging the people into revolt, certain 
Grand Masters of the Orangemen met in 
Dublin, and published the following docu- 
ment : — 
" To the Loyal Subjects of Ireland : 

" From the various attempts that have 
oeeu made to poison the public mind, and 
slander those who have had the spirit to 
adhere to their King and Constitution, and 
to maintain the laws, 



" We, the Protestants of Dublin, assuming 
the name of Orangemen, feel ourselves called 
upon, not to vindicate our principles, for we 
know that our honor and loyalty bid de- 
Gance to the shafts of malevolence and dis- 
affection, but openly to disavow these prin- 
ciples and declare to the world the objects 
of our institution. 

" We have long observed with indigna- 
tion, the efforts that have been made to 
foment rebellion in this kingdom, by the 
seditious, who have formed themselves into 
societies under the specious name of United 
Irishmen. 

" We have seen with pain the lower or- 
ders of our fellow-subjects forced or seduced 
from their allegiance, by the threats and 
machinations of traitors. 

"And we have viewed with horror the 
successful exertions of miscreants to en- 
courage a foreign enemy to invade this 
happy land, in hopes of rising into conse- 
quence, on the downfall of their country. 

"We, therefore, thought it high tiiTie to 
rally round the Constitution, and pledge 
ourselves to each other to maintain the laws 
and support our good King against all his 
enemies, whether rebels to their God or to 
their country, and by so doing, show to the 
world that there is a body of men in this 
island who are ready in the hour of danger 
to stand forward in the defence of that grand 
palladium of our liberty, the Constitution of 
Great Britain and Ireland, obtained and 
established by the courage and loyalty of 
our ancestors, under the great King William. 

" Fellow-subjects, we are accused of being 
an institution founded on principles too 
shocking to repeat, and bound together by 
oaths at which human nature would shudder ; 
but we caution you not to be led away by 
such malevolent falsehoods, for we solemnly 
assure you, in the presence of the Almighty 
God, that the idea of injuring any one on 
account of his religious opinions never en- 
tered into our Marts! We regard every loyal 
subject as our friend, be his religion what it 
may, we have no enmity but to the enemies 
of our country. 

" We further declare, that we are ready 
at all times to submit ourselves to the or- 
ders of those in authority under His Majesty, 
and that we will cheerfully undertake any 



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ARRESTS OF V. I. CHIEFS IN DUBLIN. 



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duty which they should think proper to 
point out fur as, incuse either a foreign 
enemy shall dare to invade our coasts, or 
that a domestic foe should presume to raise 
the standard of rebellion in the land ; to 
these principles we are pledged, and in Bup- 
port of them we are ready to shed the last 
drop <>f our hlood. 

" Signed by order of the several lodges in 
Dublin, for selves ami other Masters. 

" Thomas Verner, 

" Edward Ball, 

"John Claudius Beresford, 

" William James, 

" Isaac Dejoncourt. 
The credit which can be given to this 
profession of principles is much diminished, 
or reduced to nothing, by the fact already 
recorded, that immediately ou the establish- 
ment of the first Orange Lodges in Armagh 
County, ( the first of the above addressers 
being the founder and first Grand Master) 
the members of those lodges did forthwith 
set themselves to the task of extirpating all 
their Catholic neighbors ; solely because 
they were Catholics; and that in one year 
they had slain, or driven from their homes, 
fourteen hundred families, or seven thousand 
individuals. 

It is further notorious that the Orange 
yeomanry serving in Leinster, were amongst 
the most furious and savage torturers of the 
people. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

1798. 
Reynolds, the Informer — Arrests of U. I. Chiefs in 
Dublin— The Brothers Sheares— Their Efforts to 
Delay Explosion — Clare and Castlereagh Resolvt 
to Hurry it— Advance of the Military— Half-Hang 
ing— Pitch Caps — Scourging — Judkin Fitzgri.ilil 
Sir John Moore's Testimony — His Disgust at the 
Aiim jitii is General Napier's Testimony — Catholic 
I psand Peers Profess their "Loyalty" — Arra- 

Bl ~. [nformer — Arrest of the Sheares — Arrest 

and Death of Lord Edward — Mr. Emmet's Evidence 
before Secret Committee — Insurrection Breaks 
Out — The 'Jijd of May— Naas— Prosperous— Kilcul- 
l-ii Proclamation of Lake- Of the Lord .Mayor of 
Dublin Skirmishes at Carlow — Hacketstown, &c. 
—Insurgents have tin- Advantage at Dunboyne 
Attack on Carlow Executions — Sir B. Crosbie— 
Ho icre at Gibbet Bath ol Kildare Slaughter on 
Tara Hill— Suppression of Insurrection in Kildare, 
Dublin and Mcath. 

The Government was now preparing its 
master-stroke, which was both to cause a 



premature explosion of the insurrection, and 
to deprive the people at one blow of their 
leaders, both civil and military. There ex- 
isted, unfortunately, at that period, one 
Thomas Reynolds, a silk mercer of Dublin, 
wlio had purchased an estate in the County 
of Kildare, called Kilkea Castle, and from 
the fortune he had acquired, commanded 
considerable influence with his Catholic 
brethren. Lord Edward Fitzgerald and 
Oliver Bond, two leaders in the conspiracy, 
having, for these reasons, considered him a 
proper person to assist in forwarding their 
revolutionary designs, easily attached him to 
their cause ; and having succeeded, he 
was soon after sworn an United Irish- 
man, at the house of Oliver Bond, in 
Dublin ; in the year 1797, he accepted 
the commission of colonel, the offices 
of treasurer and representative of the Coun- 
ty of Kildare, and at last that of delegate 
for the province of Leinster. Die had mon- 
ey dealings about a mortgage of some lands 
at Castle Jordan with a Mr. Cope, a Dublin 
merchant, who having lamented to him, in 
the course of conversation, the undoubted 
symptoms of an approaching rebellion, Mr. 
Reynolds said that he knew a person con- 
nected with the United Irishmen, who, he 
believed, would defeat their nefarious pro- 
jects, by communicating them to Govern- 
ment, in order to make an atonement for 
the crime he had committed in joining them. 
Mr. Cope assured him that such a person 
would obtain the highest honors and pecu- 
niary rewards that administration could 
confer. In short, after making his condi- 
tions, and receiving i:i hand live hundred 
guineas as a first payment on account, he 
told Mr. Cope that the Leinster delegates 
were to meet at Oliver Bond's on the 12th 
of March, to concert measures for an insur- 
rection which was shortly to take place, 
but did not at that time acknowledge that 
the information came directly from him, but 
insinuated that it was imparted by a third 
person. 

In consequence of this, Justice Swan, at- 
tended by twelve sergeants in colored 
clothes, arrested the Leinster delegates, 
thirteen in number, while silting in council 
in the house of Oliver Bond, in Bridge 
Street, on the 12th of March, 17'JS, and 




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seized several of their papers, which led to 
the discovery of all their plans ; and on the 
same day Messrs. Emmet, M'Neven, Boml, 
Sweetman, Henry Jackson, and Hugh Jack- 
son were arrested and taken into custody ; 
and warrants were granted against Lord 
Edward Fitzgerald and Messrs. M'Cormick 
and Sampson, who, having notice thereof, 
made their escape.* 

The leaders did not intend to make an 
insurrection till the French came to their 
assistance ; and they meant in the mean- 
time to continue to increase their numbers, 
and to add to their stock of arms. 

On the removal of so many valuable lead- 
ers everything was done that could be done 
to repair the loss, and to keep the United 
Irishmen quiet ; for it was now very well 
understood that the design of the Govern- 
ment was to provoke a premature explosion. 
The two brothers Sheares, Henry and John, 
both barristers, and gentlemen of high 
character and excellent education, took 
charge of the government of the Leinster 
Societies. A handbill was immediately 
circulated, to keep up the spirits of the 
people, cautioning them against being either 
" goaded into untimely violence or sunk into 
pusillanimous despondency." The hand- 
bill concluded thus : " Be firm, Irishmen ; 
but be cool and cautious. Be patient yet 
awhile. Trust to no unauthorized commu- 
nication; and above all, we warn you — again 
and again we warn you — against doing the 
work of your tyrants by premature, by par- 
tial or divided exertion. If Ireland shall be 
forced to throw away the scabbard, let it be 
at her own time, not theirs." 

But Lords Camden, Clare, and Castle- 
reagh were determined that it should be at 
their time. Universal military executions 
and "free quarters" were at once pro- 
claimed all over the country. 

It is difficult to detail with due historic 
coolness the horrors which followed the 
proclamation of the 30th of March; nor can 
we wonder that Dr. Madden expresses him- 

* A few days after these arrests there was a meet- 
ing of the Provincial Committee at the " Brazen Head 

Hotel." It was there proposed, by a man n 1 

Reynolds, a distant relative of the traitor, that Thom- 
as Reynolds should be put out of the way— that is, 
assassinated. The proposal was rejected unani- 
mously. Madden, 1st Series. 




self thus upon the occasion: "The rebel- 
lion did not break out till May, 1798, and, 
to use the memorable words of Lord Castle- 
reagh, even then 'measures were taken by 
Government to cause its premature explo- 
sion;' words which include the craft, cru- 
elty, and cold-blooded, deliberate wicked- 
ness of the politics of a Machiavelli, the 
principles of a Thug, and the perverted 
tastes and feelings of a eunuch in the exer- 
cise of power and authority, displayed in 
acts of sly malignity and stealthy, vindictive 
turpitude, perpetrated on pretence of serving 
purposes of state." 

Besides, Lord Castlereagh, if he was really 
the chief adviser of those measures to cause 
a premature explosion, was not the only per- 
son who approved of them. The same Se- 
cret Committee whose report is so often 
cited, states, "that it appears, from a va- 
riety of evidence laid before your committee, 
that the rebellion would not have broken 
out as soon as it did had it not been for the 
well-timed measures adopted by Government 
subsequent to the proclamation of the Lord- 
Lieutenant and Council, bearing date 30th 
of March, 1198." It is necessary to ascer- 
tain what these well-timed measures were. 
On the examination of the state prisoners 
before this committee in August, 1798, the 
Lord-Chancellor put the following question 
to Mr. Emmet: "Pray, Mr. Emmet, what 
caused the late insurrection?" To which 
Mr. Emmet replied: "The free quarters, 
house-burnings, tortures, and the military 
executions in the counties of Kildare, Car- 
low, and Wicklovvl" Messrs. M'Neven 
and O'Connor gave similar replies to the 
same query. 

However that, may be, it remains now to 
give something like a connected narrative of 
what was actually done, and how the pre- 
mature explosion did burst out.* 

The proclamation, which was published 
on the 30th of March, declared that a trai- 
torous conspiracy, existing within the king- 
dom for the destruction of the established 
government, had been considerably extend- 

* The authorities for this period are numerous- 
Sir Richard Musgrave, Hay, Gordon, Miles Byrne, 
Ac, — for County Wexford. In the text, we adopt in 
the main the narrative of Plowden, checking it where 

ii Iful by the documents assembled together by 

Madden, Lord Camden's dispatches, <£c. 



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ed, :iinl had manifested itself in acts of open 
violence and rebellion ; and that, in conse- 
quence thereof, the most direct and positive 
orders had been issued to the officers com- 
manding Ins Majesty's forces to employ them 
with the utmost vigor and decision for the 
immediate suppression of that conspiracy, 
and for the disarming of the rebels and all 
disaffected persons, by the most summary 
and effectual measures. To Sir Ralph 
Abercrombie, then chief commander of the 
forces, orders were issued from the Lord-Lieu- 
tenant to proceed with his army into the 
disturbed counties, vested with full powers 
to act according to his discretion for the at- 
tainment of the proposed object. A mani- 
festo, dated from his headquarters at Kil- 
dare, the 3d of April, was addressed to the 
inhabitants of the county by the General, 
requiring them to surrender their arms in 
the space of ten days from the date of the 
noiiee, threatening, in case of non-compli- 
ance, to distribute large bodies of troops 
among them to live at free quarters — pro- 
mising rewards to such as would give infor- 
mation of concealed arms or ammunition — 
and announcing his resolution of recurring 
to other severities if the county should still 
continue in a disturbed slate. 

On the advance of the military into each 
county, the same noiiee was given to its in- 
habitants, and at the expiration of the term 
prescribed the troops were quartered on the 
onsesof the disaffected or suspected, in num- 
bers proportioned to the supposed guilt and 
ability of the owners, whose pecuniary cir- 
cumstances were often deeply injured by the 
maintenance of the soldiery, and the waste 
which was otherwise made of their effects. 
Numbers of houses, with their furniture, 
were burned, in which concealed arms had 
leen found, in which meetings of the Union 
had been holden, or whose occupants had 
been guilty of the fabrication of pikes, or 
had been suspected of other practices for the 
promotion of the conspiracy. Numbers 
Were daily scourged, picqueted, or other- 
wise put. to pain, to force confessions of con- 
cealed arms or plots. Outrageous acts of 
severity were often committed by persons 
not in the regular troops -some from an \\\\- 
feigned and others from an affected zeal for 
the service of the Crown. These various 



vexatious amounted on the whole to such a 
mass of disquietude and distress that the 
exhortations of the chiefs to bear their evils 
with steady patience, until an opportunity 
of successful insurrection should occur, 
proved vain with the lower classes. 

To authorize the burning of houses and 
furniture, tin; wisdom of administration may 
have seen as good reason as for other acts 
of severity, though to many that reason was 
not clear. These burnings, doubtless, caused 
no small terror and consternation to the dis- 
affected ; but they caused also a loss to the 
community at huge, rendered many quite 
desperate who were deprived of their all, 
augmented the violence of hatred in those 
among whom those houseless people took 
refuge. Men imprisoned on suspicion, or pri- 
vate information, were sometimes half 
hanged, or strangled almost to death, be- 
fore their guilt or innocence could be ascer- 
tained by trial. Reflecting loyalists were 
much concerned at the permission or impu- 
nity of such acts, which tended strongly to 
confirm the pi "judices already so laboriously 
excited by the emissaries of revolution. 

Among the causes which, in the troubled 
interval of time previous to the grand insur- 
rection, contributed to the general uneasi- 
ness, were the insults practised by pretended 
zealots, to the annoyance of the truest loy- 
alists as well as malcontents, on persons who 
wore their hair short, or happened to have 
any part of their apparel of a green color, 
both of which were considered as emblems 
jf republican or of a revolutionary spirit. 
The term croppy was adopted to signify a 
revolutionist, or an enemy to the established 
government. Persons of malevolent minds 
took advantage of these circumstances to 
indulge their general malignity or private 
malice, when they could with impunity. On 
the heads of many, who were selected" as ob- 
jects of outrage, were fixed by these pre- 
tended loyalists caps of coarse linen or strong 
brown paper, smeared with pitch on the in- 
side, which in some instances adhered so 
firmly as not to be disengaged without a 
laceration of the hair, and even skin. On the 
other side, several of the united party made 
it a practice to seize violently such as they 
thought proper or were able, and cropped 
or cut their hair short, which rendered them 



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liable to the outrage of the pitched cap of 
those pretended strenuous partisans of the 
Constitution. Handkerchiefs, ribbons, even 
a sprig of myrtle and other parts of dress 
marked with the obnoxious color, were torn 
or cut away from females unconscious of 
disloyalty, and undesignedly bearing the 
imaginary badge. Various other violent 
acts were committed, so far as to cut away 
pieces of (ben's ears, even sometimes the 
whole ear, or a part of the nose ; nor could 
the staunchest loyalist be certain always of 
exemption from insult by beiug clear of all 
imaginary marks of disloyalty ; for on the 
arrival of a detachment of the army in any 
part of the country where the inhabitants 
were known to the officers and soldiers, 
which was almost always the case, private 
malice was apt to convey in whispers false 
intelligence, marking individuals, perhaps 
the best members of society, as proper ob- 
jects of military outrage, and they suffered 
accordingly. 

By the system of secret accusation and 
espionage, thus universally adopted, with 
other extraordinary measures, iu this dan- 
gerous crisis, Government made ample room 
for the exertions of private malice. Magis- 
trates and military officers were empowered 
to receive informations, to keep the names 
of the informers profoundly secret, and pro- 
ceed agaiust the accused according to dis- 
cretion. 

One case deserves particular mention, 
not because of its peculiar atrocity — for 
there were very many such, — but on ac- 
count of the very singular fact that the per- 
petrator was afterwards punished by law. 
It is thus recorded by Mr. Gordon, a Pro- 
testant clergyman, iu his llistory of the 
Rebellion : — ■ 

"Thomas Fitzgerald, High Sheriff of 
Tipperary, seized at Clonmel a gentleman 
of the name of Wright, against whom no 
grounds of suspicion could be conjectured 
by his neighbors, caused five hundred lashes 
to be inflicted on him in the severest man- 
ner, and confined him several days without 
permitting his wounds to be dressed, so that 
his recovery from such a state of torture and 
laceration could hardly be expected. In a 
trial at law, after the rebellion, on an action 
of damages brought by Wright agaiust this 




HISTORY OF IRELAND 



magistrate, the innocence of the plaintiff ap- 
peared so manifest, even at a time when 
prejudices ran amazingly high against per- 
sons accused of disloyalty, that the defend- 
ant was condemned to pay five hundred 
pounds to his prosecutor. Many other ac- 
tions of damages on similar grounds would 
have been commenced if the Parliament had 
not put a stop to such proceedings by an 
act of indemnity for all errors committed by 
magistrates from supposed zeal for the pub- 
lic service. A Idler written in the French 
language, found iu the pocket of Wright, 
was hastily considered a proof of guilt, 
though the letter was of a perfectly inno- 
cent nature." 

This was the same Fitzgerald whom the 
good and gallant Sir John Moore saw once 
in the village of Clogheen engaged in his 
favorite pursuit. Sir John Moore had the 
misfortune, like Abercrombie, to hold a 
command in that army of military execu- 
tion ; and on his march from Fermoy, en- 
tering the town of Clogheen, he saw a man 
tied up and under the lash, while the street 
itself was lined with country people on their 
knees, with their hats off ; nor was his dis- 
gust repressed when he was informed that 
the High Sheriff, Mr. Fitzgerald, was mak- 
ing great discoveries, and that he had al- 
ready flogged the truth out of many re- 
spectable persons. His rule was " to flog 
each person till he told the truth." 

The brave Sir John Moore has borne 
ample testimony to the barbarity of the 
policy he had witnessed in Ireland pursued 
by the authorities, and the revenge the 
Orange gentry and yeomen indulged in upon 
the poor. In speaking of Wieklow, where 
Sir John had been chiefly employed, he 
states his opinion, " that moderate treat- 
ment by the generals, and the preventing of 
the troops from pillaging and molesting the 
people would soon restore tranquillity, and 
the latter would certainly be quiet if the 
gentry and yeomen would only behave with 
tolerable decency, and not seek to gratify 
their ill-humor and revenge upon the 
poor." * 

Major-General William Napier, comment- 
ing in the Edinburgh Review on the life of 

* Review in the Edinburgh of Life of Sir J. Moore. 
The reviewer waa General W'ui. Napier. 






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ARMSTRONO, INFORMER ARREST OF THE SHEAKES. 



297 



Sir John Moore, nnd the indignation he had 
always expressed at such atrocious cruelty 
to tli<> poor people, takes occasion to give 
his own recollections of tlio period. He 
exclaims: "What manner of soldiers were 
thus let loose upon the wretched districts 
which the Ascendency-men were pleased to 
cull disaffected ? They were men, to use the 
venerable Abercrombie's words, who were 
'formidable to everybody bnt the enemy.' 
We ourselves were young at the time ; yet, 
being connected wiih the army, we were 
continually amongst the soldiers, listening 
with boyish eagerness to their conversation, 
and we well remember — and with horror 
to this day — the tales of Inst, and blood, 
and pillage — the record of their own actions 
against the miserable peasantry — which they 
used to relate." And it is important to re- 
member that all this while there was no in- 
surrection. True, insurrection was intended 
and longed for ; but the people were then 
neither ready nor inclined to turn out and 
fight the King's troops. They knew well 
that they needed a small organized force of 
regular troops to form a nucleus of an army, 

I were still waiting and looking out for 

the French. 

In the very midst of the horrible scourg- 
ing oppression which was thus driving the 
people to madness, one can derive no pleas- 
ure from the fact that Catholic bishops and 
peers took that very time to testify their 
loyalty, their attachment to the English 
Throne, and their detestation of rebellion. 
On the 6th of May, the Lords Fingal, Gor- 
man-town, Southwell, Kenmare, Sir Edward 
Bellew, and forty-one other noblemen, gen- 
tlemen, and professors of divinity, including 
Bishop Enssey, President of Maynooth, 
published a declaration under their signa- 
tures, " with a view," says Mr. Plowden, " of 
rescuing their body from the imputation of 
abetting and favoring rebellion ami treason." 
The document was thus addressed: "To 
such of the deluded people now in rebellion 
against His Majesty's Government in this 
kingdom as profess the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion." Those doctors of divinity could 
vilify rebels very much at their case; but 
if one of them had found himself in the po- 
sition of Father John Murphy, when, on a 
certain day in this same month of May, re- 



turning to his home, he found his house and 
his humble chapel of Boolavogue smoking 
in ruins, and his poor parishioners crowding 
round him in wild affright, not daring to go 
even to the neighborhood of their ruined 
homes, "for fear of being whipped, burned, 
or exterminated by the Orangemen, hearing 
of the number of people that were put to 
death unarmed and unoffending through the 
country" — one would be curious to know 
what that doctor of divinity would have 
clone upon such an emergency. Probably 
very much as Father John did. 

A certain Captain Armstrong, an officer 
of the Kildare militia, a man of some landed 
property and decent position in society, was 
the person who now undertook to act the 
part of Reynolds, and serve as a spy upon 
the brothers John and Henry Sheares. 
Armstrong gained access to the confidence, 
and even intimacy, of the Sheares, not only 
by his agreeable social qualities, but by his 
pretended zeal in the cause to which they, 
were devoted. He dined with the two 
brothers, at their house in Baggot street, on 
the 20th of May: the next morning they 
were both arrested. Doctor Madden says 
of this transaction: "Captain Armstrong, 
in his evidence on the trial of the Sheares, 
did not think it necessary to state that at 
his Sunday's interview (May 20th, 11 98,) 
he shared the hospitality of his victims ; 
that he dined with them, sat in the company 
of their aged mother and affectionate sister, 
enjoyed the society of the accomplished 
wife of one of them, caressed his infant chil- 
dren, and on another occasion — referred to 
by Miss Steele — was entertained with music 
— the wife of the unfortunate man, whose 
children he was to leave iu a few days fath- 
erless, playing on the harp for his entertain- 
ment ! These things are almost too horri- 
ble to think on. 

"Armstrong, after dining with his victims 
on Sunday, returned to their house no more. 
This was the last time the cloven foot of 
treachery passed the threshold of the 
Sheares. On the following morning they 
were arrested and committed to Kilmain- 
ham jail. The terrible iniquity of Arm- 
strong's conduct on that Sunday — when he 
dined with his victims, sat in social inter- 
course with their families a few hours only 



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before lie was aware his treachery would 
have brought ruiu on that household, — is 
unparalleled.'' 

We may mention here, parenthetically, 
that Captain Armstrong, after having 
hanged his hospitable entertainers of Bag- 
got street, lived himself to a good old age 
(he died in 1858) ; but in his interview 
with Dr. Madden, touching some alleged 
inaccuracies in the work of the latter, he 
denied having caressed any children at 
Sheares'. He said " lie never recollected 
having seen the children at all ; but there 
was a young lady of about fifteen there, 
whom he met at dinner. The day he dined 
there (and he dined there only once) he was 
urged by Lord Castlereagh to do so. It 
was wrong to do so, and he (Captain Arm- 
strong) was sorry for it ; but he was per- 
suaded by Lord Castlereagh to go there to 
dine, for the jfurpose of getting further in- 
formation." 

Perhaps the history of no other country 
can show us an example of the first minister 
of state personally exhorting his spies to go 
to a gentleman's house and mingle with his 
family in social intercourse, in order to pro- 
cure evidence to hang him. However, his 
lordship did procure the information he 
wanted. He found that the leaders of the 
United Irishmen, being at length convinced 
of the impossibility of restraining the people 
and keeping them quiet under such intolera- 
ble tyranny, had decided on a geueral rising 
for the 23d of May. 

The whole of the United Irishmen 
throughout the kingdom, or at least 
throughout the province of Leinster, were 
to act at once in concert ; and it was their 
intention to seize the camp of Loughlins- 
town, the artillery of Chapel-izod, and the 
Castle of Dublin, in one night — the 23d of 
May. One hour was to be allowed between 
seizing the camp of Loughlinstown and the 
artillery at Chapel izod ; and one hour and 
a half between seizing the artillery and sur- 
prising the Castle ; and the parties who ex- 
ecuted both of the external plans were to 
enter the city of Dublin at the same mo- 
ment. The stopping of the mail coaches was 
to be the signal for the insurgents every- 
where to commence their operations. It 
was also planued that a great insurrection 



should take place at Cork at the same time. 
The united men were, however, at that pe- 
riod, not exactly agreed as to the nature of 
the insurrection Mr. Samuel Xeilson, with 
some other of the leaders, were bent upon 
attacking first the county jail of Kihnainham 
and the jail of Newgate, in order to set their 
comrades at liberty ; and the project for 
attacking the latter was also fixed for the 
23d of May, the night of the general insur- 
rection. The Sheares, however, and others 
were of a contrary opinion, and they wished 
to defer the attack on the jails till after the 
general insurrection had taken place. 

Although the Government had been long 
in possession, through the communications 
of Reynolds, Armstrong, and other inform- 
ers, of all the particulars of the conspiracy, 
they had hitherto permitted or encouraged 
its progress, in order, as it has been alleged, 
that the suppression of it might be effected 
with more eclat and terror. As the ex- 
pected explosion, however, now drew so 
near, it was found to be necessary to arrest 
several of the principal leaders, who might 
give direction, energy, and effect to the in- 
surrection. Lord Edward Fitzgerald had 
concealed himself since the 12th of March ; 
and, on the 18th of May, Major Sirr having 
received information that he would pass 
through Watling street that night, and be 
preceded by a chosen bund of traitors as an 
advanced guard, and that he would be ac- 
companied by another, repaired thither, at- 
tended by Captain Ryan, Mr. Emerson, of 
the attorneys' corps, and a few soldiers in 
colored clothes. They met the party which 
preceded him, and had a skirmish with them 
on the quay at the end of Watling street, 
in which some shots were exchanged ; and 
they took one of them prisoner, who called 
himself at one time Jameson, at another 
time Brand. 

The arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald 
was effected next day, the 19th of May. 

Government having received information 
that he had arrived in Dublin, and was 
lodged in the house of one Murphy, a ("cat 1 1- 
erman in Thomas street, sent Major Sirr to 
arrest him. He, attended by Captain Swan, 
of the revenue corps, and Captain Ryan; of 
the Sepulchre's, and eight soldiers disguised, 
about five o'clock in the evening repaired in 



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roaches to Mnrphy's house. While they 
were posting the soldiers in such :i manner 
as in prevent the possibility of nn escape, 
Captain Swan perceiving a woman running 
hastily upstairs, for the purpose, as he sup- 
posed, of alarming Lord Edward, followed 
her with the utmost speed ; and, on enter- 
ing an apartment, found Lord Edward lying 
on a bed, in his dressing jacket. He ap- 
proached the bed and informed his lordship 
that he had a warrant against him, and that 
resistance would be vain ; assuring him at 
the same time that he would treat him with 
the utmost respect. 

Lord Edward sprang from the bed and 
snapped a pistol, which missed fire, at Cap- 
tain Swan ; lie then closed with him, drew 
a dagger, gave him a wound in the hand, 
and different wounds in his body ; one of 
them, under the ribs, was deep and danger- 
ous, and bled most copiously. 

At that moment, Captain Ryan entered, 
and missed lire at Lord Edward with a 
pocket pistol ; on which he made a lunge at 
him with a sword cane, which bent ou his 
ribs, but affected him so much that he threw 
himself on the bed ; and, Captain Ryan 
having thrown himself ou him, a violent 
scuffle ensued, during which Lord Edward 
drew a dagger and plunged it into his side. 
They then fell on the ground, where Cap- 
tain Ryan received many desperate wounds ; 
one of which, in the lower part of his belly, 
was so large that his bowels fell out on the 
oor. Major Sirr, having entered the 
room, saw Captain Swan bleeding, and 
Lord Edward advancing towards the door, 
while Captain Ryan, weltering in blood ou 
the floor, was holding him by one leg and 
Swan by the other. He, therefore, fired 
his pistol at Lord Edward, wounding him in 
the shoulder. His lordship then, quite 
overpowered, surrendered himself. He was 
conveyed at once to the Castle. This was 
two days before the arrest of the Sheares. 
In their house in BaggOt street was found a 
rough draft of a proclamation, which seems 
to have been intended for publication on the 
morning alter taking possession of Dublin. 
It is violent and vindictive, though not 
approaching in atrocity to the actual scenes 
which were then daily enacted under the 
auspices of Government. Still, having been 



published by the Government, and being 
authentic, (at least as a rough draft,) it 
tonus a part of the history of the times. 
It is in these words : — 

" Irishmen, your country is free, and you 
are about to be avenged. That vile Gov- 
ernment, which has so long and so cruelly 
oppressed you, is no more. Some of its 
most atrocious monsters have already paid 
the forfeit of their lives, and the rest are in 
our hands. The national flag — the sacred 
green — is at this moment flying over the 
ruins of despotism ; and that capital, which 
a few hours past had witnessed the de- 
bauchery, the plots, and the crimes of your 
tyrants, is now the citadel of triumphant 
patriotism and virtue. Arise then, united 
sons of Ireland — arise like a great and pow- 
erful people, to live free, or die. Arm your- 
selves by every means in your power, and 
rush like lions ou your foes. " Consider, that 
for every enemy you disarm you arm a 
friend, and thus become doubly powerful. 
In the cause of liberty, inaction is coward- 
ice, and the coward shall forfeit the property 
he has not the courage to protect. Let his 
arms be secured and transferred to those 
gallant spirits who want and will use them. 
Yes, Irishmen, we swear by that eternal 
justice, in whose cause you light, that the 
brave patriot who survives the present glo- 
rious struggle, and the family of him who 
has fallen, or hereafter shall fall in it, shall 
receive from the hands of the grateful nation 
an ample recompense out of that property 
which the crimes of our enemies have for- 
feited into its hands ; and his name shall be 
inscribed on the great national record of 
Irish revolution, as a glorious example to all 
posterity ; but we likewise swear to punish 
robbery with death and infamy. We also 
swear that we will never sheath the sword 
till every being in the country is restored to 
those equal rights which the God of nature 
has given to all men ; until an order of 
things shall be established in which no supe- 
riority shall be acknowledged among the 
citizens of Erin but that of virtue and tal- 
ents. As for those degenerate wretches 
who turn their swords against their native 
country, the national vengeance awaits them. 
Let them find no quarter, unless they shall 
prove their repentance by speedily exchaug- 






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300 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



ing the standard of slavery for that of free 
dom, Dtider which their former errors may 
be buried, and they may share the glory 
and advantages that are due to the patriot 
bands of Ireland. Many of the military feel 
the love of liberty gluw within their breasts, 
and have joined the national .standard. Re- 
ceive with open arms such as shall follow so 
glorious an example. They can render sig- 
nal service to the cause of freedom, acd 
shall be rewarded according to their deserts. 
But, for the wretch who turns his sword 
against his native country, let the national 
vengeance be visited on him ; let him find 
uo quarter. Two other crimes demand 

House all energies of your 

souls ; call forth all the merits and abilities 
which a vicious government consigned to 
obscurity ; and, under the conduct of your 
chosen leaders, march with a steady step to 
victory. Heed not the glare of hired sol- 
diery, or aristocratic yeomanry ; they can- 
not stand the vigorous shock of freedom. 
Their trappings and their arms will soon be 
yours ; and the detested Government of 
England, to which we vow eternal hatred, 
shall learn that the treasures it exhausts on 
its accoutred slaves, for the purpose of 
butchering Irishmen, shall but further ena- 
ble us to turn their swords on its devoted 
head. Attack them in every direction, by 
day and by night. Avail yourselves of the 
natural advantages of your country, which arc 
innumerable, and with which you are better 
acquainted than they. Where you cannot 
oppose them in full force, constantly harass 
their rear and their Hanks. Cut off their 
provisions and magazines, and prevent them 
as much as possible from uniting their forces. 
Let whatever moments you cannot devote 
to fighting for your country be passed in 
learning how to light for it, or preparing 
the means of war ; for war, war aloue must 
occupy every mind and every hand in Ire- 
land, until its long-oppressed soil be purged 
of all its enemies. Vengeance, Irishmen ! 
Vengeance on your oppressors 1 Remember 
what thousands of your dearest friends have 
perished by their merciless orders. Remem- 
ber their burnings, their racking*, their tor- 
turings, their military massacres, and their 
legal murders. Remember Orr!" 

In this proclamation — if it really was 



intended to be issued as it was drawn up — 
we have at least the evidence that the 
United Irishmen were banded together to 
procure "equal rights for all," and contem- 
plated no oppression of any sect or class of 
their countrymen. However, such as it was, 
it must be considered to have been dis- 
avowed by other leaders of the United Irish- 
men, then in prison. In the examination 
before the Secret Committee of the Lords, 
as we learn by the memoir of Emmet, Mac- 
Xeven, and O'Connor, the following examin- 
ation is found : — ■ 

"Lord Jul warden — You seem averse to 
insurrection ; I suppose it was because you 
thought it impolitic. 

"Emmet — Unquestionably; for if I im- 
agined an insurrection could have succeeded, 
without a great waste of blood and time, I 
should have preferred it to invasion, as it 
would not have exposed us to the chance of 
contributions being required by a foreign 
force ; but as I did not think so, and as I 
was certain an invasion would sucTud 
speedily, and without much struggle, I pre- 
ferred it even at the hazard of that incon- 
venience, which we took every means to 
prevent. 

"Lord Dillon — Mr. Emmet, you have 
stated the views of the executive to be very 
liberal and very enlightened, and I believe 
yours were so ; but let me ask you whether 
it was not intended to cut off (in the begin- 
ning of the contest) the leaders of the oppo- 
sition party, by a summary mode, such as 
assassination. My reason for asking you is, 
John Sheares' proclamation, the im>st terri- 
ble paper that ever appeared in any country. 
It says that 'many of your tyrants have 
bled, and others must bleed,' &c. 

" Emmet — My fords, as to Mr. Sheares' 
proclamation, he was not of the executive 
when 1 was. 

"Lord Chancellor — lie was of the new 
executive. 

" Emmet — I do not know he was of any 
executive, except from what your lordship 
says ; but I believe he was joined with some 
others in flaming a particular plan of insur- 
rection lor Dublin aial its neighborhood ; 
neither do I know what value he annexed to 
those words in his proclamation ; but I can 
answer that, while I was of the executive, 




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there was no such design, but the contrary ; 
for we conceived when one of you lost your 
lives we lost an hostage. Our intention 
was to seize you all, and keep you as hos- 
tages for the conduct of England ; and, 
after the revolution was over, if you could 
not live nuclei- the new governmeut, to send 
you out of the country. 1 will add one thing 
more, which, though it is not an answer to 
your question, you may have a curiosity to 
hear. In such a struggle it was natural to 
expect confiscations. Our intention was, 
that every wife who had not instigated her 
husband to resistance should be provided 
for out of the property, notwithstanding 
confiscations ; and every child who was too 
young to be his own master, or form his own 
opinion, was to have a child's portion. Your 
lordships will now judge how far we intend- 
ed to be cruel. 

"Lord Chancellor— Tray, Mr. Emmet, 

what caused the late insurrection? 

"Emmet — The free quarters, the house- 
burnings, the tortures, and the military exe- 
cutions in the Counties of Kildare, Carlow, 
and Wicklow. 

"Lord Chancellor — Don't you think the 
arrests of the 12th of March caused it? 

"Emmet — No; but I believe if it had 
not been for those arrests it would not have 
taken place ; lor the people', irritated by 
what they suffered, had been long pressing 
the executive to consent to an insurrection ; 
but they had resisted or eluded it, and even 
determined to persevere in the same line. 
Alter these arrests, however, other persons 
c:iine forward, wdio were irritated, and 
thought differently, who conseuted to let 
that partial insurrection take place." 

On the 21st of May, Lord Castlereagh, 
by direction of the Lord-Lieutenant, wrote 
to the Lord-Mayor of Dublin, to inform him 
that there was a plan for seizing the city, 

and ret unending precautions. The next 

dav, his lordship presented a message to the 
House of Commons to the same effect, and 

a loyal address was presented in reply. 
Great preparations for defence were now 
,„ ;,,!,. iii Dublin. Various civic bodies 
armed themselves in haste, and placed them- 
selves at the service of the authorities. 
Among these was the lawyers' corps, which 



showed great zeal ou the occasion ; and 



amongst the members of that body we find 
the name of a young lawyer who had very 
lately been called to the bar— Daniel 
O'Connell. 

It was now impossible to prevent the 
rising. The United Irishmen of Leinster, 
though thus left without leaders, had got 
their instructions for action on the 23d of 
May ; and, besides, they felt that no re- 
verse of fortune in the open field could be 
worse than what they were already suffer- 
ing. 

It appears that the plan of attack formed 
by Lord Edward Fitzgerald had been com- 
municated to most of the insurgents ; for 
their first open acts of hostility, though ap- 
parently fortuitous, irregular, and confused, 
bore evident marks of a deep-laid scheme 
for surprising the military by separate, 
though simultaneous attacks, to surround in 
a. cordon the city of Dublin, and cut off all 
succors and resources from without. Ou 
thai day, (May 23d,) Mr. Neilson* and 
some others of the leaders were arrested ; 
and the City and County of Dublin were 
proclaimed by the Lord-Lieutenant and 
Council in a state of insurrection ; the 
guards at the Castle and all the great ob- 
jects of attack were trebled ; and, in fact, 
the whole city was converted into a be- 
sieged garrison. Thus the insurgents were 
unable to effect anything by surprise. 
Without leaders, and almost without arms 
or ammunition, they ventured on the bloody 
contest. Notwithstanding the apparent 
forwardness of the North, the first commo- 
tions appeared in different parts of Leinster. 
The Northern and Connaught mail coaches 
were stopped by parties of the insurgents 
on the mght of the 23d of May ; and, at 
about twelve o'clock on the morning of the 
24 th, a large body of insurgents attacked 
the town and jail of NaaS, about fourteen 
miles from Dublin, where Lord Gosford 
commanded. As the guard had been sea- 

* Mr. Neilson was seized between nine and ten in 
it, ,. evening, by Gregg, the keeper "l Newgate, as he 

was v inoitering the prison. A souffle ensue.!, and 

\, ,1 on Bnapped a pistol al him; by the interven- 
tion ,,i i«,, yeomen I"- was secured and committed. 
It is reported, ami appears probable, that a large 
number of the conspirators who were awaiting his 
orders, having lost their leader, dispersed for that 
night. 



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HISTORY OF IRELA.ND. 



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sonably increased, in expectation of such an 
attack, the assailants were repulsed and 
driven into a narrow avenue, where, with- 
out order or discipline, they sustained for 
some time the attack of the Armagh militia, 
dud of the fencible corps, raised by Sir Wat- 
kin William Wynne, and known by the 
name of the Ancient Britons. The King's 
troops lost two officers and about thirty 
men ; and the insurgents, lis was reported, 
lost ltO iii the contest and their flight. 
They were completely dispersed, and several 
Of them taken prisoners. On the same day, 
a small divison of His Majesty's forces were 
surprised at the town of Prosperous ; ami 
a detachment at the village of Chine cut 
their way through to Naas, With considera- 
ble loss. About the same time, General 
Dundas encountered a large body of insur- 
gents on the hills near Kilcullcn, and loOof 
them were left dead upon the field. 

On the following day, a body of about 
400 insurgents, under the command of two 
gentlemen of the names of Ledwich and 
Keougb, marched from Etathfamham, in the 
neighborhood of Dublin, along the toot of 
the mountain towards Belgatt and Clondal- 
kin. In their progress, they were met by a 
party of thirty-five dragoons, under the 
command of Lord Roden. After some re- 
sistance, the insurgents were defeated, great 
numbers were killed and wounded, and 
their leaders — Ledwich and Kcough — were 
taken. They were immediately tried by a 
court-martial, and executed. 

Although the first effort of the insurgents 
had been thus defeated, still they entertained 
the most sanguine hopes of succeeding in 
another attempt. General Lake, who, upon 
the resignation of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, 
had been appointed Commander-in-Chief, 
published the following notice on the morn- 
ing of the 21th of May :— 

" Lieutenant-General Lake, commanding 
His Majesty's forces in this kingdom, having 
received from His Excellency the Lord- 
Lieutenant, full powers to put down the 
rebellion, and to punish rebels in the most 
Bummary manner by martial law," Ac. 

On the same morning, the Lord-Mayor 
of Dublin issued a proclamation to this 
effect :— 

" Whereas, the circumstances of the 



present crisis demand every possible pre- 
caution, these arc, therefore, to desire all 
persons who have registered arms, forthwith 
to give in (in writing) an exact list or inven- 
tory of such arms at the Town Clerk's office, 
who will file and enter the same in a book 
to be kept for that purpose ; and all per- 
sons who have not registered their arms are 

hereby required forthwith to deliver up to 
me, or some other of the magistrates of 
this city, all arms and ammunition of every 
kind in their possession ; and if, after this 
proclamation, any person having registered 
their arms shall be found not to have given 
in a true list or inventory of such arms; 
or if any person who has not registered 
shall be found to have in their power or 
possession any anus or ammunition what- 
ever, such person or persons will, on such 
arms being discovered, be forthwith sent on 
board His Majesty's navy, as by law di- 
rected. 

"And I do hereby desire that all house- 
keepers do place II) the outside of theft 

doors a list of all persons in their respective 
houses, distinguishing such as are strangers 
from those who actually make part of their 
family ; but as there may happen to be 
persons who, from pecuniary embarrass- 
ments, arc obliged to conceal themselves, I 
do not require such names to be placed on 
the outside of the door, provided their names 
are sent to me. And 1 hereby call upon 
all His Majesty's subjects within the County 
of the City of Dublin immediately to com- 
ply with this regulation, as calculated for 
the public security ; as those persons who 
shall willfully neglect u regulation so easy 
and salutary, as well as persons giving false 
statements of the inmates of their houses, 
must, in the present crisis, abide the conse- 
quences of such neglect." 

Parliament, being then in session, met as 
usual, and Lord Castlercagh presented to 
the House of Commons a message from the 
Lord-Lieutenant, that he thought it his in- 
dispensable duty, with the advice of the 
Privy Council, under t lie present cir- 
cumstances of the kingdom, to issue a 
proclamation, which he had ordered to be 
laid before the House of Commons, to whom 
he remarked, the time for speaking was now 
gone by, and that period at last come when 



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die, Is and not words were to Bhow the dis- 
positions of members of thai House, ami of 
every man who truly valued the Constitution 
of the laud, or wished to maintain the laws, 
inn! protect the lives and properties of His 
Majesty's subjects. Everything which cour- 
age, honor, fortune, could offer in the com- 
mon cause was now called for. The rebels 
had openly thrown off the mask, &C, &C. 

Open war having now been fairlj com- 
menced, the Government proceeded to the 
strongest measures of cdercion. Although 
by no public official act wore the picquet- 
ings, stranglings, floggings, and torturiugs, 
to extort confessions, justified or sanctioned, 
yet it is universally known, that under the 
very eye of Government, and with more than 
their tacit permission, were these outrages 
practiced. In mentioning the Irish Gov- 
ernment, it is not meant that this system 
proceeded from its Chief Governor; it was 
boasted to have been extorted from him. 
And to this hour it is not only defended and 
justified, but panegyrized by the advocates 
and creatures of the furious drivers of thai 
system of terrorism. 

So far from there being any doubt of the 
existence of any such practices a short time 
previous to and during the rebellion, Sir 
Richard Musgrave has, in an additional 
appendix tn his memoirs of the different re- 
bellions in Ireland, given to the public his 
observations upon whipping and free quar- 
ters, lie admits, indeed, that whosoever 
considers it abstractedly, must, of course, con- 
demn it as obviously repugnant to the letter 
of the law, the benign principles of our Con- 
stitution, and those of justice and humanity; 
hill he was convinced, thai SUCh persons as 

dispassionately- considered the existing cir- 
cumstances, and the pressure of the occasion 
under which it was adopted, would readily 
admit them to be, if not an excuse, at least 
uu ample extenuation of that practice. 
" Suppose," says he, " the fullest information 
could have been obtained of the guilt of 
every individual, it would have been imprac- 
ticable to arrest and commit the multitude. 
Some men of disci rnmenl and fortitude per- 
ceived that sunn: new expedient must be 
adopted to prevent the subversion of Gov- 
ernment, and the destruction of society ; 
and whippiug was resorted to. 




1NSUKKECTI0N BREAKS OUT, 



"As to the violation of the forms of the 
law by this practice, it should be recollected 
the law nf nature, which suggested the ne- 
cessity of it, supersedes all positive institu- 
tions, as it is imprinted on the heart of man 
for the preservation of his creatures, as it 
speaks strongly and instinctively, and as its 
end will be baffled by the slowness of de- 
liberation. 

" When the sword of civil war is drawn, 
the laws are silent. As to the violation of 
humanity, it should be recollected, that 
nothing could exceed the cruelty of this 
banditti ; that their object was the extirpa- 
tion of the loyalists ; that of the vvhippers, 
the preservation of the community at large. 

"This practice was never sanctioned by 
Government, as they, on the contrary, used 
their utmost exertions to prevent it ; and 
the evidence extorted from the person 
whipped never was used to convict any per- 
son, and was employed for no other reason 
lint to discover concealed arms, and to de- 
feat the deleterious schemes of the traitors. 
Free quarters were confined merely to the 
province of Leinster. 

" When Government was possessed of 
the evidence that the inhabitants of a village 
or a town, who had taken the usual oaths 
to lull and deceive the magistrates, were 
possessed of concealed arms, and meditated 
an insurrection and massacre, they sent 
amongst them a certain number of troops, 
whom they were obliged to maintain by 
contributions levied on themselves. This 
took place a few days before the rebellion 
broke out. 

"It has been universally allowed, that 
the military severities practiced in the 
County of Kildare occasioned a premature 
explosion of the plot, which the Directory 
intended to have deferred till the French 
effected a landing; and one of them, Mr 
Emmet, declared in his evidence, upon oath, 
before the Secret Committee of the Lords, 
that, but for the salutary effects of those 
military severities, there would have been a 
very general and formidable insurrection in 
every part of the country." 

Tuis warm advocate for the torture has 
not with his usual minuteness favored his 
reader with any instances of innocent per- 
sons having undergone this severe trial from 



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wanton suspicion, personal revenge, or male- 
volent cruelty. Yet many such there were ; 
as must necessarily be the case, where the 
very cast of a countenance that displeased a 
corporal or common yeoman sufficed to sub- 
ject the unfortunate passenger to this mili- 
tary ordeal. No man can give credit to the 
assertion, that Government used their utmost 
exertions to prevent it, who knows anything 
of the state of Ireland at that disastrous pe- 
riod. In Bercsford's Riding House, Sandys' 
Prevot, the Old Custom House, the Royal 
Exchange, some of the barracks, and other 
places in Dublin, there were daily, hourly 
notorious exhibitions of these torturings, as 
there also were in almost every town, village, 
or hamlet, throughout the kingdom, in which 
troops were quartered.* 

Many attacks were made by the rebels on 
the second day of the rebellion, (the 24th 
of May,) generally with ill-success; the 
chief of which were those of Carlow, Hack- 
etstown, and Monastereven. There were 
also several skirmishes near Rathfarnham, 
Tallagh, Lucan, Luske, Dnuboyne, Barrets- 
town, Collon, and Baltinglass. At Dun- 
boyne and Barretstown the insurgents are 
allowed to have had the advantage. But 
in all the other encounters, though greatly 
superior in numbers, they were defeated, 
with incredible loss of their men. 

The non-arrival of the mail-coach at the 
usual hour of eight o'clock in the morning 
at Carlow, was to be the signal for rising 
there and its vicinity. This town lies about 
forty miles southwest of Dublin. Of the in- 
tended attack the garrison was apprised by 
an intercepted letter, and from Lieutenant 
Roe, of the North Cork militia, who had 
observed the peasants assembling in the 
vicinity late in the evening of the 24th of 
May. The garrison consisted in the whole 
of about four hundred and fifty men, com- 
manded by Colonel Mahon, of the Ninth 
Dragoons, and they were very judiciously 
posted for the reception of the assailants. 

* It is too large a credit to be allowed to this 
author's assertion, that the evidence extorted from 
ihe person whipped utter tens used to convict any 
person. If the security of the monarch be to be 
found in the affectionate hearts of Ids people, it is 
matter of important consideration how far these prac- 
tices tended more to unite or separate the two 
kingdoms. 



A body, perhaps amounting to a thousand 
or fifteen hundred, having assembled before 
the house of Sir Edward Crosbie, a mile and 
a half distant from Carlow, marched into 
the town at two o'clock in the morning on 
the 25th of May, in a very unguarded and 
tumultuary manner, shouting as they rushed 
into Tullow street, with vain confidence, 
that the town was their own : they received 
so destructive a fire from the garrison, that 
they recoiled and endeavored to retreat ; 
but finding their flight, intercepted, numbers 
took refuge in the houses, which were imme- 
diately fired by the soldiery. About eighty 
houses, with some hundred men, were con- 
sumed in this conflagration. As about half 
this column of assailants had arrived within 
the town, and few escaped from that situa- 
tion, their loss can hardly be estimated at 
less than four hundred ; while not a man 
was even wounded on the side of the King's 
troops. 

After the defeat, executions commenced 
here, as they did elsewhere in this calami- 
tous period, and about two hundred, in a 
short time, were hanged or shot, according 
to martial law. Among the earliest vic- 
tims was Sir Edward Crosbie, before whose 
house the rebel column had assembled, but 
who certainly had not accompanied them in 
their march ; he was condemned and shot 
as an United Irishman. Sir Edward Cros- 
bie had no further connection with the 
rebels than that they exercised on a lawn 
before the house, which of course Sir Ed- 
ward could not prevent. 

In the attack upon Slane, a mere hand- 
ful of troops, about seventeen yeomen and 
forty of the Armagh militia, although sur- 
prised in the houses on which they were bil- 
letted, fought their way separately to their 
rallying post, and then made a vigorous a 
stand, that some hundreds of the people were 
with considerable slaughter repulsed. Sev- 
eral of the assailants of this small town 
appeared dressed in the uniforms of the Cork 
militia and Ancient Britons; which appear- 
ance, in this and several other instances, 
proved a fatal deceit to the King's troops. 
They were the spoils taken at Prosperous : 
at which place the success of the insurgents, 
amongst other causes, was owing to their 
having been headed or led on to the attack 



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MASSACRE AT GIBBET RATH OF KILDARE. 







305 



bj an officer ; :is their defeats in most other 
places, with immense superiority of numbers, 
were to be attributed, to the want of some 
intelligent person to control and direct them, 
'heir discomfitures in general wen' not the 
effect of fear or cowardice, but of want of 
discipline and organization. 

KiMare County was not favorable to the 
insurgents, because it is generally a flat, 
grassy plain, whore regular cavalry can act 
with terrible effect. Two weeks were, suf- 
ficient to crush all insurrectionary move- 
ments in that county, and in Meath and 
Carlow. Yet in that short campaign splen- 
did feats of gallantry were achieved by the 
half-armed peasantry. At Monastereven, 
the insurgents were repulsed with some loss, 
the defenders of the place being in part 
" loyal " Catholics, commanded by one Cas- 
sidy. At Old Kilcullen the insurgents de- 
feated and drove back the advance-guard 
of General Pandas, with the loss of twenty- 
two regular soldiers, including a Captain 
Erskine. But after the first few days, there 
was in reality no insurrection at all in Kil- 
dare County ; and the operations of the 
troops there, though called sometimes 
"battles," were nothing but onslaughts on 
disarmed fugitives — in other words, mas- 
sacres. These proceedings were hailed with 
triumph in Dublin, as great military achieve- 
ments. For example, the slaughter of the 
unresisting, capitulated people at the Gibbet 
Hath of Kildare, was regarded as a vigor- 
ous measure which the emergencies of the 
time required. The rebels, according to Sir 
R. Musgrave, amounted to about 3,000 in 
number ; they had entered into terms with 
General Dnndas, and were assembled at a 
place that had been a Danish fort, called 
the Gibbet Rath. Having offered terms 
of submission to General Dnndas on the 26th 
of May, that General dispatched General 
Welford to receive their arms and grant 
them protection. Before the arrival of the 
latter, however, on the 3d of June, the mul- 
titude of unresisting people were suddenly 
attacked by Sir James Duff, who, having 
galloped into the plain, disposed his army in 
order of battle, and with the assistance of 
Lord II' nidi's Fencible Cavalry, fell upon 
the astonished multitude, ns Sir Richard 
Musgrave states, " pell uiell." Three hun- 



dred and fifty men, under terms of capitula- 
tion, admitted into the King's peace and 
promised his protection, were mowed down 
iu cold blood, at a place known to every 
peasant in Kildare as " the Place of Slaugh- 
ter," as well remembered as Mullaghmast 
itself, the Gibbet Rath of the Curragh of 
Kildare. 

The massacre took place on the 3d of 
June ; the terms of surrender were made by 
one Perkins, a rebel leader, on the part of 
the insurgents, and General Dnndas, on the 
part of the Government, and with its ex- 
press sanction and permission for them, on 
delivering up their arms, to return to their 
homes. Their leader and his brother were 
to be likewise pardoned and set at liberty. 

It was when the people were assembled 
at the appointed place, to comply with 
these conditions, that Sir James Duff, at the 
head of 600 men, then on his march from 
Limerick, .proceeded to the place to procure 
the surrendered weapons. One of the in- 
surgents, before giving up his musket, dis- 
charged it in the air, barrel upwards ; this 
simple act was immediately construed into a 
hostile proceeding, and the troops fell on the 
astonished multitude, and the latter fled 
with the utmost precipitation, and were 
pursued and slaughtered without mercy by a 
party of Fencible Cavalry, called "Lord 
Jocelyn's Foxhunters." According to the 
Rev. James Gordon, upwards of 200 fell on 
this occasion ; Sir R. Musgrave states 350. 

" No part of the infamy of this proceed- 
ing," says Dr. Madden, " attaches to Gen- 
eral Dnndas. The massacre took place 
without his knowledge or his sanction. His 
conduct throughout the rebellion was that 
of a humane and brave man." 

The brutal massacre on the Curragh is 
thus described by Lord Camden, the Lord- 
Lieutenant, in his dispatch to the Duke of 
Portland :— 

" Dublin Castle, May 29th. 

"My Lord ; — I have only time to inform 
your grace, that 1 learn from General Dun- 
das that the rebels in the Curragh of 
Kildare have laid down their arms, and 
delivered up a number of their leaders. 

" By a dispatch I have this instant re- 
ceived, I have the further pleasure of ac- 
quainting your grace that Sir James Duff. 



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who, with infinite alacrity and address, 
has opened the communication with Lim- 
erick, (that with Cork being already open,) 
had arrived at Kildare whilst the rebels 
had possession of it, completely routed them 
and taken the place. 

" I have the honor to be, &c., 

" Camden." 

The same transaction is thus described by 
the chief actor : — 
Extract of a letter from Major-General Sir 

James /'«//* to Lieutenant-General Luke, 

dated Monastereven. 

" I marched from Limerick on Sunday 
morning with sixty dragoons, Dublin militia, 
three field pieces, and two curricle guns, to 
open the communication with Dublin, which 
I judged of the inmost importance to Gov- 
ernment. By means of cars for the in- 
fantry, I reached this place in forty-eight 
hours. 1 am now, at seven o'clock this 
morning, (Tuesday,) marching to surround 
the town of Kildare, the headquarters of 
the rebels, with seven pieces of artillery, 
ISO dragoons, and 350 infantry, determined 
to make a dreadful example of the rebels. I 

have left the whole country behind me per- 
fectly quiet, and Well protected by means 
of the troops and yeomanry corps. 

" 1 hope to be able to forward this to you 
by the mad coach, which I will escort to 
N.ias. I am sufficiently strong. Yon may 
depend on my prudence and success. My 
gnns are well manned, and all the troops in 
high spirits. The cruelties the rebels have 
committed on some of the officers and men. 
have exasperated them to a great degree. 
Of ray future operations I will endeavor to 
inform you. 

" I'. S— Kildare, two o'clock, p.m. — We 
found the rebels retiring from the town on 
our arrival, armed ; we followed them with 
the dragoons. I sent on some of the yeo- 
men to tell them, on laying down their arms, 

they should not. be hurt. Unfortunately, 
some of them tired on the troops ; * from 
that moment they were attacked on all 
Bides— nothing could stop the rage of the 
troops. 1 believe from two to three liun- 

* Plowden describes the affair thus: Aatlio troops 
advanced near the Insurgents to receive their surren- 
dered weapons, one of tho latter, foolishly Bwearlng 
that ho would not deliver his Run otherwise than 
empty, discharged it with the muzzle upwards. 



red of the rebels were killed. We have 
three men killed and several wounded. I am 
too much fatigued to enlarge." 

There is no need to recount in detail the 
various slaughters done by the troops, some- 
times upon armed insurgents, sometimes 
upon mere masses of unarmed people. These 
were all commemorated indifferently by Lord 
Camden in his dispatches as "battles," 
" defeat.", of the rebels," and the like. One 
of his dispatches describes the most serious 
part of the rising in Wieklow County : — 

" Dublin Castle, May 26tb, 10 a. m. 

" Mil Lord: — I have detained a packet, 
in order to transmit to your grace the in- 
formation received this morning. 

" I have stated in a private letter to your 
giace, that a party of the rebels, to the 
amount of several hundreds, were attacked 
by a detachment of the Antrim militia, a 
small party of cavalry, and Captain Strat- 
ford's yet inry; and that, being driven into 

the town of Baltingloss, they lost about 
1 50 men. 

"This morning an account has been re- 
ceived from Major Hardy, that yesterday a 
body of between 3,000 and 4,000 had col- 
lected near Dunlavin, when they were en- 
tirely defeated, with the loss of 300 men, by 
Lieutenant Gardner, at the head of a de- 
tachment of Antrim militia, and Captain 
Hardy's and Captain Hume's yeomanry. 

"The troops and yeomanry behaved with 
the utmost gallantry in both actions." 

On the same 26th of May another slaugh- 
ter took place on Tara Hill, in Moath. 
Some chiefs of thcLeinster insurgents had 
assembled at that point, where they expect- 
ed to be joined by a force coming from the 
North. They were here attacked, and after 
an obstinate defence, killing thirly-lwo of 
the soldiers and yeomanry, they were again 
overpowered, by discipline and superior 
arms. The issue is told in this dispatch : — 
Extract of a letter from Captain Seobie, of 

tlie Reay Fencibles, to Lieutenant-General 

Lake, dated DunsAaughlin, Sunday mom- 

ui!!, M«!i 27<A, 1VJS. 

"The division, consisting of five com- 
panies of His Majesty's Keay Regiment of 
Fencible Infantry, which 1 have the honor 
to command, arrived here yesterday morn- 
ing according to route, accompanied by 






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WEXFORD A PEACEABLE COUNTY. 



107 



Lonl Pingal's troop of yeomen cavalry, 
Captain Preston's and Lower Kills' troop 
ci cavalry, and Captain Molloy's company 
of 3 eo n infantry. 

" At half-past three, v u., I was informed 
that a considerable force of the rebel insur- 
gents had taken station on Tara Hill. I 
instantly detached three companies of our 
division, with one field-piece, and the above 
corps ol yeomanry, to the spot, under the 
command of Captain M'Leao, of the Reay's, 
the issue of which lias answered my most 
sanguine expectal ion. 

"The rebels lied in all directions; 350 
were found dead on the field this morning, 
among whom is their commander, in full uni- 
form ; many more were killed and wounded. 

" Our loss is inconsiderable, being nine 
rank and lile killed, sixteen rank and file 
wounded." 

On the whole, it must be admitted that 
the tmops found but little difficulty iii crush- 
ing the insurgent peasants of Kildare, Dub- 
lin, and Meath. The slaughter of the people 
was out of all proportion with the resistance. 
The number of deaths arising from torture 
or massacre, where no resistance was offered, 
during the year I7'.H, forms the far greater 
portion of the total number slain in tins con- 
test. The words of Mr. Gordon are: "I 
have reason to think, more men than fell in 
battle were slain in Cold blood. No quarter 
was given to persons taken prisoners as 
rebels, with or without arms." * 

Iii the meantime, events still more serious 
were taking place in Wexford County. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

1798. 

Wexford a Peaceable County — Lord Castlereagh's 
Jii'lieiuiis Measures — Catholics Driven out of Yeo- 
manry Corps — Treatment of Mr. Fitzgerald — 
United Irish in Wexford— The Priests Oppose that 
Bociety How they were Requited -Miles Byrne — 
Torture in Wexford— Orangemen in Wexford 
North Cork Militia Hay's Account of the Ferocity 
of the Magistrates— Massacre of Carney Father 
John Murphy— Burning of his Chapel — Miles 
Byrne's Lccountof First Rising Oulard -Storm of 
Eoniscorthy— Wexford Evacuated by the King's 
Troops Occupied by Insurgents All the County 
now m In- irrei lion Estimated Numbers of Insur- 
gents—Population of the I "imty. 

\V; XF0RD was one of the most peaceable 
counties in Ireland. Protestants and Cath- 

• Gordon's History of the Rebellion. 



olics lived there in greater harmony than 
elsewhere ; and had united in forming yeo- 
manry corps for defence of the country after 
the attempted invasion under Hoche. The 
United Irish organization extended to that 
county us we know from Miles Byrne ; but 
not with such power as in Meath and Kil- 
dare, for the" very reason that the people 
were not, up to that time, subjected to such 
intolerable oppression. In the first months 
of 1798, however, everything was changed. 
Orders were given from the Castle to purify 
the yeomanry corps, by expelling those who 
should not take un oath that they were not 
United Irishmen. The oath was to the ef- 
fect that they were neither United li islam n 
nor Orangemen.; but practically, the meas- 
ure was so executed as to disarm none but 
Catholics, or such Protestants as were 
known to be liberal in their opinions, like 
Antony Perry, of Inch. Miles Byrne (the 
personal memoir of this gallant officer was 
published only in 1863) gives several ex- 
amples : — 

"White, of Pally-Ellis, raised .a foot' 
corps, and got great praise from the Gov- 
ernment, as lie had it equipped and armed 
when Hoche's expedition came to Bantry 
Bay in 1796. 

" If this corps was one of the first that 
was ready to march, it was also one of the 
first to be disbanded and disarmed, for it 
was composed principally of Catholics, 
though the officers were Protestants. 

"The corps of yeomanry cavalry, com- 
manded by Beaumont, of Hyde Park, in 
which Antony Perry, of Inch, or Perry 
Mount, and Ford, of Ballyfad, were officers, 
refused to take any oath respecting their 
being Orangemen, or United Irishmen ; at 
the same time they resolved not to resign, 
but to continue their service as usual. Soon 
after, the corps was ordered to assemble, 
when n regiment of militia was in wailing, 
and the suspected members were surroun led 
and disarmed ; that is to say, all the Cath- 
olics, which were about one-half of the 
corps, with Perry and one or two other 
Protestants, being considered too liberal to 
make part ol a Corps that was henceforward 
to be upon the true Protestant, or Orange 
system." 
| Edward Fitzgerald, of New Park, give* 



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HISTORY 01T IRELAND. 



a sample of the proceedings which were 
carried on throughout the comity from the 
moment of the formidable proclamation of 
martial law, He writes: (See Madden.) 

"Upon the 28th of April, 1198, my 
house, offices, and grounds, which are verj 
considerable, were taken possession of by 
120 cavalry and infantry, and L2 officers, 
who possessed themselves of all kinds of 
property within and without, and whai they 
could not consume senl to Athy barracks. 
They continued in possession about thirty 
days, until the press of the times obliged 
them to change their position, Upon the 
approach of the military, my wife and fami- 
ly, of course, were obliged to By my habita- 
tion, without theshortesl previous intimation, 
ami 1 was sent, under a military escort, to 
Dublin, where, after an arrest of ninety-one 
days, I was liberated, without the slightest 
specific charge of any kind. At the time 
of ray arrest, 1 commauded as respectable a 
corps of cavalry as any m the kingdom, con- 
taining fifty-six in number, and iiol the 
slightest impropriety was ever attached to 
any of its members. From the time the 
military possessed themselves of my resi- 
dence, the most iuiquitous enormities were 
everywhere practiced upon the people of tho 
country ; their houses pluudered, their stock 
of all kinds seized, driven to the barracks, 
ami sold by auction ; their persons arrested, 
nnil sentenced to lie dogged, at the arbitrary 
will iif the most despicable wretches of the 
community, A man of the name of Thomas 
■James Liu w son, of the lowest order, the of- 
I'ul of a dunghill, had every person tortured 
and stripped, as liis cannibal will directed, 

lie would seal himself in a chair in the cen- 
tre of n ring formed around the triungles, 
the miserable victims kneeling under the tri 
angle until they would be spotted over with tht 
Hood of the others. People'tif the name of 
Crouiu were thus treated, tie made the 
father kneel under the sun while Bogging, 
the son uuder the father, &e." 

Why such a demoniac system was intro- 
duced amongst a peaceful people save to 
goad them into revolt it is quite impos- 
sible to comprehend, Thousands of men 
who had avoided the United Irish Society 
bel ire, now begun to join it, The priests 

were Still COUUSOll US patience and subinis 



shin, ami doing all in their power to make 
the people deliver up their pikes ami other 
weapons. Miles Byrne Bays: "The priests 
did everything in their power to stop the 
progress of the association of United Irish- 
men; particularly poor Father John Red- 
mond, who refused to hear the confe-siou 
of any of the United Irish, and turned them 
away from his knees. lie was ill-rei|iiited 

afterwards for his great y.eal and devotion 
to the enemies of his country ; for after the 
insurrection was all over, Earl M-otiiitiiorris 
brought him in a prisoner to the British 
Camp at (iorey, with a rope about his neck, 
hung him lip to B tree, and tired a brace of 

bullets through his body. Lord Mounfnor- 
ris availed himself of this opportunity to 
show his 'loyally,' lor he was rather su - 
pected on account of not, being at the head 

of his corps when the insurrection broke 

out in his neighborhood. Both Redmond 

and the parish priest, Father Frank CttVa- 
nagh, Were mi the best terms with Karl 

Mountnorris, dining frequently with him at, 
his sent, Camolen Park; which place Father 
Redmond prevented being plundered during 
the insurrection. This was the only pari he 
had taken in the struggle," 

Various kinds of torture were now habit- 
ually applied by the magistrates to extort 
confession of the two great crimes— having 
arms, or being United Irish; and the 
mi rest suspicion, or pretence of suspicion, 
was quite enough to cause a man to tic half- 
hanged, Bogged almost, to dentil, or tilled 
with u pitch cap, Edward Hay gives a 
good general account of the methods by 

which the \Yc.\ford people were at last 

maddened to revolt : — 

"The Orange system made no public 
appearance in the County of Wexford until 
tin- beginning of April, on the arrival there 
of the Ninth Cork militia, commanded by 
Lord hkiugsborough, In this regiment 
there were a great number of Orangemen, 

who were zealous in making pi'OSelyteS and 
displaying their devices liaviug medals and 

Orange ribbons triumphantly pendant from 

their bosoms. It is believed that previous 
lo this period there were but ivw actual 

Oraugemen in the county ; but. soon after, 

those whose principles inclined that way, 
bndiug themselves supported by ihe inih- 



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tary, joined the association, and publicly 
avowed themselves by assuming the devices 
of tin' fraternity, 

" It is said that the North Cork regiment 
were also the inventors (bnt they oertainly 
were the introducers) of pitch-cap torture 
into the County of Wexford. Any person 
having his hair cul short, (and, therefore, 
called a croppy, by which appellation the 
soldiery designated an United Irishman,) 
on being pointed out by some loya] neigh- 
bor, was immediately seized and brought 
into a guard-house, where caps, either of 
coarse linen <>r strong brown paper, be- 
smeared inside with pitch, were always kept 
ready for Bervice, The unfortunate victim 
had one of these, well heated, compressed 
tin his head, and when judged of a proper 
degree of eoolness, so thai it could not be 
easily pulled off, the sufferer was turned out 
amidst the horrid acclamations of the merci- 
less torturers ; and to the view of vast num- 
bers of people, who generally crowded 
about t In; guard-house door, attracted by 
the cries of the tormented. Many of those 
persecuted in this manner experienced addi- 
tional anguish from the melted pitch trick- 
ling into their eyes. This afforded a rare 
addition of enjoyment to these keen sports- 
men, who reiterated their horrid yells of ex- 
altation on the repetition of the Beveral neei- 
dents to which their game was liable from 
being turned out ; for, in the confusion and 
hurry of escaping from the ferocious hands 
of these nunc than savage barbarians, the 
blinded victims frequently fell, or inadver- 
tently dashed their heads against the walls 
in their way. The pain of disengaging this 
pitched cap from the head must be uexl to 
intolerable. The hair was often torn out by 
the roots, and not uufrequently parts of the 
skin wore so scalded or blistered as to ad- 
hero and i • off along with it. The terror 

and dismay that these outrages occasi 'd 

are inconceivable. A sergeant of the North 
Cork, nicknamed Tnm the Devil, was most 
ingenious in devising new methods of tor- 
ture. Moistened gunpowder was frequently 
rubbed into the liair cul close, and then set 
on fire. S , while shearing for this pur- 
pose, had the tips of their cars snipped off. 
Sometimes an entire ear, and often both 
ears were completely Cut off , and many lost 




part of their noses during the like prepara- 
tion. But, strange to tell, these atrocities 

were publicly practi 1 without the least 

reserve, in open day ; and no magistrate or 
officer ever interfered, lint shamefully con- 
nived at this extraordinary mode of quieting 
the people I Some of the miserable suffer- 
ers on these shocking occasi6ns, or some of 
their relations or friends, actuated by a prin- 
ciple of retaliation, if not of revenge, cut 
short the hair of several persons, whom they 
either considered as enemies, or suspected 

of having pointed them out as objects for 
such desperate treatment. 

"This was done with a view that those 
active citizens should fall in for a little ex- 
perience of the like discipline, or to make 
the fashion of short, hair so general that it 
might no longer be a mark of party distinc- 
tion, females were also exposed to tin: 

grossest insults from these military ruffians. 
Many women had their pel ticoals, handker- 
chiefs, caps, ribbons, and all parts of their 
dress that exhibited a. shade of green, (con- 
sidered the national color of Ireland,) torn 
oil', and their ears assailed by the most vile 
and indecent ribaldry. This was a circum- 
stance so unforeseen, and, of course, so little 
provided against, that many women of en- 
thusiastic loyally suffered outrage in this 
manner. 

"The proclamation of the County of 
Wexford having given greater scope to the 
ingenuity of magistrates to devise means of 
quelling all symptoms of rebell mi, as well as 
of using every exertion to procure discov- 
eries, they soon fell to the burning of houses 
wherein pikes, or other offensive weapons, 
were discovered, n atter how brought 

there ; but they did UOt Stop here, for Hi" 

dwellings of suspected persons, and those 

from which any of the inhabitants were 
found lo lie absent at. night, were also con 

suuieil. The circumstance of absence from 
the houses very generally prevailed through- 
out the country, although there were I lie 
strictest, orders forbidding it. This was 

occasioned at first, as was before observed, 

from upprehensi f tlic Orangemen, but 

afterwards proceeded from the actual expe- 
rience of torture by the people fr the 

yi ten and magistrates. Some, too, aban. 

doned their houses lor fear of being whipped, 



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if, ou being apprehended, confession satisfac- 
tory to t he magistrates could neither be 
given or extorted ; and this infliction many 
persons seemed to fear more than death 
itself. Many unfortunate men, who were 
taken in their houses, were Strung up, as it 
were to be hanged, but were let down now 
and then to try it strangulation would oblige 
them to become informers. After these and 
A the like experiments, several persons lan- 
T ', finished for some time, and at length per- 
ished in consequence of them. Smiths ami 
carpenters, whose assistance was considered 
indispensable in the fabrication of pikes, 

were pointed out on evidence of their trades 

as the first and fittest objects of torture. 
Hut the sagacity of some magistrates be- 
came at length so acute, from habil and ex- 
ercise, that they discerned an United Irish- 
man even at the first glance I Au<\ their 
zeal never suffered any person whom they 
designed to honor with such distinction to 
puss oil' without convincing proof of their 
attention 

" Mr. Hunter Gowan had for many years 
distinguished himself by his activity in ap- 
prehending robbers, for which he was re- 
warded with a pension of JU100 per annum. 
Now exalted to the rank of a magistrate, 
and promoted to be captain of a corps of 
yeomanry, he was zealous in his exertions to 
inspire the people about Gorey with dutiful 
submission to the magistracy and a respect- 
ful awe of the yeomanry. On a public day 
in the week preceding the insurrection, the 
town of CJorcy beheld the triumphal entry 
of Mr. Gowan, at the head of his corps, 
with his sword drawn and a human finger 
stuck ou the point of it. 

"With this trophy he inarched into the 
town, parading up and down the streets 
several times, so that there was not a per- 
son in Gorey who did not witness this exhi- 
bition ; while in the meantime the triumph- 
ant corps displayed all the devices of Orange- 
men. After the labor and fatigue of the 
day, Mr. Gowan and his men retired to a 
public house to refresh themselves, and, like 
true blades vf game, their punch was stirred 
about with the finger that had graeed their 
ovation, in imitation of keen fix hunters, 
who whisk a bowl of punch with the brush 
of a fox before their boozing commences. 



This captain and magistrate afterwards 
went to the house' of Mr. Jones, where his 
daughters were, and while taking a snack 
that was set before him, he bragged of hav- 
ing blooded his corps that day, and that 
they were as staunch blood-hounds as any 
in the world. The daughters begged of 
their father to show* them the croppy finger, 
which he deliberately took from his pocket 
ami handed to them. Misses dandled it 
about with senseless exultation, at which a 
young lady in the room was so shocked that 
she turned about to a window, holding her 
hand to her face to avoid the horrid Bight. 
Mr. Gowan, perceiving this, took the finger 
from his daughters, and archly dropped 
it into the disgusted lady's bosom. She 
instantly fainted, and thus the scene 

ended 1 ! ! 

" Having spent Friday, the 25th of May, 
with Mr. Turner, a magistrate of the coun- 
ty, at Newfort, lie requested me to attend 
him next day at Newpark, the seat of Mr. 
Fitzgerald, where, as the most central pl;*ee, 
he had appointed to meel the people of the 
neighborhood. 1 accordingly met him there 
on Saturday, the 'Jlilh, where he continued 
the whole day administering the oath of 

allegiance to vast numbers of people. A 
certificate was given to every person wdio 
look the oath and surrendered any offensive 
weapon. Many attended who offered to 
lake the oath, and also to depose that they 
were not United Irishmen, and that they 
possessed no arms ol any kind whatever, and 
earnestly asked for certificates. But so 
great was the concourse of these, that, con- 
sidering the trouble of writing them out, it 
was found Impossible to supply them all with 
such testimonials at that time. Mr. Turner, 
therefore, continued to receive surrendered 
arms, desiring such as had none to await a 
more convenient 1 opportunity. Numbers, 
however, still conceiving that they would 
not be secure without a written protection, 
offered ten times their intrinsic value to such 
as had brought pike blades to surrender ; 
but these being unwilling to forego the 
benefit of a written protection for the mo- 
ment, refused to pari with their weapons on 
any other condition. Among the great 
numbers assembled on this occasion were 
some men from the village of Ballaghkeeo, 






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FATHER .iniiN- MriU'IIY. 



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who had the appearance of being more dead 
than alive, from ihe apprehensions they 
were onder of having t 1, 'r houses burned 
or themselves whipped should they return 
home. These apprehensions had been ex- 
cited to tins degree because that, on the 
night of Thursday, the 24th, the Enniscor- 
iliy cavalry, conducted by Mr. Archibald 
Hamilton Jacob, had come to Ballaghkeen; 
but, on hearing the approaching noise, the 
inhabitants run out of their houses, and lied 
into large brakes of furze on ;i Mil imme- 
diately above the village, from whence they 
could hear the cries of one of their neigh- 
bors, who was dragged out <>f his house, 
tied Up to a thorn tree, and while one 
yeoman continued flogging him, another 
was throwing water on his back. The 
groans of the unfortunate sufferer, from the 
stillness of the night, reverberated widely 
through the appalled neighborhood ; and 
the s|iut of execution these men represented 
to have appeared next morning 'as if a pig 
had been killed.'"* 

On the 25th of May was perpetrated the 
iniissacre of Carnew. A large number of 
prisoners had been shut up in the jail of that 
place, on suspicion of being guilty of pos- 
sessing arms, or of knowing some one who 
possessed arms These prisoners were all 
taken out of-the jail and deliberately shot 
in the ball alley, by the yeomen and a party 
of the Antrim militia, in presence of their 
officers.^ 

Father John Murphy was curate of 
Monagcer and Boolevogue. He was a gen- 
tleman of learning and accomplishments, 
having studied in the University of Seville, 
lie had now been resident several years, 
quietly doing the saered duties of his calling, 
enjoying the esteem of all his neighbors, 
and little dreaming that it was to fall to his 
lot to head an insurrection. Miles Byrne, 
who knew him well, narrates with much 
simplicity the story of the good priest's first 
act of war : — 

"The Reverend John Murphy, of the 
parish of Monageer and Boolevogue, was a 
worthy, simple, pious man, and one of those 
Roman Catholic priests who used the great- 
est exertions and exhortations to oblige the 
people to surrender their pikes and fire-arms 

• Edward Hay. t Hay, Madden. 



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of every description. As soon as the cow- 
ardly yeomanry thought that all the arms 
were given np, and that there was no fur* 
ther risk, they took courage, and set out, 
on Whit Saturday, the 26th of May, 1798, 
burning and destroying all before them. 
Poor Father John, seeing his chapel and his 
house, and many others of the parish, all on 
lire, and in several of them the inhabitants 
consumed in the flames, and that no man 
seen in colored clothes could escape the I'm y 
of the yeomanry, betook himself to the next 
wood, where he was soon surrounded by the 
unfortunate people who had escaped ; all 
came beseeching his reverence to tell them 
what was to become of them and their poor 
families, lie answered them abruptly, that 
they had better die courageously in the field 
than be butchered in their houses ; that, for 
his own part, if he had any brave men to 
join him, he was resolved to sell his life 
dearly,, and prove to those cruel monsters 
that they should not continue their murders 
and devastations with impunity. All an- 
swered and cried out that they were deter- 
mined to follow his advice, and to do what- 
ever he ordered. ' Well, then,' he replied, 
' we must, when night conies, get armed 
the best way we can, with pitch-forks and 
other weapons, and attack the Camolen yeo- 
man cavalry on their way back to Earl 
Mountnorris, where they will return to pass 
the night, after satisfying their savage rage 
on the defenceless country people.' 

" Father John's plan was soon put in ex- 
ecution. He went to the high road by ^Sv^^V^ 
which the corps was to return, left a few //jArSl 



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men near a house, with instructions to place 
two cars across the road the moment the 
last of the cavalry had passed, and at a 
short distance from thence, half a quarter 
of a mile, he made a complete barricade 
across the highway, and then placed all those 
brave fellows who followed him behind a 
hedge along the road-side; and in this position 
he waited to receive this famous yeomanry 
cavalry, returning from being glutted with 
all manner of crimes during this memorable 
day, the 26th of May, 1198. 

"About nine o'clock at night, this corps, 
riding in great speed, encountered the above- 
mentioned obstacle on the road, and were at 
the same moment attacked from front to 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




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ither John and his brave men, 
with their pitch-forks. The cavalry, after 
discharging their pistols, got no time to re- 
load them, or to make much use of their 
sabres. In short, they were literally lifted 
out of their saddles, and fell dead under 
their horses' feet. Lieutenant Booky, who 
had the command in the absence of Earl 
Mountnorris, was one of the first killed ; he 
was a sanguinary villain, and it seemed a 
just judgment that befell them all. But, be 
that as it may, Father John and his men 
were much elated with their victory, and 
getting arms, ammunition, and horses by it, 
considered themselves formidable, and able 
at least to beat the cruel yeomanry in every 
encounter. They marched at once to Ca- 
molen Park, the residence of Lord Mount- 
norris, where they got a great quantity of 
arms of every description, and which had 
been taken from the country people for 
months before ; and even the carabines be- 
longing to the corps, and which had not 
been distributed, waiting the arrival of the 
Earl from Dublin. 

"During the night, and the nest day, 
Whit Sunday, the 27th of May, the people 
flocked iu to join Father John's standard, 
on hearing of his success ; and as soon as 
the news was known in Gorey, the troops 
took fright and abandoned the town, letting 
the prisoners go where they pleased ; but 
finding that Father John had marched in 
another direction, they returned and re- 
sumed their persecutions as before ; they 
again arrested great numbers and had them 
placed in the market-house loft, ready to be 
butchered the moment the insurgents made 
their appearance before the town. Poor 
Perry was amongst the prisoners, aud iu a 
dreadful state, having the skin as well as 
the hair burned off his head. Esmond Cane 
was arrested that day and made a pris- 
oner." 

Father John might now have marched 
Into Wicklow County without much opposi- 
tion, "but," continues Miles Byrne, "he 
thought it would be more advisable to raise 
the whole County of Wexford first, and get 
possession of the principal towns. In conse- 
quence of this decision, on Whit Sunday, 
the 27th of May, he marched with all his 
forces, then amounting to four or five thou- 



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sand men, to Oulard Hill, a distance of ten |/\A/\ 

miles from Wexford, and five from Ennis- 
corthy. He encamped on this hill for the 
purpose of giving an opportunity to the un- 
fortunate people who were hiding to come "XT) r 
and join him. He soon perceived several 
corps of yeomanry cavalry iu sight, but all 
keeping at a certain distance from the hill, 
waiting until the infantry from Wexford 
arrived to make the first attack. 

" Shortly after, he saw a largo force on 
the march, flanked by some cavalry, and as 
soon as they began to mount the hill, Father 
John assembled his men and showed them 
the different corps of cavalry that were 
waiting, he said, 'to see us dispersed by the 
foot troops, to fall on us and to cut us in 
pieces ; but let us remain firm together and 
we shall surely defeat the infantry, and then 
we shall have nothing to dread from the 
cavalry, as they are too great cowards to 
venture into the action.' All promised to 
conform to his instructions. ' Well, then,' 
he rejoined, ' we must march against tlie 
troops that are mounting the hill, and when 
they are deployed and ready to begin tin 
attack, we must retreat precipitately back 
to where we are, aud then throw ourselves 
down behind this old ditch,' pointing to a 
boundary on the top of the hill. All his 
instructions were executed as he had or- 
dered. 

"The King's troops were commanded by 
Colonel Foote aud Major Lombard, and as 
soon as they came within about two musket- 
shots of the insurgents, they deployed aud 
prepared for action, but became enraged 
when they saw the insurgents retreating 
back to the top of the hill ; however, they 
followed quickly, knowing that the hill 
was completely surrounded by the several 
corps of yeomanry cavalry, and that it was 
impossible for the insurgents to escape be- 
fore they came in with them. 

"Father John allowed the infantry to 
come within half musket-shot of the ditch, •</ 

and then a few men on each flank aud in the 
centre stood up, at the sight of which the 
whole line of infantry fired a volley. In- 
stantly, Father John and all his men sallied 
out aud attacked the soldiers, who were 
iu the act of re-charging their arms; aud 
although they made the best fight they 



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OF KNNISCOKTIIV. 



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could with their muskets and bayonets, they 
wnc soon overpowered and completely de- 
feated by the pikemen, or rather by the men 
with pitch-forks and Other weapons; for 

very few had pikes at this battle, on ac- 
count of naving given them up by the ex- 
hortations and advice of the priests. 

"Of this formidable expedition, which 
was sent from Wexford on the 27th of .Max 
to exterminate the insurgents, very few re- 
turned to bring the woeful tidings of their 
defeat, and the glorious victory obtained by 
the people over their cruel tyrants. Of the 
North Cork party, that had been the 
scourge of the country for several months 
previous, and so distinguished for making 
Orangemen, hanging, picketing, putting on 
pitch-cups, &c, .Major Lombard, the Hon- 
orable Captain I)c Courcy, Lieutenants Wil- 
liams, Ware, Barry, and Ensign Kcogh, 
with all the privates but two, were left dead 
on the field of battle. In short, none 
escaped except Colonel Foote, a sergeant, 
a drummer, and the two privates mentioned 
above. The insurgents had but three killed 
and five or six wounded. The Shilmalier 
Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Lehunt, as 
well as the different corps of cavalry that 
surrounded the hill during the battle, and 
which did not take any part in the action, 
in their precipitate retreat to Wexford, En- 
niscorthy, and Gorey, shot every man they 
met on the road ; went to the houses, called 
the people to their doors and put them to 
death ; many who were asleep shared the 
same fate, their houses being mostly burned. 

"Solomon Richards, commander of the 
Enniscorthy Cavalry, and Hawtry White, 
who commanded all the troops of cavalry 
-t ni from Gorey to exterminate the people, 
surpassed description. They little thought, 
however, that for every one they put to 
death in cold blood, they were sending 
thousands to join the insurgent camp. 

"Father John and his little army now 
became quite Unshed with their last victory. 
Seeing the King's troops flying and escaping 
in every direction, they were at a loss to 
know which division they should pursue ; 
they, however, (having as yet no cavalry,) 
marched from Oulard Hill and encamped 
for the night on Carrigrew Hill. Next 
morning, the 2Mb of .May, at seven o'clock, 




they marched to Camolen, and from thence 
to Ferns. Not meeting with any of the 
King's troops in this town to oppose them, 
and having learned that they had retreated 
to Gorey and to Enniscorthy, Father John 
resolved at, once to attack this last town, in 
order to afford a better opportunity to the 
brave and unfortunate country people to 
escape from their hiding places and come to 
join his standard, he and his little army 
crossed the Slaney by the bridge at Scara- 
walsh ; anil certainly this skillful manoeuvre 
or countermarch had the happiest result ; 
for, immediately on crossing the river, he 
was joined by crowds." 

On their arrival before Enniscorthy, the 
insurgents amounted to the number of 7,000 
men, 800 of whom were armed with guns, 
which they had seized at Camolen almost 
immediately after they had been sent to 
that place by the Earl of Mountnorris. 
About one o'clock on the 28th of May, 
Enniscorthy was attacked by this vast mul- 
titude, and after a vigorous defence by the 
comparatively small garrison, was left in 
possession of the insurgents. The garrison 
retreated and fell back on Wexford ; they 
lost above ninety of their men, and the town 
was on fire in several places. They were 
attended by a confused number of unfor- 
tunate loyal inhabitants, but were not pur- 
sued by the insurgents, who might have 
easily cut off their retreat. 

To disperse the insurgents, if possible, 
without battle or concession, or perhaps to 
divert their attention and retard their pro- 
gress, an expedient was essayed by Captain 
Boyd, of the Wexford Cavalry. This offi- 
cer had, in consequence of a requisition to 
that purpose of the sheriff and other gentle- 
men, on the 25th and 27th, from informa- 
tion or .suspicion of treasonable designs, ar- 
rested Beauchamp Bageual Harvey, of 
Bargy Castle, John Henry Colelough, of 
Ballyteigue, and Edward Fitzgerald, of 
New Park, all three respectable gentlemen 
of the County of Wexford. Visiting them 
in prison on the 29th, Captain Boyd agreed 
with these gentlemen, that one of tliem 

should go to the rebels at Enniscorthy, and 
endeavor to persuade them to disperse and 
return to their homes ; but would not give 
authority to promise any terms to the in- 



>3 



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814 



IIIHTtiKY <U'' [UEI.AND. 



inrgents In case of submission, Colclough, 
iii the request of Mr Harvey, agreed to go, 
mi condition of his being accompanied by 
Mi Fitzgerald <•» the arrival of these 
two gentlemen al Elnnlscorthy, about four 

in the afternoon of the so day, they fo I 

the Insurgent! In a state of confusion, dlitraol 
iii in their councils, and uudotermlnod In any 
jilini of operation ; some proposing to al 
tack Newtownburry, others Ross, others 
Wexford, othors to remain In their presoul 
|iiih( s ; the greator number to maroh home 
for the defenoe of their houses against 
( IrnngomoUi 

1 1 was but 1 1n- resolution of a moment to 
march In a body to attack Wexford, Mi 
Fitzgerald they detained In the camp, and 
Mr Colclough they Bent back to announce 
their hosl lie Intentions, 

Mi Colclough arrived In Wexford early 
in the evening, and waited In the Bull Ring 
in small square in the town bo denominated) 
until the officers and other gentlemen in the 
place liml there assembled, when ha In 
formod them, In a verj audible voice, from 

mi hoc aback, thai having goi it, accord 

in- 1 , to their directions, i" the insurgents on 
Vinegar Hill, he found, as he hod already 
suggested before liis departure, that he | «• >-s 
lesBod no Influence with tho people, who liml 
ordered him t" return and announce their 
determination of marching to the attack of 
Wexford ; adding thai they had detained 
Mr, Fitzgerald, Mr, Colclough then re- 
quo tod lo be Informed, ii ii were Intended 
to make further trial of Ins services, or to 
require his longer attendance, as otherwise 
they must be Bonslbla how eager he mu I 
iir to rcllove the anxiety of his family by 
his presence, He was then eutreated to 
endeavor to maintain tranquillity In lii^ own 

in i ■■ iiii.H I i, w hlch ba\ lug promlsod to 

tin, ns much us in Ids power, he called al ilu> 
jiul in visii Mr. Harvey, with whom he 
agrood (according to the oompaot with 
t laptaln Boyd | to return next daj and toko 
In place in tho jail, and then set "it i lirough 
tho barony of Forth, for liis own dwelling 
hi Bullytelgue, diitaul about ton miles from 
Woxfordi 

t'liiilv iii the morning of tho 20th, Colonel 
Maxwell, of the Donegal militia, wiiii two 
hundred men of his regiment and a Bis 




pounder, arrivod in Wexford from Duncan- 
n. hi Fort, dispatched by General Fuwcett, 
who had beon apprised of the Insurrection 
on the 21th, by Captain Knox, an officer 
sent in escort Sergeant Stanley, a Judge of 
i Ize, on bis way to Monster, This rein> 
forcement being Insufficient, an express was 
sent from the Mayor of Wexford to the 
Qenornl, requesting an additional force ; ho 
expeditiously returned with an exhilarating 
answer, that tho General himself would com* 
rnonco his march for Wexford on tho same 
eve g, from Duncannon, "iiii the Thir- 
teenth Regiment, four companies of the 
Meal ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 n, mill b party of artillery " iili 
two howitzers, On the receipt of this In- 
telligence, Colonel Maxwell, leaving the 
live passos into the town guarded hy the 
yeomei I North < lork militia, took post 

M Mil lu> nun on llir Windmill I 1,11 nliove 

tlie town, ni daj break on the following 
morning, the BOth, wiili the resolution to 
march against the enemy on ilie arrival of 
Qeneral Fuwcet t's army, 

That General liml marched according to 
his promise, on the evening of the 29th ; but 
hultiug at Taghmon, seven miles from Wex- 
ford, he had sent forward a dotachmenl of 
eight} oight men, Including eighteen of the 
artillery, with the howitzers, under the com- 
mand of Captain , Vilnius, of the Month 
militia, This detachment was Intercepted 
ni 1 1 \ in i Iir moruiug oi' i lie BOth, by the hi- 
snrgents, undor the Throe Rocks, which 
they hud occuplod »s a military station, l>c- 
Ing about throe miles from Wexford j the 
howitzers were taken and almost the whole 
part v ■ lain * 

Colonel Maxwell, Informed of the de- 
struction of Captain Adams' detachment, 
by two officers who had escapod the slaugh- 
ter, advanced immediately with what forces 
he could collect, with design to retake the 
howitzerB, and cttopernto with Geuoral Faw- 
ceil, of whoso retreat ho bad no suspicion, 

' iiie following , .iii, mi :i, , ,'uni vru given of thts 

all. in 

" Dublin i'i'nr,.ii 2d, L708, 

■• \ ..'••> 1 1 ■ i , have boon rtoolvod from Wojor-Qon- 

,'i ni i;h in,,', ni Ni'\ li.'MH, etatlag that M.ii"i' i;,'n- 

i I .il I' .1 H 01 H ll i\ '":' 1 1 1, Iir 1 1,', I \\ I III II .',,111 1 * : 1 1 1 \ ,,| (In, 

Men t h K'i'iiii, nl lioiii liiiiKiiiiiioii I'', mi, thil hiiiiiII 

foj'ofl wanurroundari bv n vorj largo bodj botwoon 

1 i "liiiinii mill \\<"it,,i,l. mi, I ,ltli'iilt',l. I.i'inriil 
FilWOOtt ill, -el,, I Inn o In. it to I'llluaiitiou 1'ViL." 






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WKXI'OKI) ICVAOI miii in I in. KINCt H TUoni'H. 



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but mm iii . i, ii ii.iiiK oxposod bj Hi'' 

retreat mi .11 i iii.. Tugl ii cavalry, 

inn! tin- onomy making a motion to Burrouud 
ii.m ho retired to Woxford, wttU the I" ol 
l.ii'iiiriiniii Colonel Watsou killed, aud two 
privates " ouudod 

Everything now wore the aspoot of a 

el n , .I |n i .id- con tornatlon, Some 

\ . ..iii.ii and Bupplomontarios, posted noarlj 
oppo ii'- the Jull, were heard continually to 

threaten to put nil the prist ra to doath, 

« hicl i led the attonllon of the Jallet' 

to proteel his charge, thai ho bnrrleudod 
tlio door, and delivered up tho Ivy to Mr 

li, h\i\ Sum i<>'ist rnti's were admitted 

i.i , , \ii ii.u \rv in tho Jail, and, at tliolr 
most urgenl oulrealies, ho wrote the follow 
in notice to tin- Insurgonl 

" | have boon treated in prison with nil 
no [bio humanity, and am now at liborl y 
I have procured tho liberty of nil tho prut 
oners, 11 von pretoud i" Christian charity, 
il.i ii.,i commit massacre, or burn tho pro 
I ii it \ ni the Inhabitants, and spare your 
pi era 1 lives, " B, It ll ua i \ 

•• 1 1, dnuday, May BOM, 1108 " 

<' solor Richards, vmiIi ins brothor, 

then undertook to unuouueo tho surrender 
of tho town in tho In ui gouts, » hose camp 
tlir\ reached In safotj , I hough clad In full 
aniform, Scarcely had those deputies set 
mil upon their mission, wlton all the military 
eorp . n pat I ol tho Vt oxford Infuntrj under 
Oaptaln Hughes onl) excepted, made tho 
I,, i of tbolr way out of town In whatovor 
,in oi lion i hoy Imagined thoy could Qnd 
safety, without acquainting tholr neighbors 
on dutj of their Intention . The principal 

Inhabitants, wl i Ices had boen uc 

ceptcd nl for the defence of tho town, wore 
mostly Catholics, and, according i" tho 
prevulont system, wore subjeol to tho greal 
est Insults and taunts. They were nl 
ways placed In front of tho po its, and cau 
tloued in behave well, or that death should 

be i ho i cqnotico, A.ocord ly, po 

win' placed behind to koop them to their 

duty, and I he e » o " atchful of their 

charge, that the) would not oven |» I 

ii,. in i,, turn about their head The i wore 
tin' ni in. ,l Inhabitants left at thole po >. 
ui,. in, I, hi,, l by their offlcors, aud uotuallj 



•5 



i ' 



I 



ignorunl of the Sight "I tho soldiery, until 
nil pos ilblo means of rotroating wore cut off. 
G l >< m tho approach "i tbo Insurgent , I ho 
confusion aud dismay wero oxcos Ive, tho 
few remaining offlcors and privuirs inn mn || H.? 
fusedly through the town, threw off tholr 
uniforms, aud hid themselves whorever their 
inn's suggostod, Some ran for boats to 
convoy them off, and throw their arms and 
ammunition into the'Wator, Some, from an 
in ufflctoncy of men's clothos, assumed fe 
male attiro for tlie purpo le "i dl gul a 
Extreme confusion, tumult, and panic wore 
everywhere exhibited The North Cork 
regiment, on quitting tho barracks, hml m>i 
ilirin mi Hro, imi tho lire was soou after |»m, 

mil 

Iii ilu' moantlmo, Mr, Richards having 
ni rivod ni i ho Tin 1 '' Rock , in idu ll known 
to the in urgent chiefs, that the) wero do- 
putod i<> Inform tho people thul tho town 
would bo surrondorod to thorn, on condition 
ol {in lug llvos and properties ; those tei ihb, 
they were Informotl, would not be cotnpllod 

u ilh, null- . ilia miii'. mill iiiiiniunil mn of tllQ 

: ..ii 1 1 .mi iinr al io surrondorod, Mr, Loftus 
Rlchnrds wus, therefore, dutaiuod us u hos- 
tage, ninl Oouusulor Richards and Mr 
Fitzgerald wore sent back to tho town, to 
settle and arrange I ho art icle i ol capltula 
imn Those gentlemon, on tholr arrival, to 
tholr astonl ihuiout, I'uuud tho place abitti 
donod by tho military A multiludo of 
in ni .,ni was Ju il i cod) in pour in aud 
taka uncondil ioual poi i ion of tlio tow n, 
ii was thoreforo thought neci m to treat ^N 

h iih them, in order to proven! tho i 

qtioncos opprehouded rrom such a tumul 
tuary luflux of people, Dr Jacob, then 
Mayor of tho town and Oaptaln of tho 
Woxford Infantry, entreated Mr Fitzgerald 
in announce to the people rushing In, that 
the town was actually surrendered ; aud to 
ii i ovon argument that his prudonce might 
suggost in make their ontrj us poauoablo as 
po [bio Mr Fitzgerald complied, aud In- 

Btantly ofter this com ication, thousands 

of people pourod Into the town, over tho 
wooden bi klgo, hominy and exhibiting all 
il lr iii.ii L . ol i'..ini iguiii nn. i \ Ivtorious 
exultation, 'I In ) Hi - proceeded i" the 
i ni, n i, ii , ,i all the pi i onei . and Insl iti d 
that Mr. llarvo} should becomo their oonv 



» 











31G 



HIST0KY OF IRELAND. 



m 



& 




mander. All the houses in town, not aban- 
doned by the inhabitants, now became 
decorated with green boughs, and other em- 
blematic symbols. The doors were univer- 
sally thrown open, and the most liberal 
offers made of spirits and drink, which, how- 
ever, were not as freely accepted, until the 
persons offering them had first drank them- 
selves, as a proof that the liquor was not 
poisoned — a report having prevailed to that 
effect. 

The insurgents being in possession of the 
town, several of the yeomen, having tin own 
ofif their uniforms, affected, with all the 
signs and emblems of the United Irishmen, 
to convince them of their unfeigned cordial- 
ity and friendship ; those who did not throw 
open their doors with oilers of refreshment 
and accommodation to the insurgents, suf- 
fered by plunder, their substance being con- 
sidered as enemy's property. The house of 
Captain Boyd was a singular exception. It 
was, though not deserted, pillaged. 

Those troops who had Bed from Wexford 
signalized themselves in their retreat by 
plundering and devastating the country ; by 
burning the cabins and shooting the peas- 
ants in their progress; and thus they aug- 
mented the number and rage of the insur- 
gents. These excesses were seen from the 
insurgents' station at the Three Rocks, and 
it was with extreme difficulty that the en- 
raged multitude were hindered by their 
chiefs from rushing down upon Wexford, 
ami taking summary vengeance of the town 
and its inhabitants. 

The whole County of Wexford was now 
in open insurrection. Perhaps, it would be 
more correct to say that the people had 
taken to the field because their houses were 
mostly burned down, and had collected 
themselves into masses, with such poor 
arms as they hail for their common protec- 
tion. The aggregate numbers of persons, 
whether insurgents or fugitives, with their 
crouds of women and children, far exceeded 
the numbers of lighting men that the county 
could furnish. The population of Wexford 
at that time did not much, if at all, exceed 
one hundred and fifty thousand persons.* 



* In 1841, it was 202,033. In 1851, it was 180,159.- 
27iom'« Almanac. 



The men who were properly of fighting age, 
therefore, were not more than thirty thou- 
sand. Sir Jonah Barrington has estimated 
the whole number of those who rose in this 
county at thirty-five thousand ; but even 
to attain this amount, there must have been 
counted many thousands of old men, women, 
ami children, besides many thousands more 
who were unarmed, or only half-armed. 
These straggling multitudes, then, without 
camp equipage, or accoutrements, or artil- 
lery, (except a few ship-gnus, oot mouuted, 
ami some captured field-pieces, ) were now 
committed to a desperate struggle against 
the force of a powerful empire, well supplied 
with everything, and led by veteran gen- 
erals. The only wonder, to those who read 
this narration, will be, not that they were 
finally overpowered, but that they achieved 
such successes, as for a time they certainly 
did. If the other thirty-one counties had 
done as well as Wexford, there would have 
mcii that year an end to British dominion. 






M. 



V, 



h 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

1798. 

Camp on Vinegar Hill— Actions at Ballycannoo — At 
Newtownbarry — Tubberneering— Fall of Walpole 
— Two Columns — Bagenal Harvey Commands insur- 
gents— Summons New Ross to Surrender Battle 

of New Roi — Slaughter of Pris rs -Retaliation 

— Scullabogue — Bagenal Harvey Shocked by Affair 
of SouUabogue Resigns Command— Father Philip 
Roche General— Fight at Arklow — Claimed as a 

Victory by King's Troops— A unit of it by Miles 

Byrne — The Insurgents Execute some Loyalists in 
Wexford Town — Dixon — Retaliation— Proclamation 
by "People of Wexford "—Lord Kingsborough a 
Prisoner — Troops Concentrated round Vinegar Hill 
— Battle of Vinegar Hill— Enniscorthy and Wexford 
Recovered— Military Executions— Ravage of the 
Country Chiefs Executed in Wexford Treatment 
of Women— Outrages in the North of the County- 
Fate of Father John Murphy's I tolumn - Of Antony 
Perry's — Combat at Ballyellis — Miles Byrne's Ac- 
count of it — Extermination of Ancient Britons — 
Character of Wexford Insurrection— Got up by the 
Government. 

While the insurgents were holding the 
town of Wexford, two large "encampments" 
id' tin in were formed, one at Carrigrcw llil 
the other at Carrickbyrne, within six miles 
of the town of New Koss, situated on the 
arge river Nore, and commanding the 
main passage into the County of Kilkenny. 
Their principal headquarters was still at 




m 



<h, 



Vinegar Hill, close by Enniscorthr, situated 
on the Slaney. They made some rongh en- 
trenchments round i his hill, and placed a 
few pins in position there. They then star 
tioned a large garrison in the town, which 
was relieved every day l>y a fresh party 
from thf camp. Such great numbers of the 
exasperated of the people from the adjacent 
country (locked to their camp that it soon 
consisted of at leasl ten thousand men, wo- 
men, mid children. They posted strong 
picket-guards, sentinels, and videttes in all 
the avenues leading to the town, and for 
some miles round it. They then proceeded 
to destroy the interior of the church of En- 
niscorthy.* 

A body of more than one thousand insur- 
gents, in advancing towards Gorey, on the 
1st of June, had taken possession of a small 
village called Ballycannoo, four miles to the 
south of Gorey, and were proceeding to take 
possession of an advantageous post, called 
Ballymanaan Hill, midway between the vil- 
lage and the town, when they were met. by 
the whole of the small garrison of Gorey, 
and by a steady and well-directed lire the 
people were soon completely routed. This 
victorious hand, on their return to Gorey, 
tired most of the houses at Ballycannoo, and 
entered the town in triumph, with one hun- 
dred horses and other spoil which they had 
taken. In this, as in every other engage- 
ment at the beginning of the rebellion, the 
insurgents elevated their guns too much for 
execution, which accounts for the paucity of 
the slain on the part of the King's troops. 
Ou this occasion three only were wounded, 

and in killed. The insurgents are said 

to have lost above three score. "j" 

This success, coupled with that at New- 

townbarry, gave a momentary cheek to the 
ardor of the people. A party from Vinegar 

ilill Burr led this latter town in such a 

* Thi-i was done strictly in retaliation for the burn- 
ing and wrecking <d Catholic ohapels. There were, 
on thr whole, sixty-nine Catholic chapels destroyed 
during the insurrection ; more than thirty in Wexford 
alone. Plowden. 

i rhe Rev. Mr. Gordon recounts [page 136] an 

rrenoe after the battle, of which bis son was ;i 

witness, which greatly illustrates the slut'- of the 

country at that time: "Two yeomen, i ing to a 

brake or clump ol bu hi . ni i observing a Btnall mo- 
tion, as ii ■ persons were hiding there, one of 

Uiem Bred into it. and the Bhot w:i^ answered by a 
most piteous and loud shriek of a child. The other 



manner that Colonel L'Estrange at first 
abandoned it. After a retreat of about a 
mile, he yielded to the solicitations of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Westenra, and suffered the 
troops to he led back to the succor of a few 
determined loyalists, who had remained in 
the town, and continued a fire from some 
houses. This accidental manoeuvre had all 
the advantages of a preconcerted stratagem. 
The insurgents, who had rushed into the 
street in a confused multitude, totally unap- 
prehensive of the return of the troops, were 
unprepared, anil driven out. of the town with 
the hiss of about two hundred men. J 

On advice received at Newtownbarry of 
the attack intended by the insurgents, an 
express had been sent to Clonegall, two 
miles and a hall distant, ordering the troops 
posted there to march immediately to New- 
townbarry. The comander of these troops, 
Lieutenant Young, of the Donegal militia, 
instead. of marching immediately, spent two 
hours in hanging four prisoners, in spite of 
the urgent remonstrance of an officer of the 
North Cork, who considered these men as 
not deserving death — some of them having 
actually declined to join the insurgents when 
it was fully in their power. Uy this delay, 
and an unaccountably circuitous march — ■ 
three miles longer than the direct road, — 
the troops did not arrive at Newtownbarry 
till alter the action was entirely over. Mr. 
Young, on his arrival at Clonegall, had 
commanded the inhabitants to furnish every 
individual of his soldiers with a feather bed, 

and had, without the least necessity, turned 

Mr. Dereuzy, a brave and loyal gentleman, 
and his children, out of their beds. When 
remonstrances were made to this officer for 
the incessant depredations of his men, his 
answer was : "I am the commanding officer, 
ami damn the croppies." § 

The insurgents had taken post on Corri- 

ye n was then urged hy hi* companion to fire; 

but he, being a gentleman, and less ferocious, in- 
Stead el tiring commanded the concealed persons to 
appear, when a poor woman and eight children, al- 
most miked, em- df win. in was severely wounded, 
came trembling from the brake, where they had Be- 
creteO themselves for safety." 

1 The light in which this conduct of the command- 
ing officer ;it Newtownbarry was Bet forth in the olii- 
. id bulletin, was, thai Ac at first retreated in order 
to ,■■■'!, ct i, is forces. 



h 



X 











HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



P^5/ 



V5 



:V 



graa Hill in great force, where they rest til 
on their arms till the 4th of June. Mean- 
time, the long and anxiously expected army 
under General Luftus arrived at Gorcy. 
The sight of fifteen hundred fine troops, with 
five pieces of artillery, filled the loyalists 
with confidence. The plan was to march 
the army in two divisions, by different roads 
on Corrigrua, and attack the enemy in con- 
junction with other troops. The insurgents 
were in the meantime preparing to quit 
Corrigrua, and to march to Gorey. In- 
formation had been received by the insur- 
gent chiefs of the intended motions of the 
army, and they acted upon it. Both armies 
marched about the same time ; that of the 
insurgents surprised a division under Colonel 
Walpole, at a place called Tubbeniecring. 
The insurgents instantly poured a tremendous 
fire from the fields on both sides of the road, 
and Walpole received a bullet through the 
head early in the action. His troops fled in 
the utmost disorder, leaving their cannon, 
consisting of two six-pounders and a smaller 
piece, in the hands of the people. They 
were pursued as far as Gorey, in their flight 
through which they were galled by the fire 
of some of the insurgents, who had taken 
station in the houses. The loyalists of Go- 
rey once more fled to Arklovv with the 
routed army, leaving all their effects be- 
hind. 

Miles Byrne, who was in this bloody 
action of Tubberneering, (or Clough,) gene- 
rously pays a tribute to the gallantry of the 
unfortunate Walpole. lie says : — 

" It is only justice to the memory of this 
unfortunate man to say that he displayed 
the bravery of a soldier, and fought with 
the greatest perseverance in his critical situ- 
ation ; but he was soon overpowered by our 
men, now so flushed with victory that noth- 
ing could retard their march onward. Wal- 
pole was nearly surrounded by our forces, 
that outflanked him before he fell. We saw 
him lying dead on the road, and he had the 
appearance of having received several gun- 
shot wounds. His horse lay dead beside 
him, with a number of private soldiers 
dead and wounded. His troops now fled in 
great disorder, and could not be rallied : 
they were taken by dozens in the fields and 
on the road to Gorey. After they had 



thrown away their arms, accoutrements, and 
everything to lighten them, they were yet 
overtaken by our pikemen. It was curious 
to see many of them with their coats turned 
inside out. They thought, no doubt, by this 
sign of disaffection to the English that, when 
made prisoners, they would not be injured. 
But this manoeuvre was unnecessary, for I 
never heard of a single instance of a prison- 
er being ill-treated during those days of 
lighting. Our men were in too good-humor 
to be cruel after the victory they had ob- 
tained." 

While Walpole's division was attacked 
by the enemy, General Loftus, being within 
hearing of the musketry, detached seventy 
men — the grenadier company of the Antrim 
militia — across the fields to its assistance ; 
but they were intercepted, and almost all 
killed or taken. The General, still ignorant 
of the fate of Colonel Walpole's division, ami 
unable to bring his artillery across the fields, 
continued his march along the highway, by 
a long circuit, to the field of battle, vvlftjre 
he was first acquainted with the event. For 
some way he followed the insurgents towards 
Gorey, but finding them posted on Gorey 
Hill, from which they fired upon him the 
cannon taken from Colonel Walpole, he re- 
treated to Caruew ; and still, contrary to 
the opinion of most of his officers, thinking 
Caruew an unsafe post, though at the head 
of twelve hundred effective men, he aban- 
doned that part of the county to the insur- 
gents, and retreated nine miles further, to 
the town of Tullow, in the County of Car- 
low. 

Whilst one formidable body of the Wex- 
ford insurgents was advancing towards the 
north, another still more formidable was 
preparing to penetrate to the southwest. 
The conquest of New Boss, which is situated 
on the river formed by the united streams 
of the Nore and the Barrow, would have 
laid open a communication with the Coun- 
ties of Waterford and Kilkenny, in which 
many thousands were supposed ready to rise 
in arms at the appearance of their successful 
confederates. The possession of that im- 
portant post, when it might have been 
effected without opposition immediately 
upon their success at Enniscorthy, had, 
fortunately for the royal cause, been aban- 



\ 







"i£ft0 .COUMBUS. 



(T&Zt 




doned, on account of a personal difference 
amongst their chiefs. The insurgent' army 
of Wexford chose Beauchamp Bagenal 
Harvey,* as soon ns he was liberated from 
prison, for their generalissimo, and they 
divided into two main hoilies — one of which 

directed iis use northward toGorey; the 

oilier, which was headed by Harvey in per- 
son, took post on Carrickbnrn mountain, 
within six miles of Ross, where it whs re- 
viewed and organized till the 4th of June, 
when ii marched to Corbet Hill, within a 
mile of that town, which it was intended to 
attack the next morning. Harvey, though 
neither destitute of personal courage, nor of 
a pood understanding, possessed no military 
experience, much less those rare talents by 
which an undisciplined multitude may be 
directed and controlled. He formed the 
plan of ac attack on three different parts 
of the town at once, which would probably 
have succeeded hud it been put in execution. 
Saving scut a summons to General John- 
son, the commander of the Kind's troops, 
with a (lug of truce, to surrender the town, 
the bearer of it, one Furlong, was shot by a 
sentinel of an outpost. "j" Whilst Harvey 
was arranging his forces for the assault, 
they were galled by the fire of some out- 
posts, lie ordered a brave young man, of 
the name of Kelly, to put himself at the 
head of Gvc hundred men, and drive in the 
outposts. Kelly was followed confusedly 
by a much greater number than he wished. 
He executed his commission, but could not 
bring back the men, ns ordered. They 
rushed impetuously into the town, drove 
back the cavalry with slaughter on the in- 

* The following; was the form of their appointment : 

" At a meeting of the commanders of the United 
Army, held at Canirkburn camp, on the 1st of June, 
171's, it was unanimously agreed that Beauchamp 
Bagenal Harvey should !><■ appointed and elected 
commander-in-chief of the United Army of the County 
ol Wexford, Prom and after the first day of June, 17as. 
"Signed, by order of the different commanding 
officers of the camp, 

•' Nil rim. as Gray, Secretary." 

"It was likewise agreed, that Edward Roche 
should, from ami after tin: 1st day of June Instant, 
lir elected, and is hereby elected, a general officer 
ol Hi United \ 1 1 1 1 v of the County of Wexford. 

"Signed by the above authority, 

" Nicholas Gray." 

f To shoot all persona carrying flags ol* tr from 

the insurgonts, appears to have been a maxim with 
Ills Majesty's forces, lu Furlong's pocket was found 



fantry, seized the cannon, and being followed 
in their successful career by crowds from 
the hills, seemed some time nearly masters 
of the town. From a full persuasion of a 
decided victory in favor of the insurgent 
army, some officers of the garrison fled to 
Waterford, twelve miles distant, with the 
alarming intelligence. 

The original plan of attack was thus de- 
feated by this premature, though successful 
onset, in one quarter. The Dublin and 
Donegal militia maintained their posts at 
the market-house, and at a station called 
Fairgate, and prevented the insurgents from 
penetrating into the centre of the town ; 
while Major-General Johnson, aided by t lie 
extraordinary exertions of an inhabitant of 
Ross, named M'Cormick, who had served in 
the army, though not then in commission, 
brought back to the charge the troops that 
had fled across the river to the Kilkenny 
side. They presently recovered their post, 
and drove the insurgents from the town, the 
outskirts of which were now in flames, fired 
by the assailants or disaffected inhabitants, 
as Enniscorthy had been. The insurgents, 
in their turn, rallied by their chiefs, returned 
with fury to the assault, and regained sonic 
ground. Again dislodged by the same ex- 
ertions as before, and a third time rallied, 
they were at last finally repulsed, after an 
engagement of above fen hours, ending 
about two o'clock in the afternoon. 

The official bulletin, published at Dublin 
on the 8th of June, stated that, on the 5tb, 
about six in the morning, the insurgents 
attacked the position of General Johnson, 
at New Ross, with a very large force and 

the following letter of summons to General John- 
son :— 

" Sir — As a friend to humanity, I request yon will 
surrender the town of Itoss to the Wexford forces, 
now assembled against that town. Your resistance 
will but provoke rapine and plunder, to the ruin of 
the most innocent. Flushed with victory, the Wex- 
ford forces, now innumerable and Irresistible, will 
not be controlled if they meet with resistance. To 
prevent, therefore, the total ruin of all property in 

the town, I nrge you to a sj ly surrender, which 

you will be forced to in a lew hours, with loss and 
bloodshed, as you are surrounded on all sides. Your 
answer is required in four hours. Mr. Furlong car- 
ries this letter, and will bring the answer. 

" I am, Sir, II. B. Harvey, 

" (iencral commanding, &c, ic, Ac. 
"Camp at Corbet Hill, half-past three o'clock in the 

morning, June 5, 1798." 




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320 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




great impetuosity ; but that, after a contest 
of several hours, they were completely re- 
pulsed. The loss of the insurgents was very 
great, the streets being literally strewed 
with their carcasses An iron gun upon a 
ship carriage had been taken ; and late in 
the evening they retreated entirely to Car- 
rickburn, leaving several iron ship guns not 
mounted. 

General Johnson, in his dispatch, greatly 
regretted the loss of that brave officer, Lord 
Mountjoy, who fell early in the contest. A 
return of the killed and wounded of His 
Majesty's forces had not then been received, 
but it appeared not to have been considera- 
ble. It was supposed to have been about 
three hundred, though the official detail 
afterwards made reduced it to about half 
that number.* 

Sir Jonah Barrington, on the authority 
of a Protestant gentleman, who was an eye- 
witness, gives in these words the horrible 
sequel of the affair of New Ross : — 

" The firing, however, continued till 
towards night, when the insurgents who 
had not entered the houses, having no offi- 
cers to command them, retreated through 
the gate by which they had entered, half a 
mile to Corbet Hill, leaving some thousands 
of their comrades asleep in different houses, 
or in the streets to which the flames had 
not communicated. Of these, the garrison 
pnt hundreds to the sword, without any 
resistance ; and more than five thousand 
were either killed or consumed by the cou- 
agration." 

We now come to a scene of savage ven- 
geance, which, however provoked, it will be 
always painful for an Irishman to read of. 
The same night of the defeat and carnage 



* The impetuosity and ardor with which the insur- 
gents assailed the town of Ross, and the prodigality 
with which they threw away their lives, surpassed 
belief. The troops did not stand it; and the difficulty 
with which General Johnson rallied them proves the 
terror which this charge of the insurgents had creat- 
ed. The first assailants had no sooner dislodged the 
troops, than, instead of pursuing them on their re- 
treat, they fell to plunder, and became quickly dis- 
abled to act from intoxication, whereby they were 
so easily repulsed on the return of the fugitive troops. 
Sir Richard Mnsgrave says, [p. 410,] " that such was 
their enthusiasm that, though whole ranks of them 
were seen to fall, they were succeeded by others, 
who seemed to court the fate of their companions, 
by rushing on our troops with renovated ardor." 



in New Ross, the barn of Scullabogue at 
the foot of Carrickburn Hill, containing 
about one hundred loyalist prisoners, and 
guarded by a small party of insurgents, 
under John Murphy, of Loughgur, was de- 
liberately Bred, and all its inmates burned 
to death. The occasion of this proceeding 
was as follows : Some of the people, retreat- 
ing from New Ross, arrived in violent ex- 
citement, and announced that the troops 
and yeomanry were slaughtering the unre- 
sisting prisoners after the fighting was all 
over — which was true. Moreover, cases 
were notorious, as at Dunlavin and Carnew, 
where prisoners had heen put to death with 
the most wanton cruelty, contrary to all the 
laws of civilized war ; and men maddened 
by defeat are not likely to form a cool judg- 
ment as to the proper application and ex- 
tent of the doctrine of retaliation in war. 
Yet there is, unhappily, no other way of 
enforcing upon an enemy due observance of 
the laws of war than the sternest retaliation 
for every outrage done by that enaniy 
against those laws. All the historians of 
the insurrection* represent that the peoplo 
who burned the barn did it by way of re- 
taliation. Sir Jonah Barrington says : — 

" R is asserted that eighty-seven wounded 
peasants, whom the King's army had found, 
on taking the town, in the market-house, 
used as an hospital, had been burned alive ; 
and that, in retaliation, the insurgents 
burned above a hundred royalists in a barn 
at Scullabogue." 

Mr. Plovvden, although, as a "loyal" 
Catholic, he thinks it his duty to give hard 
measure to the "rebels," yet has conscien- 
tiously placed this affair of Scullabogue in 
its true light- He says : — 

"There is no question but that the insur- 
gents were universally and unexceptionably 
determined upon the principle of retaliation 
and retribution. They considered every 
man that lost his life under military execu- 
tion, without trial, as a murdered victim, 
whose blood was to be revenged — so san- 
guinary and vindictive had this warfare 
fatally become. Besides numerous in- 
stances of such military executions, wher- 
ever the a nny had gained an advantage, 

* Except Sir Richard Mnsgrave, whose authority 
is not to be taken into consideration at all. 






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BAGENAL HAltYEY SHOCKED BY AFFAIB OF SCDLLABOGUE. 



321 



they bore deeply in their minds the deliber- 
ate and brutal murder of thirty-eight pris- 
oners, most of whom had not (at least who 
were said and believed not to have) commit- 
ted any act of treason, at Dunlavin on the 
21th of May; and the like wanton and 
atrocious murder of thirty-nine prisoners of 
the like description at Carnew, on the morn- 
ing of Whitsun Monday, merely because 
the party which had them in custody had 
orders to march ; and they were unwilling 
to discharge them, bilt wanted time to ex- 
amine, much more to try them. A gentle- 
man of punctilious veracity and retentive 
memory has assured me that he was present 
in the House of Commons at the examina- 
tion of a Mr. Fri/.ell, a person of respecta- 
bility, at the bar of that House, in the sum- 
mer of H98, who was a prisoner in the 
house of Scullabogue on the 4th of June. 
He was asked every question that could be 
suggested relative to the massacre ; to 
which his answers were substantially as fol- 
lows : That, having been taken prisoner by 
a party of the rebels, he was confined to a 
room on the ground floor in Scullabogue 
house, with twenty or thirty other persons ; 
that a rebel guard with a pike stood near 
the window, with whom he conversed ; that 
persons were frequently called out of the 
room, in which he was, by name, and he be- 
lieves were soon after shot, as he heard the 
report of muskets shortly after they had 
been so called out ; that lie understood that 
many were burned in the barn, the smoke 
of which he could discover from the win- 
dow ; that the sentinel pikemau assured 
him that they would not hurt a hair of his 
head, as he was always known to have be- 
haved well to the poor ; that he did not 
know of his own knowledge, but only from 
the reports current amongst the prisoners, 
what the particular cause was for which the 
rebels had set fire to the barn. Upon which, 
Mr. Ogle rose with precipitancy from his 
seat and put this question to him with great 
i agerness : ' Sir, tell us what the cause was V 
It having been suggested that the question 
would lie more regularly put from the chair, 
it wos repeated to him in form; and Mr. 
Prizell answered that the only cause thai 
lie or, he believed, the other prisoners ever 
understood induced the rebels to this action, 



was, that they had received intelligence that 
the military were again putting all the rebel 
prisoners to death in the town of Ross, as 
they had done at Dunlavin and Carnew 
Mr. Ogle asked no more questions of Mr. 
Prizell, and he was soon after dismissed 
from the bar. To those gentlemen who 
were present at this examination, the truth 
of this statement is submitted." 

As to the number of victims, Dr. Madden, 
who has examined the subject carefully, 
sets it down at " about one hundred " 

General Bagenal Harvey was inexpressi- 
bly shocked by the affair of Scullabogue, 
especially when he learned that it was done 
upon a pretended order from himself. 

When Cloney saw Harvey, after the 
flight from New Ross, he found the hitter 
and several of the leaders " lamenting over 
the smoking ruins of the barn and the ashes 
of the hapless victims of that barbarous 
atrocity." 

Mr. George Taylor, whose views are 
those of the Ascendency party, states that 
Bagenal Harvey, the next morning, was in 
the greatest anguish of mind when he be- 
held Scullabogue barn: "He turned from 
the scene with horror, and wrung his hands, 
and said to those about him : ' Innocent 
people were burned there as ever were bom. 
Your conquests for liberty are at an end.' 
He said to a friend he fell in with, with re- 
spect to his own situation : ' I see now the 
folly of embarking in this business with 
these people. If they succeed, I shall be 
murdered by them ; if they are defeated, I 
shall be hanged.'" They were defeated, 
and he was hung. 

The next day after the defeat, the insur- 
gents resumed their position on Carrickburn 
Hill. There were loud murmurs against 
their unfortunate Commander-in-Chief ; wh I, 
on his side, was not too well pleased with 
the conduct of his men. He, therefore, re- 
signed, and retired to Wexford : but not 
before issuing "General Orders"— and it 
was his last act of military command— de- 
nouncing the penalty of death against " any 
person or persons who should take it upon 
himself or themselves to kill or murder any 
prisoner, burn any house, or commit any 
plunder, without special written orders from 
the Commander-in-Chief." 




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322 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



By election Father Philip Roche was uow 
made Commander iu-Chief. The insurgents 
next attacked some gunboats in the river, 
but without success. Father Roche then 
led them to the hill of Lacken, within two 
miles of Ross, the scene of their late discom- 
fiture. Iu the meantime, some important 
movements took place on the northern bor- 
der of the county. Perhaps, the most crit- 
ical occasion during the whole insurrection 
was the advance of the insurgents upon 
Arklow, iu Wicklow County, on the 9th of 
June, and the battle at that place. The 
commanders on this occasion were the two 
Fathers Murphy, John and Michael, and 
the force was the same which had so 
thoroughly defeated the King's troops at 
Tubberneering. 

After the defeat of Walpole's army on 
the 4th of June, the insurgents had wasted 
much time in Carnew. At length, however, 
they collected their force at Gorey, and ad- 
vanced to attack Arklow on the 9th, the 
first day iu which that post had been pre- 
pared for defence. Their number exceeded 
twenty thousand, of whom near five thou- 
sand were armed with guns, the rest with 
jiikcs, and they were furnished with three 
serviceable pieces of artillery. The garrison 
consisted of sixteen hundred men, including 
yeomen, supplementary men, and those of 
the artillery. The insurgents attacked the 
town on all sides, except that which is 
washed by the river. The approach of that 
column, which advanced by the sea-shore, 
was rapid and impetuous ; the picket-guard 
of yeoman cavalry, stationed in that quar- 
ter, instantly galloped oil' iu such tenor that 
most of them stopped not their flight till they 
had crossed the river, which was very broad, 
swimming their horses, iu great peril of 
drowning. The further progress of the as- 
sailants was prevented by the charge of the 
regular cavalry, supported by the fire of the 
infantry, who had been formed for the de- 
fence of the town, in a line composed of 
three regiments, with their battalion artil- 
lery, those of the Armagh and Cavan militia, 
and the Durham Fencibles. The main ef- 
fort of the insurgents, who commenced the 
attack near four o'clock in the evening, was 
directed against the station of the Durham, 
whose line extended through the field in 




front of the town to the road leading 
Gorey. 

As the insurgents poured their fire from 
the shelter of ditches, so that the opposite 
fire of the soldiery had no effect, Colonel 
Skerret, the second iu command, ordered 
his men to stand with ordered arms, their 
left wing covered by a breastwork, and the 
right by a natural rising of the ground, un- 
til the enemy, leaving their cover, should 
advance to an open attack. This open at- 
tack was made three times in most formid- 
able force, the assailants rushing within a 
few yards of the cannons' mouths ; but they 
were received with so close and effective a 
fire, that they were repulsed with loss in 
every attempt. The Durhams were not 
only exposed to the fire of the enemy's small 
arms, but were also galled by their cannon. 
General Needham, fearing to be overpow- 
ered by numbers, began to talk of a retreat ; 
to which Colonel Skerret spiritedly replied 
to the General, that they could not liope for 
victory otherwise than by preserving their 
ranks ; if they broke, all was lost. By this 
answer, the General was diverted some time 
from his scheme of a retreat, anil in that 
time the business was decided by the retreat 
of the insurgents, who retired, when frus- 
trated in their most furious assault, and 
dispirited by the death of Father Michael 
Murphy, who was killed by a cannon shot, 
within thirty yards of the Durham line, 
while he was leading his people to the at- 
tack. 

Such is the generally-received account of 
the light at Arklow. The loyalists have 
always claimed victory. Indeed, the official 
bulletin runs thus : — 

"Dcblin, June 10th, 1798. 

" Accounts were received early this morn- 
ing by Lieutenant-General Lake, from 
Major-General Needham, at Arklow, stating 
that the rebels had, iu great force, attacked 
his position in Arklow at six o'clock yester- 
day evening. They advanced in an irregu- 
lar manner, and extended themselves for the 
purpose of turning his left flank, his rear 
and right flanks being strongly defended by 
the town and barrack of Arklow. Upon 
their endeavoring to enter the lower end of 
the town, they were charged by the Fortieth 
Dragoon Guards, Fifth Dragoons, and An- 



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LOYALISTS l.XI.CUTED IN WEXFORD. 



323 



cicnt Uri i oiis, and completely routed. All 
round the other poiuts of the position they 
were defeated with much slaughter. The 
loss of His Majesty's troops was trifling, and 
their behavior highly gallant." 

One part of this dispatch is certainly 
false. The insurgents were not "routed." 
but after remaining for some time in posses- 
sion of the field of battle, they retired at 
their leisure, carrying off all their wounded. 
Sir Jonah Barrington calls it "a drawn bat- 
tle;" and Miles Byrne, who fought in it, 
was under the impression that his party had 
gained a victory, though lie admits they 
did not follow it up as they ought to have 
done. This line old soldier, writing of it 
sixty years afterwards, in Paris, exclaims 
with bitter regret : — 

"How melancholy to think a victory, so 
dearly bought, should have been abandoned, 
ami for which no good or plausible motive 
could ever be assigned. No doubt we had 
expended nearly all our ammunition, but 
that should have served as a sufficient rea- 
son to have brought all our pikemen in- 
stantly to pursue the enemy whilst in a 
slate of disorder, and panic-struck, as it 
really was that day at Arklow. 

" My linn belief is, to-day, as it was that 
day, that if we had had no artillery, the 
battle would have been won in half the time ; 
for we should have attacked the position of 
the Durham Fencibles at the very onset, 
with some thousand determined pikemen, in 
place of leaving those valiant fellows inac- 
tive to admire the effect of each cannon- 
shot. No doubt our little artillery was 
admirably directed, and did wonders, until 
Esmond Cyan's wound deprived the Irish 
army of this gallant man's services ; he was 
in every sense of the word a real soldier and 
true patriot. 

" Never before had the English Govern- 
ment in Ireland been so near its total de- 
struction. When lloche's expedition ap- 
peared on the coast in 1196, the Irish 
nation was ready to avail itself of it, to 
throw nil' the English yoke ; but now the 
people found they were adequate to accom- 
plish this great act themselves without for- 
eign aid. What a pity that there was not 
■ome enterprising chief at their head at 
Arklow, to have followed up our victory to 



the city of Dublin, where we should have 
mustered more than a hundred thousand in 
a few days ; consequently, the capital would 
have been occupied without delay by our 
forces ; when a provisional government 
would have been organized, and the whole 
Irish nation called on to proclaim its inde- 
pendence. Then would every emblem of the 
cruel English Government have disappeared 
from the soil of our beloved country, which 
would once more take its rank amongst the 
other independent slates of the earth." 

The town of Wexford was still in the 
hands of the insurgents. They had ap- 
pointed a certain General Keogh Governor 
and Commandant of the town. This ex- 
traordinary man, having been a private in 
His Majesty's service, had risen to the rank 
of Lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, iu 
which he served in America. He was a 
man of engaging address, and of that com- 
petency of fortune which enabled him to 
live comfortably in Wexford. Proud and 
ambitious, he appreciated his own abilities 
highly ; in clubs and coffee-houses, he had 
long been in the habit of censuring the cor 
ruptions of Government, and was so violent 
an advocate for reform, that the Lord-Chan- 
cellor had deprived him of the Commission 
of the Peace, in the year 1796 In order 
to introduce some order into the town, the 
insurgents chose certain persons to distribute 
provisions, and for that purpose to give 
tickets to the inhabitants to entitle them to 
a ratable portion of them, according to the 
number of inhabitants in each house. Many 
habitations of the Protestants who had 
made their escape were plundered, some of 
them were demolished. 

Several of the Protestant inhabitants of 
the town were imprisoned at this time, but 
oidy those who were considered the most 
obnoxious, or were known ns Orangemen, 
and, therefore, bound by oath to exterminate 
their Catholic neighbors. It must be ad- 
mitted, that during the three weeks while 
the insurgents occupied Wexford, many mili- 
tary executions took place; but always on 
the plea of retaliation. For example, on the 
6th day of June, und r an i nn r from Eun's- 
corthy, ten prisoners at Wexford were 
seleeted for execution, and suffered accord- 
ingly. Conjectures have been hazarded 



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HISTORY OF IRKLAND. 



why such orders emanated from Enuiscorthy 
rather than from Wexford. The natural in- 
ference from the limitation of the victims to 
half a score, is that the insurgents, who 
professed to act upon the principles of retalia- 
tion, had received information that a similar 
number of their people had 'suffered in like 
manner on the preceding' day. 

Mr. Plowden remarks, very reasonably : 
" Bloody as the rebels are represented to 
have been, there could have been no other 
reason for their limiting their lust for mur- 
der to the particular number of ten." 

Most of the sanguinary executions per- 
petrated at Wexford during this time are 
attributed to the violence of a man named 
Dixon, a ship-captain belonging to the port. 
His atrocity is ascribed to private vengeance. 

The Rev. Mr. Dixon, his relative, a 
Roman Catholic clergyman, having been 
sentenced to transportation, had been sent 
off to Duncannon Fort the day preceding 
the insurrection ; he was found guilty on 
the testimony of one Francis Murphy, whose 
evidence was positively contradicted by 
three other witnesses. Under these circum- 
stances, Dixon took a summary method of 
avenging himself ; and was always ready 
to undertake the charge of doing military 
execution upon those who were abandoned 
to Ins ministrations. An author of candor 
and credit, the Rev. Mr. Gordon, has stated 
that he could not ascertain with accuracy the 
number of persons put to death without law 
in Wexford during the whole time of its oc- 
cupation by the insurgents ; but believed it 
to have amounted to one hundred and one. 
Probably ten times that number of innocent 
country people had been, during the Same 
three weeks, murdered in cold blood by the 
yeomanry. It is sad to be obliged to go 
into such a dismal account; but as- the 
"rebels" have been always very freely vili- 
fied for their cruelties, and have had but 
few friends to plead for them, it is right, at 
least, to establish the truth, so far as that 
can now lie discovered. Most of the san- 
guinary t}v^i\a were done without, or against, 
the orders of the leaders, who could not al- 
ways restrain their exasperated followers; 
ami the following proclamation, issued in 
Wexford, seems to show that there was no 
wish to spill the blood of any who had not 



been guilty of some peculiar atrocities 
towards the people : — 

"Proclamation of the. People of the County 
of Wexford. 

" Whereas, it stands manifestly notorious, 
that .lames Boyd, Hawtrv White, Hunter 
Qowan, and Archibald Hamilton Jacob, 
late magistrates of this county, have com- 
mitted the most, horrid acts of cruelty, vio- 
lence, and oppression, against our peaceable 
and well-affected countrymen. Now, we, 
the people, associated and united for the 
purpose of procuring our just rights, and 
being determined to proteel the persons and 
properties ol those of all religious persua- 
sions who have not oppressed us, and are 
willing with heart and hand to join our 
glorious cause, as well as to show our 
marked disapprobation and horror of the 
crimes of the above delinquents, do call on 
our countrymen at large to use every exer- 
tion in their power to apprehend the bodies 
of the aforesaid James Boyd, &c, &£, &c, 
and to secure and convey them to the jail 
of Wexford, to be brought before the tri- 
bunal of the people. 
"Done at Wexford, this 9th day of 

June, 1198 

" Goo save the People." 

On the 2d of June, a small vessel was 
taken on the coast and brought into Wex- 
ford ; and on board this vessel Lord Kings- 
bQFOUgh and three officers of the North 
Cork militia were captured. During his 
lordship's detention he was lodged in the 

house of Captain Keogh, and to his humane, 
spirited, and indefatigable exertions, and 
those ol' .Mr. Harvey, his lordship acknowl- 
edged that his life was due, mi the many oc- 
casions that the fury of the multitude broke 
out against him. There were few men in 
Ireland at this period more unpopular than 
his lordship — his exploits in the way of ex- 
torting confessions by SCOUrgingS, and other 
tortures, had rendered his name a (error to 
the people. The difficulty of preserving his 
life from the vengeance of a lawless multi- 
tude must have been great. 

A considerable concentration of regular 
troops was now rapidly being formed in the 
county, with a view to crush the insurrec- 
tion at once. 



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TliOOI'S CONCENTRATED ROTND VINEGAR HILL. 



325 



On the 19th of Jane, General Edward 
Roche, and such of the insurgents of his 
neighborhood as were at Vinegar Hill, were 
sent home to collect the whole mass of the 
people for general defence. By the march 
dt' the royal army in all directions, towards 
Vinegar Hill and Wexford, a general flight 
of. such of the inhabitants as could get off 
took place. 

The alarm was now general throughout 
the country ; all men were called to attend 
the camps ; and Wexford became the uni- 
versal rendezvous of the fugitives, who re- 
ported, with various circumstances of hor- 
ror, the progress of the different armies 
approaching in every direction, marking 
their movements with terrible devastation. 
Ships of war were also seen off the coast ; 
gunboats blocked up the entrance of the 
harbor; and from the commanding situation 
of the camp at the Three Rocks, Oil the 
mountain of Forth, the general conflagra- 
tion, which was as progressive as the march 
of the troops, was clearly visible. On 
the approach of the army, great numbers 
of countrymen, with their wives and chil- 
dren, and any little baggage they could 
hastily pack up, fled towards Wexford as to 
an asylum, and described the plunder and 
destruction of houses, the murders and out- 
rages of the Soldiery let loose and encour- 
aged to range over and devastate the 
country. General Moore, who advanced 
with a part of the army, did all in his power 
to prevent these atrocities, and had some of 
the murderers immediately put to death ; 
but his humane and benevolent intentions 
were greatly baffled by the indomitable 
ferocity and revenge of the refugees re- 
turning home. 

These cruelties, being reported in the 
town of Wexford, provoked additional 
cruellies there also ; and it was in this 
moment of alarm, when peremptory orders 
came lor all the lighting men to repair to 
Vinegar Hill, that the savage Dixon, with 
the assistance Of seventy or eighty men, 
whom he had made drunk for the purpose, 
perpetrated upon the Protestant prisoners 

the slaughter called " Massacre of the 

Bridge of Wexford," in revenge for the 
slaughters which the Orangemen were com- 



& 

%< 



mitting upon unarmed | pie in the country 

around. When about thirty-five unfortunate W * iW V 
men had been murdered, the butchery was . jfl 'vys 
stopped, at seven in the evening, by the in- ' Hfx^ 
terference of Father Corrin, and by the S3 I Pfi * 
alarming intelligence that the post of Vin- 
egar Hill was already almost beset by the 
King's troops. 

After the indecisive affair at Arklow, the 
royal army, under General Needham, re- 
mained for some days close within its quar- 
ters; then proceeded to Goivy on the 19th 
of June, and thence towards Enniscorthy 01) 
the 20th, according to a concerted plan, 
conducted by Lieutenant-General Lake, 
that the great station of the insurgents at 
Vinegar Hill should be surrounded by His 
Majesty's forces, and attacked in all points 
at once. For this purpose, different armies 
moved at the same time from different quar- 
ters ; one under Lieutenant General Dun- 
das ; another under Major-Generals Sir 
Janus Duff and Loftus ; that already men- 
tioned from Arklow ; and a fourth from 
Ross, under Major-Generals Johnson and 
Eustace, who were to make the attack on 
the town of Enniscorthy. The march of the 
army from Ross was a kind of surprise to 
the bands of Philip Roche, on Lucken Hill, 
who retired after a sharp fight, leaving their 
tents and a great quantity of plunder be- 
hind ; separating into two bodies, one of 
which took its way to Wexford, the other 
to Vinegar Hill, where the Wexford insur- 
gents where concentrating their fureis This 
eminence, with the town of Enniscorthy at 
its foot, and the country for many miles 
round, had been in possession of the insur- 
gents from the 28th of May, during which 
time the face of affairs had been growing |j/.£,$j 
more and more gloomy for the cause of the lySii 
people. With the despondency, there also 
came upon the insurgents a feeling of more 
vindictive rage. They saw the people could 
expect 00 mercy ; and as the advancing 
columns spread devastation and slaughter, 
and the people on the hill could see the 
smoke of burning villages, and almost 
hear the shrieks of tortured and mangled 
women and children, they again applied 
their system of retaliation. The prisoners 
who had lalleti into the hands of the in- 








x 



rv 



10 



. 



surgents, after a sham trial, or no trial at 
all, were shot or piked. About eighty- 
four suffered death here in this manner.* 

It was at Vinegar XI ill that the last en- 
gagement of any importance took place be- 
tween the troops and the people. It was on 
the 21st of June, and little more than three 
weeks after Father John Murphy's rising. 

Vinegar Hill is a gentle eminence on the 
banks of the river Slauey ; at its foot lies 
the considerable town of Euniscorthy. At 
one point the ascent is rather steep, on the 
others, gradual ; the top is crowned by a 
dilapidated stone building. The hill is ex- 
tensive, and completely commands the town 
and most of the approaches to it ; the 
country around it is rich, and sufficiently 
wooded, and studded with country-seats 
and lodges. Few spots in Ireland, under 
all its circumstances, can be more inter- 
esting to a traveler. On the summit of 
the hill the insurgents had collected the 
remains of their Wexford army ; its num- 
ber may be conjectured from General 
Lake deciding that twenty thousand reg- 
ular troops were necessary for the at- 
tack ; but, in fact, the effective of his 
army amounted, on the day of battle, to 
little more than thirteen thousand. The 
peasantry had dug a slight ditch around 
a large extent of the base ; they had a very 
few pieces of small half-disabled cannon, 
some swivels, and not above two thousand 
fire-arms of all descriptions. But their sit- 
uation was desperate ; and General Lake 
considered that two thousand fire-arms, in 
the hands of infuriated and courageous men, 
supported by multitudes of pikemen, might 
be equal to ten times the number under 
other circumstances. A great many women 
mingled with their relatives, and fought 
with fury ; several were found dead amongst 
the men, who had fallen iu crowds by the 
bursting of the shells. 

General Lake, at the break of day, dis- 
posed his attack in four columns, whilst his 
cavalry were prepared to do execution on 
the fugitives. One of the columns (whether 
by accident or design is strongly debated) 
did not arrive iu time at its station, by 
which the insurgents were enabled to re- 

* Hay's History. Plowden says that report car- 
ried the uuniber of victims as high as four hundred. 



treat to Wexford, through a country where 
they could not be pursued by cavalry or 
cannon. It was astonishing with what 
fortitude the peasantry, uncovered, stood 
the tremendous fire opened upon the four 
sides of their position; a stream of shells and 
grape was poured on the multitude ; the 
leaders encouraged them by exhortations, 
the women by their cries, and every shell 
that broke amongst them was followed by 
shouts of defiance. General Lake's horse 
was shot, many officers wounded, some killed, 
and a few gentlemen became invisible during 
the heat of the battle. The troops advanced 
gradually, but steadily, up the hill ; the 
peasantry kept up their fire, and maintained 
their ground ; their cannon was nearly use- 
less, their powder deficient, but they died 
lighting at their post. At length, enveloped 
in a torrent of fire, they broke, and Bought 
their safety through the space that General 
Needham had left by the non-arrival of his 
column. They were partially charged by 
some cavalry, but with little execution ; 
they retreated to Wexford, and that night 
occupied the town. 

The insurgents left behind them a great 
quantity of plunder, together with all their 
cannon, amounting to thirteen in number, 
of which three were six-pounders. The loss 
on the side of the King's forces was very in- 
considerable, though one officer, Lieutenant 
Sandys, of the Longford militia, was killed, 
and four others slightly wounded — Colonel 
King, of the Sligo regiment; Colonel Vesey; 
of the County of Dublin regiment ; Lord 
Blaney, and Lieutenant-Colonel Cole. 

Enniscorthy being thus recovered after 
having been above three weeks in the hands 
of the insurgents, excesses, as must be 
expected in such a state of affairs, were com- 
mitted by the soldiery, particularly by the 
Hessian troops, who made no distinction be- 
tween loyalist and insurgent. The most 
diabolical act of this kind was the firing 
of a house, which had been used as a hospital 
by the insurgents, iu which numbers of sick 
and wounded, who were unable to escape 
from the flames, were burned to ashes f 

f The Rev. Mr. Gordon says, he was informed by a 
surgeon, that the burning was accidental, the bed- 
clothes having been set on tire by the wadding of the 
soldiers' guns, who were shooting the patients in 
their beds. 



^ 




■^r?/C«£S.^-^tA6 -Ci,L4fMta5,irf. 







CHIEFS EXECUTED IN WEXFORD. 



327 



2 



'-3 



&>~ t 




The town of Wexford was relieved on tlie 
same day with Bniiiscorthy, Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Moore, according to the plan formed 
by General Lake, having made a movement 
towards that quarter from the side of Ross, 
on the 19th, with a body of twelve hundred 
troops, famished with artillery ; and having 
directed his march to Taghmon, in his in- 
tended way to Enniscorthy, on the 20th, 
was. en his way thither, between one and 
two o'clock in the afternoon, attacked by a 
large force of the people from Wexford, 
perhaps five or six thousand, near a place 
called Goffs Bridge, not far from Hore 

w n. After an action, which continued 
till near eight, the insurgents were repulsed 
with some loss ; yet the fate of the day was 
long doubtful, and many of the King's 
troops were killed. 

Wexford, which had been taken by the 
insurgents on the 30th of May, was surren- 
dered to the King's troops on the 23d of 
June. 

"Relying on the faith of Lord Kings- 
borongh's promises of complete protection 
of persons and properties," we are told by 
Hay, "several remained in the town of 
Wexford, unconscious of any reason to ap- 
prehend danger ; but they were soon taken 
up and committed to jail. The Rev. Philip 
Roach had such confidence in these assur- 
ances, and was so certain of obtaining simi- 
lar terms for those under his command, that 
he left his force at Sledagh, in full hopes of 
being permitted t) return in peace to their 
homes, and was on his way to Wexford 
unarmed, coming, as he thought, to receive 
a confirmation of the conditions, and so lit- 
tle apprehensive of danger that, he advanced 
within the lines before he was recognized, 
when all possibility of escape was at an end. 
lie was instantly dragged from his horse, 
and in the most ignominious manner taken 
up to the camp on the Windmill Hills, 
pulled by the hair, kicked, buffeted, and at 
length hauled down to the jail in sneh a 
condition as scarcely to be known. The 
people whom he left in expectation of being 
permitted to return quietly home, waited 

In- arrival ; but at la^t being informed of 

his fate, they abandoned all idea of peace, 
and set off, under the command of the Rev. 



through Scollaghgap into the County of 
Carlow. . . 

" From the encampment at Ballenkeele, 
commanded by General Needham, detach- 
ments wvre sent out to scour the country. 
They burned the Catholic chapel of Belle- 
murrin, situate on the demesne of Ballen- 
keele, on which they were encamped, besides 
several houses in the neighborhood." 

It is not clear that Lord Kingsborough, 
who was in Wexford as a prisoner, had 
power to " promise protection of person and 
property," in ease of surrender. At all 
events, no attention was paid to those nego- 
tiations. Two of the insurgent chiefs, Clo- 
ney and O'Hea, repaired to Enniscorthy, to 
make proposals for capitulation 

" Lieutenant-General Lake cannot attend 
to any terms by rebels in arms against their 
sovereign. While they continue so, he must 
use the force entrusted to him with the ut- 
most energy for their destruction. To the 
deluded multitude he promises pardon on 
their delivering into his hands their tenders, 
surrendering their arms, and returning with 
sincerity to their allegiance. 

"(Signed) G. Lake. 

"Enniscorthy, June 22, 1198." 

Lord Lake established his headquarters 
in the house of Captain Keogb, the late 
commandant of the post — Keogh being 
now lodged in jail. Cornelius Grogan sur- 
rendered, relying on the protection. Messrs. 
Colclough and Harvey attempted to escape, 
and concealed themselves in a cave upon the 
Great Saltee Island, off the coast. Here 
they were discovered ; were brought to 
Wexford ; and, a lew days after, all these 
gentlemen, with many others, were tried by 
martial law and executed. Their heads 
were cut off and spiked in a row in front of 
the court-house.* 

* Bagenal Harvey was proved, on the trial, to have 
constantly opposed deeds of blood, and endeavored 
to prevent the wanton destruction of loyalist prop- 
erty. It waB so much the worse for him. The Rev. 
Mr. Gordon tells us a remarkable trait of the times: 
"The display of humanity by a rebel was. in general, 
in the lii. ils by court-martial, by no means regarded 
as a circumstance in favor of the accused. Strange 
as it may .-inn, in times of cool reflection, it was 
very frequently urged as a proof of guilt. Whoever 
could be proved to have saved a loyalist from assas- 
Bination, bis bouse from burning, or his property 
from plunder, was considered as having influence 



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John Murphy, to Look's Mill, and SO OU | among the rebels— consequently a commander. Thin 







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As for the unfortunate country people, 
now left to the mercy of a savage soldiery, 
they were hunted dowu in all directions by 
the yeomanry cavalry. A detail of these 
horrors would be revolting. We must take 
a summary from the testimony of those who 
saw it. 

" In short," says Mr. Edward Hay, 
"death and desolation were spread through- 
out the country, which was searched and 
hunted so severely that scarcely a man es- 
caped. The old and harmless suffered, 
whilst they who had the use of their limbs, 
and were guilty, had previously made off 
with the main body of the people. The 
dead bodies scattered about, with their 
throats cut across, and mangled in the most 
shocking manner, exhibited scenes exceeding 
the usual horrors of war. The soldiery on 
this occasion, particularly the dragoons of 
General Ferdinand Hompesch, were per- 
mitted to indulge in such ferocity and brutal 
lust to the sex as must perpetuate hatred 
and horror of the army to generations." 

The treatment of women by these Hes- 
sians and the yeomanry cowards was truly 
horrible; and the less capable of any excuse, 
as, in this matter at least, there could be no 
pretence for retaliation. 

"It is a singular fact," says Sir Jonah 
Barrington, "that in all the ferocity of the 
conflict, the storming of towns and of vil- 
lages, women were uniformly respected by 
the insurgents. Though numerous ladies 
fell occasionally into their power, they never 
experienced any incivility or misconduct. 
But the foreign troops in our service ( II < mi- 
pesch's) not only brutally ill-treated, but 
occasionally shot gentlewomen. A very re- 
spectable married woman in Enniscorthy 
(Mrs. Stringer, the wife of an attorney,) 
was wantonly shot at her own window by a 
German, in cold blood. The rebels (though 
her husband was a royalist) a short time 

seeras to have arisen from a rage of prosecution, by 
which the crime of rebellion was regarded as too 
great to admit any circumstances of extenuation iu 
favor of the person guilty of it, and by which every 
mode of conviction against such a person was deemed 
justifiable." 

He makes mention of the notoriety of this practice 
having drawn the following extraordinary exclama- 
tion from a Roman Catholic gentleman who had been 
one of the insurgents: " I thank my God that no 
person can prove me guilty of saving the life or 
[jerty of any one ! " 



after took smiie of those foreign soldiers 
prisoners, and piked them all, as they told 
them — 'just to teach them how to shoot ladies' 
Martial law always affects both sides. Re- 
taliation becomes the law of nature wherever 
municipal laws are not in operation. It is 
a remedy that should never be resorted to 
but in extremis." 

On the same shocking subject Mr. Plow- 
den observes : — 

" As to this species of outrage, which 
rests not in proof, it is uuiversilly allowed 
to have been on the side of the military. It 
produced an indignant horror in the country 
which went beyond, but prevented retalia- 
tion. It is a characteristic mark of the 
Irish nation neither to forget nor forgive an 
insult or injury done to the honor of their 
female relatives. It has been boasted of by 
officers of rank that, within certain large 
districts, a woman had not been left unde- 
fined; and upon observation, in answer, that 
the sex must then have been very comply- 
ing, the reply was, that the bayonet removed 
all squeamishness. A lady of fashion, hav- 
ing in conversation been questioned as to 
this difference of conduct towards the sex in 
the military and the rebels, attributed it, 
in disgust, to a want of gallantry in the crop- 
pies. By these general remarks it is not 
meant to verify or justify the saying of a field- 
officer, or a lady of quality, both of whom 
could be named ; but merely to show the 
prevalence of the general feelings and pro- 
fessions at that time upon these horrid sub- 
jects ; and, consequently, what effects must 
naturally have flowed from them. In all 
matters of irritation an I revenge, it is the 
conviction that the injury exists which pro- 
duces the bad effect. Even Sir Richard 
Musgrave admits (p. 428) that, "on most 
occasions, they did not offer any violence to 
the tender sex." 

There was little more fighting in the 
county. Separate bauds of the insurgents 
were making their way either into Wicklow 
on the north, a country of mountains, glens, 
and lakes, or westward into Carlow by way 
of Scollaghgap, between Mount Leinster 
and Blackstairs Mountain. 

The northern part of the County of Wex- 
ford had been almost totally deserted by all 
the male inhabitants on the 19th, at the ap 



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0UT1UOES IN THE NORTH OF THE COUNTY. 



329 






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9 hH 










proach of the army under General Need- 
ham. Some of the yeomanry, who had for- 
merly deserted it, returned to Gorey on the 
21st, and, on finding no officer of the army, 

us was expected, to command there, they, 
with many others, who returned along with 
them, scoured the country round, and killed 
great numbers in their houses, besides all 
the stragglers they met, most of whom were 
making the besl of their way home unarmed 
from the insurgents, who were then believed 
to be totally discomfited. These transac- 
tions being made known to a body of the 
in. invents encamped at Peppard's Castle, 
on the 22d, they resolved to retaliate, and 
directly marched for Gorey, whither they 
had otherwise no intention of proceeding. 
The yeomen and their associates, upon the 
near approach of the insurgents, fled buck 
with precipitation ; and thence, accompa- 
nied by many others, hastened toward Ark- 
low, but were pursued as far as Coolgrcncy, 
with the loss of forty-seven men. The day 
was called bloody Friday. The insurgents 
had been exasperated to this vengeance by 
discovering through the country as they 
came along, several dead men with their 
skulls Bplit asunder, their bowels ripped 
open, arid their throats cut across, besides 
some dead women and children. They even 
saw the dead bodies of two women, about 
which their surviving children were creeping 
and bewailing them ! These sights hastened 
the insurgent force to Gorey, where their 
exasperation was considerably augmented 
by discovering the pigs in the streets de- 
vouring the bodies of nine men, who hud 
been hanged the day before, with several 
others recently shot, and some still expiring. 
Alter the return of the insurgents from 
the pursnit, several persons were found lurk- 
ing in the town, and brought before Mr. 
Fitzgerald, particularly Mr. Peppard, sov- 
ereign of Gorey ; but, from this gentleman's 
age and respectability, he was considered 
incurable of being accessory to the perpe- 
tration Of the horrid cruelty which provoked 
and prompted this sudden revenge, and he 
and others were saved, protected, and set at 
liberty. At this critical time, the news of 
the burning of Mr. Fitzgerald's house, still 
further maddened the people ; but, for- 
getful of such great personal injury, he ex- 



erted his utmost endeavors to restrain the 
insurgents, who vociferated hourly for ven- 
geance for their favorites, and succeeded in 
leading them off from Gorey; when, after a 
slight, repast, they resumed their intended 
route, rested that night at the "White 
Heaps, on Croghan Mountain, and on the 
23d set oil' for the mountains of Wicklbw. 

Such Wexford men us still remained in 
arms, having no longer any homes, and 
afraid to go to their homes if they had, 
were endeavoring to join the insurgents in 
other counties. One of these bodies, com- 
manded by the Rev. John Murphy, (with 
whom was Miles Byrne,) proceeded through 
the County of Carlow ; and, having arrived 
before the little town of Goresbridge, in the 
Comity of Kilkenny, a show of defence was 
made at a bridge on the river Barrow, by a 
party of Wexford militia ; but- they were 
quickly repulsed, driven back into the vil- 
lage, and nearly all either killed, wounded, 
or taken prisoners. The prisoners were 
conveyed with the insurgents until they ar- 
rived on a ridge of hills which divides the 
Counties of Carlow and Kilkenny from the 
Queen's County. Here they put some of 
the unfortunate prisoners to death, and 
buried their bodies on the hill. Others es- 
caped and joined their friends. In justice 
to the memory of the Rev. John Murphy it 
must here be stated that these murders 
were done contrary to his solemn injunc- 
tions, and that they were the result of long- 
felt and deadly hatred, entertained by some 
of the insurgents towards the militia-men. 

The example of murdering in cold bl 1 

was, no doubt, constantly set them by their 
enemies. If a war of partial extermination 
had not been proclaimed, no justification 
whatever could be offered for this atrocity ; 
but it is well known that, although the prac- 
tice was not avowedly sanctioned by the 
constituted authorities, it was in almost all 
cases unblushingly advised by the nmiii:- 
lings of power in Ireland. 

'" Having rested for the night of the 23d of 
June on the Ridge, as those hills are called, 
they proceeded early next morning to Cas- 
tlecomer, and commenced a furious attack 
on the town at ten o'clock. The principal re- 
sistance offered to their progress was from 
a party stationed in a house at the foot of 





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330 




the bridge, which was ably defended, and 
opposite to which many bravo men tell, by 
rashly exposing themselves in front of so 
strong a position ; for the town could have 
been attacked and carried with very little 
loss from another quarter. In fact, every 
other position was speedily abandoned by 
the military and yeomanry, who retreated 
and took up a position on a hill at a respect- 
ful distance from the town. Here, as well 
as in most other places where the insurgents 
had been engaged, skill alone was wanting 
to insure success. The people had numbers 
and courage enough to overthrow any force 
which had been sent against them, if they 
had been skilfully commanded. The attack 
on the well-defended house was fruitlessly 
kept up for four hours, from which they 
finally retreated with severe loss, and 
marched in a northwest direction about five 
miles, into the Queen's County.* Soon 
after, finding themselves hard pressed by 
bodies of troops on three sides, they were 
obliged to retreat once more in the direction 
of the Carlow mountains. At Kilcomncv 
they were forced to fight, but without any 
chance of success. They were entirely rout- 
ed. Father Murphy was taken three days 
later, brought to General Duff's headquar- 
ters at Tullow, tried by martial law, and, 
after being first cruelly scourged, was exe 
cuted. Ilis head, as usual, was spiked in 
the market-place of the town. 

Another of the scattered bands, led by 
Antony Perry, of Inch, and Father Kearns, 
penetrated into Kildare, and joining with 
the Kildare insurgents, attempted to march 
upon Athlone. They were beaten, however, 
at Clonard ; Perry and Father Kearns were 
both taken prisoners, and met the usual 
doom.f 

Edward Fitzgerald, Miles Byrne and 
some other chiefs, still kept a considerable 
band on foot in the mountains on the bor- 
der of Wicklow, from whence they occa- 
sionally made descents, and attacked some 
bodies of troops with success. One of these 
affairs was the assault upon the barracks at 
Hacketstown ; and another was the memo 
rable extirpation of that hated regiment, 
the "Ancient Britons," at Ballyellis. Be- 




niKTOItY OF IRELAND. 



Cloney's Memoir. 



t Madden'a Livea 



fore Miles Byrne finally retired into the 
fastnesses of Wicklow, to join Holt, he had 
the satisfaction to bear a hand iu that 
bloody piece of work. We let him tell it 
in his own words : — 

" Early in the morning of the 29th of 
June, it was resolved to march and attack 
the town of Carnew. The column was 
halted at Monasced to repose and take some 
kind of refreshments, which were indeed dif- 
ficult to be had, as every house had been 
plundered by the English troops on their 
way to Vinegar Hill a few days before. 

"The Irish column resinned its inarch on 
the high road to Carnew, and in less than 
half an hour alter its departure, a large div- 
ision of English cavalry, sent from Corey 
by General Needham, marched into Mona- 
sced. This division consisted of the noto- 
rious Ancient Britons, a cavalry regiment 
which had committed all sorts of crimes 
when placed on free quarters with the un- 
fortunate inhabitants previous to the rising. 
This infernal regiment was accompanied by 
all the yeomen cavalry corps from Arklow, 
Gorey, Ooolgreeny, &c, and the chiefs of 
those corps, such as Hunter Cowan, Beau- 
mont, of Hyde Park, Earl Mount norris, 
Earl Courtown, Ram, Hawtry White, &e., 
could boast as well as the Ancient Britons 
of having committed cold-blooded murders 
on an unarmed country people. But they 

never had the courage to meet us on tho 
field of battle, as will be seen by the das- 
tardly way they abandoned the Ancient 
Britons at Ballyellis 

" The officers of the Ancient Britons, as 
well as those of the yeomen corps, learned 
that the Irish forces had just inarched oft 
on the road to Carnew, and were informed 
at a public house, that the insurgents who 
had been there were complaining how they 
were fatigued to death by the continual 
marching and countermarching, and that 
although they had lire-arms, their ammuni- 
tion was completely exhausted, and scarce a 
ball-cartridge remained iu their army. The, 
truth of this information could not be doubt- 
ed. All the information coming through so 
sure a channel, encouraged the English 
troops to pursue without delay the insurgents, 
and to cut them down and exterminate them 
to the last man, for they could uot 






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EXTERMINATION OF ANCIENT HRITONS. 



331 






withoat ammunition. The Ancient Britons 
were to charge on the road, whilst the yeo- 
men cavalry, being so well-monnted, were to 
cover the Hanks and to march through the 
field ; and those fox-hunters promised that 
not one croppy should escape their ven- 
geance. 

"All being thus settled and plenty of 
whisky distributed to the English soldiers, 
the march to overtake the insurgents coin- 
menced, and when about two miles from 
Monaseed, at Ballyellis, one mile from Oar- 
new, the Ancient lii'itons being in lull gal- 
op, charging, and as they thought, driving 
all before them, to their great surprise, 
were suddenly stopped by a barricade of 
Cars thrown across the road, and at the 
same moment that the head of the column 
was thus stopped, the rear was attacked by 
a mass of pikemeu, who sallied out from 
behind a wall, and completely shut up the 
road, as soon as the last of the cavalry had 
passed. The remains or ruins of au old 
deer-park wall, on the right-hand side of 
the road, ran along for about half a mile; 
in many parts it was not more than three 
or four feet high. All along the inside of 
this our gunsmen and pikemen were placed. 
On the left-hand side of the road there was 
an immense ditch, with swampy ground, 
which few horses could be found to leap. 
In this advantageous situation, for our men, 
the battle began; the gunsmen, half covered, 
firing from behind the wall, whilst the Eng- 
lish cavalry, though well mounted, could 
only make use of their carabines and pistols, 
for with their sables they were unable to 
ward oil' the thrusts of our pikemen, who 
sallied out on them in the most determined 
manner. 

"Thus, in less than an hour, this infamous 
regiment, which had been the horror of the 
country, was slain to the last man, as well 
as tin?- few yeomen cavalry who had the 
courage to take part in the action. For all 
those who quit their horses and got into the 
fields were followed and piked on the marshy 
ground. The greater part of the numerous 
cavulrj corps which accompanied the Ancient 
Britons kept on a rising ground, to the right 
sn|.' of the mad, at some distance, during 
the battle, and as 8000 as the result of it 
was known, they tied iu the most cowardly 



way iu every direction, both dismayed and 
disappointed that, they had no opportunity 
on this memorable day of murdering the 
stragglers, as was their custom on such oc- 
casions. 1 say ' memorable,' for during the 
war, no action occurred which made so great 
a sensation in the country ; as it proved to 
the enemy, that whenever our pikemen were 
well commanded aud kept in close order, 
they were invulnerable. And, besides, it 
served to elate; the courage and desire of 
our men to be led forthwith to new combats. 

"The English troops that marched out 
from Caruew retreated back on the town in 
great haste, when they heard of the defeat 
of the Ancient BlitOUS at Ballyellis. The 
infantry, finding that they were closely pur- 
sued by our men, barricaded themselves in 
a large malt house belonging to Bob Blaney. 
This malt house was spared at the time of 
the first attack ou Caruew, when the great 
est part of the town was burned, on ac- 
count of the upright and humane conduct 
of the owuer, Mr. Blaney. Now it had be- 
come a formidable and wcll-l'orlilied barrack, 
capable of holding out a long time, particu- 
larly as our army had no cannon to bring 
to bear against it. However, it was in- 
stantly attacked, ami great, efforts made to 
dislodge the enemy, who kept up a con- 
tinual lire from all the windows ; and, as at 
Hacketstown, every means were taken to 
approach the doors under cover of beds, 
straw, Ac, but without success, as the men 
were wounded through the beds and straw, 
before they could reach the doors. So it 
became necessary to wait till night came on, 
when the garrison which occupied this mult 
house would have no other alternative left 
it but to surrender at discretion, or be con- 
sumed to ashes. 

" Edward Fitzgerald and the other chiefs 
deemed it more prudent, however, to raise 
the siege and to take a military position on 
Killcavan Hill for the night, rather than re- 
main before the barracks or malt house ; 
knowing well that General Needham, who 
commanded the English forces at Gorey, ns 
also the English troops at Ferns and New- 
townbarry, would make a forced march to 
relieve Cur new, and, if possible, endeavor 
to obtain some kind of revenge for the de- 
structiou of their favorite Au:ieut Britons; 



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332 



HISTiiKV eh' IRELAND. 




whom they so cowardly abandoned at Bal- 
lycllis to their dismal and well-earned 

loom." 

But these combats were now little more 
than efforts of despair. Fitzgerald, who 
commanded at Ballyellis, not long after sur- 
rendered, along wiili AylnuT, in Odare, 
was detained for some time, theu permitted 

to exile himself, and was known, ill 1803, I" 

lie residing at Hamburg. Mr Fitzgerald 
was a gentleman of large property ami great 
personal accomplishments, and had been 
goaded into resistance by the savage tyran- 
ny which he saw carried on annual him. 
Miles Byrne, after these terrible scenes in 
liis native land, afterwards served in the 
French army for thirty years, lie died a. 
Knight of St. Louis and an officer of the 
Legion of Honor, with this grade of Chef- 
de-Bataillon. 

li is io be remarked of this insurrection 
iii Wexford, that scarcely any of its leaders 
were United Irishmen. Father Murphy, 
who began it, and .some fifteen other clergy- 
men who look an active part in it, mil only 
were not United Irishmen, lint had done 
their utmost to discourage and break ii|i 
that society, in some cases even refusing the 
sacrament to those who were members. 
Therefore, that insurrection was not the re- 
Bull of a conspiracy to make an insurrec- 
tion, but of the acts of the (jiovernment to 
provoke one. 

Next, it is io lie observed that this was 
nut a "Popish" rebellion, although every 
offorl was made in give it a sectarian charac- 
ter — first by disarming and disgracing the 
Catholic yeomanry, next by burning chapels 
mill maltreating priests, and farther by the 
direct incitements ami encouragement given 
tn the ( (range yeomanry, (who were brought 
into the COUnty for the purpose,) to prac- 
tice their favorite plan of exterminating 

Catholics. Yet some of the most trusted 
leaders of the people were I'rolestants ; as 

Harvey, Gl'Ogan, of the two Colchiughs, 

Antony Perry, and Kcogh, Commandant of 

Wexford. There was, it is true, one Pro- 
testant church defaced, as we have seen ; 
but not till long after several Catholic 

chapels had lieen demolished. It may lie 

affirmed, that whatever there was of religious 
rancor iu the contest was the work of the 



Government, through its Orange allies ; and 
with the express purpose of preventing an 
union of Irishmen of all creeds — a thing 
which is felt, to lie incompatible with British 
Government in Ireland. 



CHAPTER XXX VI. 
1798. 

Rising in Dieter— Antrim Saiutfield - Ballinahiuoh 
Insurgents Defeated ■ McCrackcn mid Muaro 
Banged Skirmish in Cork Count) Courts Martial 

Many Executions Hanging of Father Redmond 
Surrender ol Fitzgerald and A) tmer I lompact be- 

t« n Prisoners and Government tn order to Save 

the Lives of Byrne and Bond Compact Violated 
byGoveri n Byrne Hanged Bond Dies Sud- 
denly in Prison- lieign of Terror in Dublin - 
Brothers Sheares Tried Hanged Other Stats 
Trials Curran in Court -"The Three Majors'- 

Birr, Swan, and Sandys TJ Major's People "— 

John Claudius Beresford Tortures in Dublin- 
Country in W'ilil Alarm— Spiked Heads Pit Time 
n» Propose Legislative Union Marquis Cornwallia 
oomeB us Yitrniv in bring about the Union — 
" Impre Lonol Horror "—Apparent Measures to 
End Hi'' Devastations Offers <>f "Protection"— 
Not Efficacious— Testimony of Lord Camden Mm- 

self True .Vceiiunt of the "CoUipaot" *Uinl>"l 
Irishmen sent to fort lieorge. 

Tin: rising of the United Irishmen of Ul- 
ster WaB delayed for two weeks after I lie day 
agreed upon (May 23d) by the arrest of 
some Of their leaders. On the 7th of June, 

however, a nice ting of magistrates having 
been appointed in the town of Antrim, for 
the prevention of rebellion, some insurgents, 

with design of seizing their persons, attacked 

the tow ii at two o'clock in the afternoon, 

and soon overpowering the troops within it, 
very nearly gained possession. Major-tlen- 
eral Nugent, who commanded in that dis- 
trict, having received intelligence of the in- 
tended rising, had ordered a Imdy of troops' 
In march Io Antrim, who arrived after the 
rebels had taken possession of the town. 

'They then attacked the insurgents in the 
town, but their vanguard, consisting of cav- 
alry, being repulsed with the loss of twenty- 
three men killed and wounded, of which 
three were officers, Colonel Durham, who 
commanded the troops, brought the artillery 
to batter the town, which obliged the in- 
surgents to abandon it, together with a 
six-pounder which they had brought with 
them, and two curricle gnus which they had 
taken from the King's army. They were 
pursued towards Shane's Castle and Ran- 



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dal's Town, with considerable slaughter ; 
on this day Lord O'Neil was mortally 
wounded. * A small body made an 
unsuccessful assaull ou the town of Lame, 

and si feeble attempts were also mad.' 

al Ballymena and Ballycastle. The mam 
body of these northern insurgents retired 
to Donegar Hill, where, disgusted with 
their want of success and other circum- 
Btam is, they agreed to surrender their arms, 
and almost all of them dispersed. 

On the mIi "I' June another body of in- 
surgents in the County Down, nciii- Saint 
Geld, under the command of a Dr. Jack on, 
set lii'c to the house of a mini named 
Mackee, an informer against the United 
[rishmen. They placed themselves the next 
day in ambuscade, and nearly surrounded a 
body of troops under Colonel Stapleton, 

consisting of York Feucibles and y< tan 

cavalry, of whom they killed about sixty. 
The infantry, however, on whom the cavalry 
had been driven back in confusion, rallying 
with a coolness not very common in this 
war, succeeded in repulsing their assailants, 

but could not pursue, and ('Mutually them- 
selves retreated to Belfast. The hiss of the 
insurgents was very small. The next day, 
under command of Henry Monro, a shop- 
keeper in Lisburn, they took possession of 
a strong post on Windmill Hill, above the 
little town of Ballinahinch, near the centre 
of the County Down, and at the house and 
in the demesne of Lord Moira. On the 
l'jih, General Nugent, marching from Bel- 
fast, and ( lolonel .Stewart from Dow npatriek, 
formed with fifteen hundred men a junction 
near the Windmill Hill, of which they gained 
possession, together with the town, which 
before the action they wantonly set on fire. 
The action was maintained about three 
hours with artillery, with little or no exe- 
cution. At length, the Mouaghan regi- 
ment Of militia, posted Willi two I'm Id pieces 

at Lord Moira's great gate, was attacked 
with such determined fury by the pikemen 
of the insurgents that it fell back iu disor- 
der. The want of discipline iu the insur- 



* Ho bad ridden Into the town to attend the meet- 

Id j .in,, .I,,)!, ii. ■«, not knowing that the insur- 

in ; i "i It. He ii"i « ho had 

, i : bndio ol iii- hoi ie, after which he was 

Ilia iddlo, and 10 wounded with pikes 

Unit hi died i" -i few dayu. 



gents lost what their valor had gained The 
disordered troops found means to rally, 
while the A.rgylesbire Feucibles, entering 
the demesne, were making their attack on 
another side. The insurgents, confused and 
distracted, retreated up the hill, and making 
a stand at the top, at, a kind of fortification, 
defended the post for some time with great 
courage, but at length gave way and dis- 
persed iu all directions. Their loss exceed- 
ed a hundred ; that, of the royal army not 
above half that number. The main body of 
these insurgents retired to the mountains of 
Slieve Croob, where they soon surrendered 
or separated, returning to their several 
homes ; and thus terminated this short and 
partial, but active insurrection ill the north, 
in the course of which some slighter actions 
had taken place, particularly at 1'orlaferi'y, 
where they were repulsed by the yeomanry. 
They also set. lire to a revenue cruiser, in 
which forty men perished. 

The official bulletin of the affair of Balli- 
nahinch is as follows : — 
" Dum.iN Castle, eleven o'clock, a m , ) 
June 14, 1198. ) 
" Intelligence is just arrived from Major- 
General Nugent, stating that, on the 1 1 if 
instant, he had marched against a large 
body of rebels who were posted at Saint- 
field. They retired on his approach to a 
strong position on the Saint Held side of Bal- 
linahinch, and there made a show of resist- 
ance, and endeavored to turn his left Hank ; 
Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart arriving from 

Down with a pretty considerable force of 

infantry, cavalry, and yi anry, they soon 

desisted, and retired to a very Btrong posi- 
tion behind Ballinahinch. 

"General Nugent attacked them next 
morning at, three o'clock, having occupied 

two hills on the left and right of the town, 
to prevent the rebels from having any other 
choice than the mountains in their rear for 
their retreat. He sent Lieutenant-Colonel 
Stewart to post himself, with part of the Ar- 
... \ le Feucibles and some yeomanry, as well as 
a detachment of the Twenty second Light 
I la oi his, iu a .situation from w hence he could 
enfilade the rebel line ; whilst Colonel Les- 
lie, with part of the Monnghan militia, Bti B 
cavalry, and yeoman infantry, should make 
an attack upon their front. Having two 



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howitzers and six Buc-pounders with the two 
detachments, the Major-General was ena- 

ed to annoy them very Hindi From differ- 
mi parts of liis position. 

"The rebels attacked impetuously Colonel 
Leslie's detachment, and even jumped into 
the road from the Earl of Moira's demesne 
to endeavor to take one of his guns ; Imt. 
they were repulsed with slaughter. Lieu- 
teuaut-Colonel Stewart's detachment was 
attacked by them with the same activity, 
but he repulsed them also, and the fire from 
his howitzer and six-pounder soon obliged 
them lo By in all directions. Their force 
was, on the evening of the L2th, near live 
thousand ; but, as many persons arc pressed 
into their service, ami almost entirely un- 
armed, the genera] does not suppose that, 
on the morning of the engagement, their 
numbers were so many. 

"About four hundred rebels were killed 
in Hie attack ami retreat, and the remainder 
were dispersed all over the couutry. Parts 

nl' the (owns of Saiut field anil llallinahineh 

were burned. . . . Three or four green 
colors were taken, ami six one-pounders, 
not mounted, Imt which the rebels fired 
very often, and a considerable quantity of 
ammunition." 

Of course, the failure in Ulster was ai- 
tended by the usual penally of failure. The 
leader of the Anirim insurgents was Henry 
Joy McCrackea, a manufacturer of Belfast, 
a brave, well-educated, and highly-estimable 
man in the prime of life. Be and some 
others were tried and executed in Belfast 
Monro was carried to Lisburn ami hung al 
Ins own door, his wife ami family being in 
I he house. 

An attempt at insurrection was next 
made in Cork County. The principal ac- 
tion, ami the only one, which Government 
has though! proper to communicate to the 
public, took place near the village of Bally- 
uascarty, where, on the 19th of June, two 
hundred and twenty men of the Westmeath 
regiment of militia, with two Bix-pounders, 
umler the command of their Lieutenant' 
Colonel, Mi 1 Hugh O'Reilly, wire attacked 
on their march from Clognakelty to Bandun, 

by a body of between three and four hun- 
dred men, mostly armed with pikes. The 
attack was made from a height, on the left 




Hi the column BO rapidly and fiercely that 
the troops had scarcely time to form. It 

seems plain, from Sir Hugh O'Reilly's dis- 
patch, that al this moment there was immi- 
nent danger of his detachment being cut to 
pieces, when, Fortunately for him, a hundred 

men of the "Caithness Legion," Under Ma- 
jor I lines, came up on the Hank of the in- 
surgents, anil assailed them with so sharp 
and well-sustained a fire of musketry that, 

O'Reilly had time to rally his me <l got 

his guns into position. At. last, the people 
were forced to retire, lull were not pursued. 
Sir Hugh estimates their loss at One hundred 
and thirty, lie does not lell his own. This 
action took place on the l'.tth of June, 
There remained little to do now but to 

try and execute insurgent leaders by mar- 
tial law. Courts-martial were instituted 
everywhere at the heudi|iiarlers of com- 
manding officers. These terrible tribunals 
were in full action throughout Wexford 

County — in New Ross, Knniscorlhv, Corey, 
New low nbnrry, anil Wexford town "mid 

multitudes were hung or transported. 

Amongst, the executions which caused the 

most horror was that of Father John Red- 
mond, who had absolutely done nothing to 
favor the insurrection, "His body after 
death underwent the most indecent mutila- 
tions." * 

Those Wexford insurgents who remained 

with Mr. Fitzgerald, along with Mr. Ayl- 

mer, as outstanding chiefs, negotiated with 
General Dundas, to whom they surrendered 
on the 12th of July, on condition thai all 
the other leaders who had adveiilnred with 
them should be at liberty to retire whither 

they pleased out of the British dominions. 

The same terms were afterwards secured by 

General Moon' to Mr. Garret Byrne, who 

was sent into confinement in the Castle of 

Dublin, together with Messrs. Fitzgerald 
and Ayhuer, by which they fared much bet- 
ter than those who laid down their arms in 
Wexford, depending on the faithful Fulfill- 
ment of the terms entered into with Lord 
Kingsborough. 

» Gordon's History. Mr. Gordon know Mr. Red- 
i i'l »'ii. ami doolared that daring the Insurrec- 
tion ho \'in mostly hiding in Protestant liousos to 
avoid the " rebels," who oonsidored him u enenrj 

to their ran 10. 



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The plan of proposing terms for saving 
the lives of Mr Oliver Bond and Mr. Byrne 
was proposed throngh Mr. Dobhs, a mem- 
ier of Parliament, That gentleman went 
with the sheriff i<> the prison in which Mr. 
A. O'Connor was confined, on the 24th of 
July, with 11 paper* signed by seventy 
state prisoners, purposing to give such in- 
formation as was in their power of the arms, 
ammunition, Bchemes of warfare, internal 
regulations and foreign negotiations of the 
United Irishmen, provided the lives of 
Messrs. Bond and Byrne should be spared. 
In consequence of this agreement, some 
of the insurgent chiefs, who were Mill in 
iinns, among whom was Mr. Aylmer, of 
Kildarc, Burreudered themselves.*)' Several 
principals of the Union, particularly Arthur 
O'Connor, Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr. Mac- 

• The following ma the agreement signed i>y scv- 
entj three on 1 1 ■ * - "j:nli of July: — 

" Thai the undersigned state prisoners, in the three 
prisons "i Newgate, rlilmainham, and Bridewell, en- 

i < to give every information In their power, of the 
whole of the Internal trananotions of the United Irish- 
men, and thai each of the prisoners shall give de 
toiled information "t every transaction that has pass- 
ed between the TJnited Irishmen and foreign states ; 
bnl thai the prisoners are not, by naming or dosorib 
in^'. to Implicate any person whatover, and thai they 
ire ready to emigrate i<> Buch oonntry as shall be 

igreed on between them and Gover ent, and give 

aeonrity not to return t" ihis oonntry wit] i bhi 

permission of Government, and give security not to 
pa Into an enemy's oonntry, If on tholr bo doing 

they ore to he frei d from proseoul , and ai o )h . 

Oliver Bond hi- permitted t<> take the benefit "i this 

proposal. The Btate pi i- rs also hope, that the 

benefit of ihis proposal may be extended t" suoh 
persons In oustodj . <>i noi In oustodj . a i maj ohoose 
to benefit by it." 

Bio 1 by Beventy three persons. 

20th of July, 1708. 

fin a pamphlet, styled ;i Letter from Arthur 
O'Connor to l .< tr. l Castlercagh, dated from prison, 
January the nh, I V'.ei, that Minister is dircotlj 
. I m [od with a violation of the oontraot, and a mis. 

n pn Bentatlon to Parlli mi of tho transactions be- 

twi ■ □ iiim and the pria rs ol tato. Other charges 

are made, one "i whioh is thai the Information given 
by these prisoners i" Government was garbled, to 
the pni i"' i "i the ministry . and partli ulnrli 
(h ii "i a hundred pages, delivered by O'Connor him- 
solf, only one had been published In tho reports of 

the ocret c Ittees. Binoe n> this pamphlot, in 

whioh his lordship is peremptorily ohallei d to dl 

prove any "i tho i sin made, no i eply has 

■. .' i, i\ . ..ni\ tin honor "i ois lord ihip for 
u disproof <»l tl . a. a asations, s hah may be u vin- 
dication i" persons onacquaintod with tiis lordship 1 
oharacter. The pamphlet was said to have been 

suppressed bj Goven int, at least was not other- 

v i i i San , landi itinerj sold and circulated. 



N'mii, I S;in I Neilson, gave details on 

oath in their examinations before the secret 
committees of the two Bouses of Parlia- 
ment, in whose reports, although garbled 
and falsified, published by authority of Gov- 
ernment, is contained n mass of information 
concerning the conspiracy. Y<t certain it 
is, thai whatever were the original terms of 
the contract, and by whatever subsequent 

events th( utractora were influenced or 

affected, the principal prisoners (fifteen in 
number) were not liberated, and a power 
was reserved or assumed l>y ministers to 
retain them in custody, at least during the 
continuance of the war with Prance. Oliver 
Bond died in the meantime in prison, "of 
apoplexy," as was given out; bul the friends 
of this gentleman believe to the present 
hour that he was murdered at night by one 
of the jailers or turnkeys of Newgate prison 
— for what cause or at whose instigation 
was never known. The other prisoner, 
Byrne, to save whose life, along with that. 

of I! I, the contract was expressly made — 

was hung. 

During the whole time of the insurrec- 
tion the city of Dublin was held under 
strict military law. A large force, consist- 
ing chiefly of yeomanry, was kepi constantly 
in the metropolis. The grand and royal 
canals, which were fifty feel broad and 
twelve deep, were a security against a sur- 
prise ; and the several bridges were strongly 
palisaded, and guarded both 1 >y night and 
by day. The trials and executions of some 
of the principal leaders iii the rebellion tend- 
ed to Keep others in awe, and prevented 

any further attempts of individuals. An g 

others, an insurgent officer, a Protestant, 
named Bacon, having been apprehended dis- 
guised in female apparel, was executed cm 
the 2d of June, near Carlisle bridge. On 
the Nth, was executed, on the same scaf- 
folding, Lieutenant Esmond. On the 12th 
of .Inly, Henry and John SheaiTS "ere 
brought to trial, condemned, and soon after 
put i" death. The trial of John M'Cann, 
who had been Secretary of the Provinciul 
Committee of Leinster, followed <>n the 
nth ; that of Michael William Byrne, dele- 
gate from the County (' lillee of Wick- 

low, and that of Oliver Bond, on the 23d 

Mr. Cumin was the leading counsel on all 



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HISTORY OF ICELAND, 




these trials ; and it was a service of daDger. 
The Court was usually crowded with armed 
men ; and as the undaunted advocate deliv- 
ered his powerful and indignant pleadings, 
often at midnight, amidst a hostile and 
menacing audience, the lamplight glittered 
upon serried bayonets, and he was some- 
times interrupted by a clash of arms. 
"What is that?" he sternly exclaimed, ou 
the trial of Oliver Bond. "The question 
was occasioned by a clash of arms among 
the military that thronged the Court. Some 
of those who were nearest to the advocate 
appeared, from their looks and gestures, 
about to oiler him personal violence ; upon 
which, fixing his eye sternly upon them, he 
exclaimed : ' You may assassinate, but you 
shall not intimidate me.'"* 

While the insurrection was raging in 
Wexford, aud capital convictions and execu- 
tions were very frequent all over the coun- 
try, it must be supposed that the people of 
Dublin were in a state of profound alarm, 
sometimes real and genuine terror, some- 
limes a factitious alarm, created by the 
agents of Government to furnish excuse for 
brutal acts of severity. Then was the 
reign of the " three Majors," Sirr, Swan, 
and Sandys. These men had been officers 
of the militia ; and all in a sufficient ly-dc- 
ccnt rank of life— the last-named, indeed, 
was brother-in-law to Mr. tinder-Secretary 
Cooke. This triumvirate were now really 
the rulers of Dublin ; and the most indis- 
pensable of all the agencies of I he Castle. 
Their services chiefly consisted in organizing 
and maintaining a band of wretches, who 
were employed at the assizes throughout the 
country, but, especially in the vicinity of 
Dublin, as informers. They were known to 
the people by the name of the " Batallion 
of Testimony." 

It is said, on high authority, that the em- 
ployment of spies ami informers tends rather 
to the increase than the suppression of 
crime, and that, a good government has no 
need of their infamous services. One thing 
is certain, that their services were thought 
useful to a bad government ; and the same 
Circumstance that rendered their services 
necessary, made their infamy a matter of 
little moment to their employers. From the 
* Life of Curran. Uy his son. 




year 
stc< 



1796 to 1800, a set of miscreants, 
in crime, sunk in debauchery, prone 

to violence, and reckless of character, con- 
stituted what was called the " Major's 
People." A number of these people were 
domiciled within the gates of the Castle, 
where there were regular places of enter- 
tainment allotted for them contiguous to the 
Viceroy's palace; for another company of 
them, a house was allotted opposite Kilninin- 
ham jail, familiarly known to the people by 
the name of the "Stag House;" and lor 
one batch of them, who could not be trusted 
with liberty, there was one ol the yards of 
that prison, witli the surrounding cells, as- 
signed to them, which is still called the 
" Stag Yard." These persons were consid- 
ered under the immediate protection of 
Majors Sirr, Swan, and Sandys, ami to in- 
terfere with them in the course of their du- 
ties as spies or witnesses, was to incur the 
vengeance of their redoubtable patrons. 

Sandys had been a captain in the Long- 
ford militia. Shortly after Ins marriage*Svith 
the sister of the under-Secretary's wife, Ik 
was appointed Brigade-Major to the garri 
son of Dublin. In 1191, '98, and '99, he 
presided over the Prevot Prison, in the 
Royal Barracks, a filthy, close, dark, and 
pestilential place of confinement, with a 
small court-yard, and some ill-constructed 
sheds, set up to afford increased accommoda- 
tion for the multitude of persons daily sent 
to the depot. 

Major Sandys carried on a regular trade 
in the official advantages of his fund ions in 
the I'revot. He sold indulgences to the 
state prisoners, of a little more than the or- 
dinary scant allowances of air, light, and 
food. He sold exemption from the taws 
aud triangles for money aud for goods, for 
every marketable commodity. 

Tiie court-yard of that miserable den was 
ringing forever, by day and by night, with" 
the shrieks of wretches scourge, 1 at the 
Major's triangles, to extort confessions, or to 
force the prisoners to make statements iu- 
culpating others. The court in the rear of 
the Royal Exchange was another place of 
torture; but, perhaps, the most dreadful 
scene of continual lacerations, pitch-cup- 
pings, and picketings, in Dublin, was in the 
Riding-School in Marlborough street, where 



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the panishmcnta were administered under 
the eye and by the direction of Mr. Johu 
Claudius Beresford, a scion of the great 
house of Waterford.* Yet, in a debate in 
the English House of Commons, in March, 
1801, on the Irish Martial Law bill, in re- 
ply to an observation with respect to the use 
of torture, made by Mr. Taylor, Lord Cas- 
tlereagh had certainly the boldness to affirm, 
that " torture never was inflicted in Ireland, 
with the knowledge, authority, or approba- 
tion of Government." Mr. John Claudius 
Beresford, who was the most competent of 
all men to speak on that subject, observed, 
thai " it was unmanly to deny torture, as it 
was notoriously practiced ;" and in a subse- 
quent debate in the House of Lords, on 
another occasion, in the Imperial Parlia- 
ment, Lord ("hire avowed the practice, and 
defended it on the grounds of its necessity. 

No specific orders, undoubtedly, emanated 
from the Government to Mr. Beresford to 
convert the Hiding-School into a scourging- 
hall — to Mr. Hepenstal to make a walkicg- 
gallows of his person — to Mr. Love for the 
half-hanging of suspected rebels at Kilkea 
Castle -to Mr. Hunter (Jowan for burning 
down the cabins of the croppies — to the 

High Sheriff of Tipperary for the laceration 
of the peasant's back, of which Sir John 
Moore was an eye-witness — to Captain 
Swaine for the picketings at Prosperous, or 
Sir Richard Mnsgrave for writing a treatise 
in defence of torture ; or to all the other 
gentlemen of "discernment and fortitude" 
for adopting " the new expedient " for dis- 
covery ol' crime. 

"But," observes Dr. Madden, "it is in 
vain, utterly futile and fruitless, to deny the 
constant use of torture in 1197 and 1798, 
in the Riding-House, Marlborough street, 
under the direction of John Claudins Beres- 
ford, and in the Prevot Prison in the Royal 
Barracks, then gover I by Major Sandys, 

brother-in-law to Mr. nnder-Secretary Cooke, 
(Lord Castlereagh's chief official in the Sec- 
Ktary's office ;) occasionally, too, in the 
Royal Exchange, and in the small vacant 
spare adjoining the entrance to the Upper 

* Dr. Madden tins gone to the trouble of collecting 
a great ninny of the authentic cases of half-hangings, 

seourgings, and other tortures inflicted in those days. 
43 



Castle Yard, immediately behind the offices 
of Lord Castlereagh, and having on the op- 
posite side the back part of the Exchange 
where, under the very windows of Lord Cos 
tlercagh's office, the triangles were set up 
for fastening the wretches to, who were 
flogged — tortured even to death." 

There was at that time a military order 
enforced in Dublin, that every householder 
should expose a list, on his front, door of all 
the inmates of his house ; but this observ- 
ance being complied with by no means in- 
sured families against domiciliary visits 
from the military, or from the "Major's 
People," whenever there was any suspicion 
that obnoxious persons or papers might be 
secreted there. There are still alive many 
who recollect the terror and agony of house- 
holds when invaded by these odious wretches, 
who did not generally confine themselves to 
their ostensible errand, but insulted women 
and girls, and carried off valuable plate. 
One instance of this is mentioned in a speech 
of Curran, where a silver cup was taken 
possession of because it had engraved upon 
it the words Erin go hragh ! The accounts 
of pay ami weekly "subsistence money," 
given to the "Major's People," as well as 
to other common swearers, are extant, and 
may be read in the collections of Dr. Mad- 
den. When it is remembered that scenes 
similar to these were passing iu every town, 
as well us Dublin ; that many bridges and 
"gallows-hills" showed their blackening 
corpses swinging in the winds; that in front 
of many court-houses, and over the gate- 
ways of many jails, ghastly heads were grin- 
ning upon spikes,* while every hour gave 
birth to some new and fearful rumor of hor- 
rors yet, unknown, some idea may bo formed 
of the Terror in Ireland. 

The country was now, therefore, precisely 



•On the trial of John Magee for libel, in 1818, 
O'Oonnell, in his memorable Bpeech <>n that occasion, 
thus alludes to Toler, (Lord Norbury.) when em- 
ployed mi special issinns: "Win, in one cir- 
cuit, during the administration of the cold-hearted 
ami cruel Camden, there were mie hundred individ- 
uals tried before One judge; of these, ninety-eight 
were capitally convicted, and ninety-seven hanged ! 
One escaped, but he uas a soldier, who murdered a 
peasant— a thing of a trivial nature. Ninety-seven 
victims in *>>tf circuit I .' " 

Toler was Solicitor-General in 179S, but was some- 
times put on the Commission, and went circuit. 



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HISTOKY OF IRELAND. 



in the frame of mind which Mr. Pitt con 
sidered favorable for facilitating his favorite 
measure, a Legislative Union. Divided in- 
to two bitterly hostile parties, vindictive 
age on the one side, affright and despond- 
ency on (he other — the United Irish Society 
ruined, partly by the savage extirpation of 
Catholic insurgents, partly by the defection 

of the Republican Presbyterians of the 
North, and the mutual distrust which had 
been carefully sown between these two sec- 
tions of that organization -all hope of either 
Catholic Emancipation or Reform (through 
an Irish Parliament) being now apparently 
adjourned to an indefinite futurity, it was 
believed that the parties would, at last, be 

led to throw themselves into the arms of 

England, Who would know how to lake care 
of them all. Accordingly, Lord Camden, 
having done his office in stirring up rebel- 
lion, was recalled, and the Marquis Corn- 
wallis, already unfavorably known in two 
worlds, arrived in Ireland on the 20th day 
of June — the very day before the battle of 
Vinegar Hill — to assume the reins of gov- 
ernment, but invested, besides the vice-regal 
power, with the additional authority of 
Commander of the forces. It appeared that 
the instructions of this nobleman were to 
moderate by degrees the horrible rage of 
extermination. The estimates given of his 
character and conduct by contemporary 
Irish writers are wonderfully various. Sir 
Jonah Harrington says of him : " Lord 
Cornwallis was now selected to complete 
the project of a Union, and Lord Onstle- 
reagh was continued as Chiei Secretary. 
His system was of all others the most artful 
and insidious ; he affected impartiality while 
lie was deceiving both parties; he encour- 
aged the United Irishman, and he roused 
the royalist ; one day he destroyed, the 
next, day he was merciful. His system, 
however, had not exactly the anticipated 
effect. Everything gave reason to expect a 
restoration of tranquillity ; but it was 
through the impression of horror alone that 
a union could be effected ; and he had no 
time to lose, lest the country might recover 
its reason." 

Mr. l'lowden, on the other hand, who 
was devoted to the measure of a union, and 
was himself already writing pamphlets in its 



favor, can find no terms strong enough in 
lauding Lord Cornwallis. He says : "This 
appointment, in this critical juncture, ap 
pears, under Providence, to have been the 
immediate salvation of Ireland, not only by 
putting an immediate check upon the uncon- 
trolled ferociousness of the soldiery, by 
Stopping military executions, suspending the 
sentences of courts-martial till he had him- 
self revised the minutes, by converting the 
system of coercion and terrorism into that 
of conciliation, by gaining tire affections of 
(he people, by drawing upon himself the 
hatred of the Orangemen, by bringing to hear 
/lie incorporate union with Great Britain, 
as the efficient means of redressing popular 
grievances, and crushing the seeds of per- 
petual feuds and acrimony kept up chiefly 
by the subsistence of Orangcisin." 

Lord Cornwallis certainly did, not long 
after his arrival, begin to interpose a clink 
upon the bloody work then going on in Wex- 
ford. On the liS t li of June, after the heads 
of the Wexford leaders had been duly spiked 
in front of the jail, and the yeomanry cav- 
alry had glutted themselves lor one whole 
week with carnage and conflagration, pick- 
etings, and scoiirgings, Lord Lake was re- 
moved from command in that quarter, and 
it was given to General Hunter, with direc- 
tions to put an end to the indiscriminate 
slaughter. A proclamation was issued and 
printed in the Dublin Gazette, but not till 
the 3d of July (thus giving the Orange- 
men one other week's bloody carnival) — 
authorizing His Majesty's generals to give 

protections on certain terms. The proclama- 
tion is ill these words : — 

" Whereas, it is in the power of His Ma- 
jesty's generals, and of the forces under 
their command, entirely to destroy all those 
who have risen in rebellion, against their 
sovereign and his laws: yet it is neverthe- 
less the wish of Government, that those per- 
sons who, by traitorous machinations, have 
been seduced, or by acts of intimidation, 
have been forced from their allegiance, should 
be received into His Majesty's peace and 

pardon, commanding in the county 

of specially authorized thereto, does 

hereby invite all persons who may lie now 
assembled in any part of the said county 
against His Majesty's peace, to surrender 



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themselves and their arms, and ii> desert the 
leaders who have seduced them ; and for the 
acceptance ol such surrender and submission 

the spoi f fourteen days from the date 

liereol i- allowed, and the towns of 





me hereby specified, al each of which places 

one (if His Majesty's officers and a Justice 

of the Peace will attend ; and upon entering 
their names, acknowledging their guilt, and 
promising good behavior for the future, 

and taking the oath of allegiance, and, at 
the same time, abjuring all other engage- 
ments contrary thereto, they will receive a 
certificate, which will entitle them to protec- 
tion so long as they demean themselves us 
becomes good subjects. 

" And, in order to render such acts of 
submission easy anil secure, it is the general's 
pleasure that persons who arc now with any 
portion of the rebels in arms, and willing to 
surrender themselves, do send to him, or to 

any number from each body of 

rebels not exceeding ten, with whom the 

j i:d, or will settle the manner 

in which they may repair to the above towns, 
BO that no alarm may be exeited, and no in- 
jury to their persons be offered. 

"June 29, 1798." 

Then follows the form of certificate of 
"protection." Next, on the 11th of July, 
a message from the Viceroy was read in the 
House of Commons, signifying the King's 
pleasure that an " Amnesty act" should be 
passed, with certain conditions and large ex- 
ceptions. Accordingly, such a bill was 
passed in favor of all rebels who had not 
been leaders ; who had not committed man- 
slaughter, except in the heat of battle, and 
who should comply with the conditions men- 
tioned in the proclamation. But, practi- 
cally, there was no cessation, at least in the 

unhappy County of Wexford, of the horrors 
of military outrage, even after the procla- 
mation. General Hunter, indeed, seems to 
have endeavored to appease the minds of 
the people, and restore confidence and tran- 
quillity to that distracted country. 

But some principal gentlemen of the 
county, and others besides, attempted to 
interpose their authority to supersede the 
tenor of the general pardon held out by 
proclamation, pursuing the same line of ar- 
bitrary conduct which they had practiced 



previous to the insurrection. They even pro- 
ceeded to the length of presuming to tear 
some of the protections, which the country 
people had obtained ; but this coming to the 

General's knowledge, he quieted them by 

threatening to have them tied to a cart's 
tail and whipped. Others hail been rash 
enough to levy arbitrary contributions for 
the losses they had sustained during the in- 
surrection. A curate was induced to wait 
on the General with an account of an intend- 
ed "massacre" of the Protestants, which he 
detailed with the appearance of the utmost 
alarm, and was patiently heard out, by the 
General, who then addressed him with this 
marked appellation and strong language : — 
" .1/;-. Massacre, if you do not. prove to me 
the circumstances you have related, I shall 

get you punished in the most exemplary 
manner, for raising false alarms, which have 
already proved so destructive to this unfor- 
tunate country." The curate's alarm in- 
stantly changed its direction and became 
personal ; and on allowing that his fears 
had been excited by vague report to make 
this representation, his piteous supplication, 
and apparent contrition, procured him for- 
giveness. 

The various outrages that were committed 
in the country, prevented numbers from com- 
ing into the quarters of the several com- 
manding officers to obtain protections, us 
many of the yeomen and their supplenicnt- 
aries continued the .system of conflagration, 
and shooting such of the peasantry as they 
met ; and this necessarily deterred many 
from exposing themselves to their view, and 
prevented, of course, the humane and mod- 
erate intentions of the present, govern- 
ment from having their due effect. The mel- 
ancholy consequence of such a system of 
terror, persecution, and alarm, had very 
nearly brought on the extermination of an 
extensive and populous tract of the County 
of Wicklow, called the Macomores ; the 

perpetrati if the plan was providentially 

prevented by the timely and happy interven- 
tion of Brigade-Major Fitzgerald, under the 
directions and orders of General Hunter. 
Incessant applications and remonstrances had 
been made by different magistrates in Corey 
and its vicinity to Government, complaining 
that this range of country was infested with 



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constant meetings of rebels, who committed 
every species of Outrage, and these reports 
were confirmed by affidavits ; they were 
credited by Government, to whom they were 
handed in by a magistracy presumed to be 
deliberate, grave, and respectable ; the Vice- 
roy was rendered indignanl at these reiter- 
ated complaints, and orders were sent to the 
different generals and other commanding 
officers, contiguous to the devoted tract, to 
form a line alone- its e\!ent on the western 
border, and at both ends, north and south, 
on the land side, so as to leave no resource 

to the wretched inhabitants, who were to be 
slaughtered by the soldiery, or to be driven into 
the sea, as it is bounded by the Channel on 
tho eastward. Even women and children 
were to be included in this terrific example. 
The execution of this severe exemplary mea- 
sure was intrusted to the discretion of Gen- 
eral Hunter, who fortunately discovered the 
inhuman misrepresentation that had produced 
those terrific orders. The devoted victims 
found an opportunity to implore protection 
from the incursions of the black mob (they 
thus denominated the supplementuries to the 
different corps of yeomanry) who wreaked 
their vengeance even upon those who had re- 
ceived protection from General Needham, at 
Gorey, as different parties of the soldiery and 
yeomanry waited their return in ambush, 
and slaughtered every one they could over- 
take. 

This prevented many from coming in for 
protection. Afterwards these sanguinary 
banditti made incursions into the country, 
tired into the houses, thus killing' and wound- 
ing many unoffending peasants. Several 
houses after being plundered were burned, 
and the booty was brought into Gorey. By 
the frequency of these horrible excesses and 
depredations, such houses as remained tin- 
burned were of course crowded with several 
families, and this multiplied the number of 
victims at each succeeding incursion. At 
last, most of the inhabitants took refuge on 
the hills, and armed themselves with every 
offensive weapon they could procure. 

The false alarmists were not depressed by 
several discomfitures, for although General 
Hunter reported the country to be in a per- 
fect state of tranquillity, they again returned 
to the charge, and renewed their luisrcpre 



sen tat ions. Mr. Hawtry White, Captain 
of the Ballaghkeen Cavalry, and a Justice 

of the Peace lor the county, sent several in- 
formations lo Government of the alarming 
state of the country ; and the commanding 
officer at Gorey was si) far persuaded of the 
intention of a general rising, that he quitted 
the town and encamped on a hill above it. 
These representations, made under the sem- 
blance of loyalty, had not, however, the 
wished-for weight with the Government. 
General 11 miter was ordered to inquire into 
the information of Mr. Hawtry White. 
Major Fitzgerald was again sent out, and 
the result of his inquiry was, that the infor- 
mation was unfounded. Upon this the Gen- 
eral ordered Mr. Hawtry White to be 
brought to Wexford, and he was accordingly 
conducted thither and put under arrest ; and 
on his still persisting in his false representa- 
tions, he was conducted to the island, where, 
he asserted, the rebels were encamped, and, 
lo I no island appeared above the water. 
Mr. Hawtry While was conducted buck to 
Wexford, atal General Hunter determined 
to bring him to a court-martial. Many 
gentlemen and ladies, however, interfered in 
the most earnest manner to prevent this in- 
vestigation, representing that Mr. White's 
great age might have subjected him to 
the imposition of fabricated information ; 
and the firmness of the General relaxed at 
the instance of so many respectable per- 
sons. 

To show how very far the people of the 
country were really protected by the pro- 
clamations and protections, announced by 
Lord Cornwallis, it will be needful only to 
give one or two extracts from the " Memoirs 

and Correspondence" of that uobleman, pub- 
lished many years later : — 

[ Extract of n Idler of Lord Cornwallis lo 
Ik,- Duke, of Portland, dated the Hl/i of 
July, 1798.] 

"The Irish militia are totally without dis- 
cipline, contemptible before the enemy when 
any serious resistance is made to them, but 
ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any 
poor wretches, either with or without arms, 
come within their power — in short, murder 
appears to be their favorite pastime." — 
(Vol. ii., p. 357.) 



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| Extract of a Uttn fr< m Warqv.it ( torn 
ir,il/i\ to Major General Ross, | 
" ill r.i.i . (\ ill , July 34, 1798. 

" Bxcept in the insiin s of tlio six Btato 

trials thai mv golug on hero, tlioro I no 

law oithor in ton • country but muvtial 

law, and you know enough of that to boo 
nil tho horrors of It, ovan In the bosl admin 
htratlon of ii Judge, then, how ll nans! 
I it oonduoted by Irishmen, heated «iili pas 

il mil rovenge. But nil this is n tiling 

oompared to the nnmberless murdors thai 
are hourly oommitted by our people withoul 

any proce i or exam tlon « hatever The 

yeomanry ore In the Btyle of the loyalists In 
America, only much more numerous and 
powerful, and a thousand times more foro 
clous, Those men have saved the country, 
Inii they now take the load in rapine aud 
murder. The Irish militia, with few officers, 
iukI those chiefly of the worst kind, follow 

olosoly "ii the heels of the y< anr) In mur 

der mnl every kind of atrocity, and the fon 
oiblea take a Bhare, although much behind- 
hand »iili the others, The feeble outrugi . 
burnings, and murders, w*hloh are Btill com- 
mitted by the rebels, Berve to keep up the 

1 : 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 1 1 m i - v .Ii po M i our Bide ; aud as 

long us they furnish o pretext forourparties 
going in quasi of them, I see no pro peel of 
amendment. 

"The conversation of the principal per- 
sons of the country nil tends to encourage 

this system of blood ; and the convor al 

even al my table, where you will Buppose I do 

nil | run to prevent It, always turns on hi 

lug, shooting, burning, dec ; and if a priest 
i i:i been put to death, tho greatesl joy is 

expressed by the whole company. So i -li 

for [roland and my wretched situation." 
^ ol u |.. 808). 

The Marquis Oornwallis issued the fol 
lowing "Qonoral Orders," with the view of 
n ,i raining the murderouB and rapaciou 
oonducl of the troops in Ireland, dated 
Augu i 81, 1798 :— 

•• ii is u ii li great c lern thai l iord I lorn 

wallis finds himself obliged to call on the 
general officers aud the commanding officers 
of regiini ni in particular, and in general ou 
officers of the army, to ossis! him in putting 
,, top to the lid iitlous conduct of the troops, 
aud hi .urn • the wretched Inhabitants from 



being robbed, and In the most shocking man* 
nor ill treated, by tho le to n hom they had a 
ii- Li in Link for Bttfety and protection, 
" Lord Ooruwallis declare that if he limls 

that the Boldiors of anj Imonl have had 

opportunities of committing those excesses 
from tho negligence of thoir officers, he will 
ke those officers answerable for their con- 
duct ; and that if any soldiers are caught 
either In the aot of robbery, or »iili the 
articles of plunder in their posso Bion, t ln-y 
shall be Instantly tried, and immediate exe 
cation shall follow tholr conviction." 

The editor of the Oornwallis me Irs in- 
forms n . 1 1> 1 8, vol. in , i iliui bet "ii'ii the 
landing of the French, lu tho autumn of 
i i us, mill the mouth of February, 1190, 
in period of lour months,) although there 
were three hundred aud eighty porsous tried 
by court martial, our hundred and thirty one 

capitally ( vioted, and ninety exocutod, yet 

the number of tho latter fell short of what 
•• the loyal party expected and desired " 
mill bo mills, " Many persons in England, as 
well as in Ireland, who were considered mild 
mill temperate In their views, severely cen- 
sured what they termed a ruinous \ tern of 
lenity; nor was the British Government 
free from n participation In such reelings." 

At p. 90, vol. 111., we find tho following 
ni, ervatlons : 

"To Dr. Duigenan's letter Lord Oastle 
ruagh repliod on tho tiili of March, 1199, 
that, oxcluslve of nil prisons tried at the 
assizes, Lord Oornwallis had deoided per- 
sonally upon lour hundred oases; thai out 

nf our hundred and thirty our idemned to 

,lr:ii li, eight j one had been executed ; and 

i ii i - hundred and eighteen persons bad 

been transported or bauiBhed, in pur ua 

ui i Lr Bontencos of courts martiul, siuce Lord 
t 'niiiu allis had orrivod In Ireland." 

| Extract from a letter of Marquis Conwal 
Ir.ir \fajm General Ross, April 15, 1799. 

" Vmi write as If you really bolieved that 
there was any foundation for all the lies and 
nonsensical rl.nuor about ray lenity, <>n my 
arrival in this country I put a slop to the 
buruiug of lion oa and murder pf the inhabi 
tauts by the yeomen, or anj other porsons 

who delighted in that u Bement ; to the 

i [|ng for iiu' purpose of extorting con- 



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fession ; and to the free quarters, whicl 
comprehend universal rape and robbery 

throughout the whole country." — (Vol. iii., 
p. 89.) 

Wo have seen that the clamor about. 
Lord Corn wall is' clemency was in reality 
"nonsensical," as he declares; and that ho 
is not even to be credited with the amount 
of lenity to which he himself lays claim. In 
fact, it is altogether impossible to believe 
that, with the immense military force then 
in Ireland, and of which lie was absolute 
Commander-in-Chief, be could not (if lie 

would) have put a stop to the murders and 

depredations upon the now defenceless peo- 
ple. The only admissible theory of his eon- 
duet is, that lie bad instructions to keep 
alive what Barrington calls the "impres- 
sion of horror," until the Union shonld be 
effectuated. 

All this time there was nothing changed 
in the state of things in Dublin itself. The 
three majors and their " people " still pre- 
dominated with absolute sway, and the 
state trials were proceeding, before carefully 
packed juries, of course. It, was under this 
lenient and conciliatory Comwallis that 
some of the best, and worthiest gentlemen 
of Ireland were hunted to death by the 
basest of mankind, with the prostituted 
forms of law, before judges predetermined 
to convict, and juries of Orangemen specially 
brought together by perjured sheriffs, nol 
to try, but simply to hang. The two broth- 
ers Sheares were hung ami beheaded in 
front of Newgate prison on the 22d of .Inly, 
(a month after the accession of Comwallis 
to the viceroyalty.) Byrne and Bond were 
bolh convicted and sentenced to death. It 
Was at this moment that the "compact" 
already mentioned was entered into by cer- 
tain of the slate prisoners with the Govern- 
ment, with a view of stopping, if possible, 
the further effusion of blood, and specifically 
and expressly of saving the lives of Byrne 

and Oliver Bond. As the Government not 

only violated that compact, but, made it the 
occasion of slandering men to whom all was 
lost except their honor, it, is necessary, in 
justice to those best and purest of Irish 
patriots, to record the actual fads. They 
are to be found in the collections of the 
laborious Dr. Madden. 



The account of the compact of the state 
prisoners with the Irish Government, taken 
from the original draft of that, document in 
the handwriting of Thomas Adilis Emmet, 
John Sweetman, ami William James Mae- 
Neven, was drawn up by them in Prance, 
on their liberation from Fort, George, ami 
remained in the possession of John Sweet- 
man. The following part of the statement 
is in the handwriting of Thomas A. Em- 
I : — 

" We, the undersigned, until this day 
slate prisoners and in close custody, fee] 
that the first, purpose to which we should 
apply our liberty is to give to the world a 
short account of a transaction which has 
been grossly misrepresented and falsified, 
but respecting which we have been com- 
pelled to silence for nearly the last three 
years. The transaction alluded to is the 
agreement entered into by us anil Other 

stale prisoners with the Irish Government, 
at the close of the month of .Inly, 1198; 
and we take this step without hesitation, 
because it can in nowise injure any of our 
friends and former fellow-prisoners, we being 
among the last victims of perfidy and breach 
Of faith. 

" From the event of the battles of Antrim 
and Ballinahinch, early in June, it was 
manifest that the northern insurrection had 
failed in consolidating itself. The seven! 
battle of Vinegar Hill, on the 21st of the 
same month, led to its termination in Leius- 
ter ; and the capitulation of Ovidstown, on 
the 12th of July,* may be understood as 
the last public appearance in the Held of 

any body capable of serving as n rallying 
point. In short, the insurrection, for every 
useful purpose that, could be expected from 
it, was at an end; but blood still continued 
to How — courts-martial, special commissions, 
and, above all, sanguinary Orangemen, now 
rendered doubly malevolent and revengeful 
from their recent terror, desolated the conn- 
try, and devoted to death the most virtuous 
of our countrymen. These were lost to lib- 

* The event preoeding tin 1 massaore of the oapita- 
Lated body of tin* United Irishmen, en the Rath of 
the Ourragh of Kildare, by thi tnmand of Major- 
General Sir James Duff, exoouted ohiefly by the 
yeomanry oavalry of Captain Bagot, ami the 
Fox-hunters' Voiys, commanded, by Lord Ho- 
den. 



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TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE "COMPACT. 



arty, while she was gaining nothing by the 
sacrifice. 

"Such was the situation of affairs when 
the idea, of entering into a, compact witli 
Government was conceived by one of tin' 
undersigned, ami communicated to tin' rest 
of us conjointly with the other prisoners 
confined in the Dublin prisons, by the terms 

of which compact it was intended that as 

much mighl lie saved anil as little given up 
as possible. It was the more urgently 
pressed upon our minds, and the more 
quickly matured, by the impending fate of 
two worthy men. Accordingly, on the 24th 
of July, the state prisoners began a negotia- 
tion with Government, and an agreement 

was finally < eluded, by the persons named 

by their fellow-prisoners, at the Castle of 
Dublin, and was finally ratified by the Lord 
Chancellor, Lord Castlereagh, ami Mr. 

Cooke, three of the Kind's ministers. In 
no part of this paper were details or perfect 
accuracy deemed necessary, because the 
ministers, and particularly Lord Castle- 
reagh, frequently and .solemnly declared 
that it should in every part be construed 
by Government with the utmost, liberality 
and good faith ; and particularly the last 
clause was worded in this loose manner to 
comply with the express desire of the minis- 
ters, who insisted upon retaining to Govern- 
ment lie- entile popularity of the measure ; 
but if was clearly and expressly understood, 
and positively engaged, that every leading 
man, not guilty of deliberate murder, should 
be included in the agreement who should 
choose to avail himself of it, in as full and 
ample a manner as the contracting parlies 
themselves, and that there should be a 
geueral amnesty, with the same exceptions, 
for the body of the people. 

"We entered into this agreement the 
more readily, because it appeared to us that 
by it the public cause lost, nothing. We 
Knew, from the different examinations of the 

state prisoners before the IVivy Council, 
and from conversations with ministers, that 
Government was already in possession of all 
the important knowledge which they could 
Obtain from us. Fjom whence they derived 
their information was not entirely known to 
us, but it is now manifest that Reynolds, 
M'Ginn, and Hughes— not to speak of the 



minor informers -had put them in posses- 
sion of every material fact, respecting the 
internal state of the Union ; and it, was 
from particular circumstances well known 
to one of us, and entirely believed by the 
rest, that its external relations had been 
betrayed to the English Cabinet, through 
the agency of a foreigner with whom we 
negotiated. 

"This was even so little disguised that, 
on the preceding 12th of March, the con- 
tents of a memoir which had been prepared 
by one of the undersigned at Hamburg, 
and transmitted thence to Paris, were 
minutely detailed to him by Mr. Cooke. 
Nevertheless, those with whom we nego- 
tiated seemed extremely anxious for our 

( imunications. Their reasons for this 

anxiety may have been many, but two, par- 
ticularly, suggested themselves to our minds. 
They obviously wished to give proof to the 
enemies of an Irish republic and of Irish in- 
dependence of the facts with which they 
were themselves well acquainted ; while, at 
the same time, they concealed from the 
world their real sources of intelligence. Nor 
do we believe we arc uncharitable in attrib- 
uting to them the hope and wish of render- 
ing unpopular and suspected men in whom 
the United Irishmen had been accustomed 
to place an almost unbounded confidence. 
The injurious consequences of Government 
succeeding in both these objects were merely 
personal; and, as they were no more, though 
they were revolting and hateful to the last 
degree, we did not hesitate to devote our- 
selves that, we might make terms for our 
country. 

"What were these terms? That it 
should be rescued from civil and military 
execution; that a truce should be obtained 
for liberty, which she so much required. 
There was also another strongly-impelling 
motive for entering into this agreement. If 
Government, on the one hand, was desirous 
of rousing its dependents by a display of 
the vigorous and well -Concerted measures 
that were taken for subverting its authority 
and shaking oil' the English yoke; so we, 
on the other hand, wire not less solicitous 
for the vindication of our cause in the eyes 
of the liberal, the enlightened, and patriotic. 
Wc perceived that, in making a lair and 





LhQ .CffLnrwa,^ 






344 



H 



;.-. 




candid development of those measures we 
should bo enabled boldly to avow and justify 
the cause of Irish union, as being founded 
npon the purest principles of benevolence, 
unil as aiming only at the liberation of Irc- 
hi ml. We felt that we could rescue our 
brotherhood from those foul imputations 
which had been industriously ascribed to it — 
the pursuit of the most unjust objects by 
means of the most, flagitious crime. 

" If our country has not actually bene- 
fited lo the extent of our wishes and of our 
stipulations, let it be remembered that this 

has not been owing to the compact, but to 
the breach of the compact — the gross and 
flagrant breach of it, both as to the letter 
and spirit, in violation of every principle of 
plighted faith and honor. 

" Haviug been called upon to fulfill our 
part of the compact, a stop being put to all 
further trials and executions, a memoir was 

drawn up and sinned by two of the under- 
signed, together with another of the body, 
(they being selected by Government for 
that purpose,) and was presented to Mr. 
Cooke on the 4th of August. It was very 
hastily prepared in a prison, and, of course, 
not so complete and accurate as it might 
otherwise have been ; but sufficiently so to 
draw from Mr. Cooke an acknowledgment 
that it was a complete fulfillment of the 
agreement; though he said the Lord-Lieu- 
tenaut wished to have it so altered as not to 
be a justification Of the United Irishmen, 
Which, he said, it manifestly was. 

"Upon the refusal to alter it, Govern- 
ment thought proper to suppress it altogeth- 
er, and adopted a plan which they had al- 
ready found convenient for promulgating, not 
the entire truth, but so much of the truth as 
accorded with their views, and whatever 
el>e they wished to have passed upon man- 
kind under color of authority for the truth 
This was no other than examination before 
the secret committees of Parliament, r>\ 
these committees several of us were exam- 
ined ; and, to our astonishment, we soon 
alter saw in the newspapers, and have since 
seen in printed reports of these committees, 
misrepresented and garbled, and, as far as 
relates to some of us, very untrue and falla- 
cious statements of our testimony— even in 
some cases, the very reverse of what was 




HISTORY OF Iltr.l.VNIi. 



given. That no suspicion may attach to 
this assertion from its vagueness, such of us 
as were examined will, without delay, stale 
the precise substance of our evidence on that 
occasion. 

"The Irish Parliament thought lit, about 
the month of September in the same year, 
to pass an act to be founded expressly on 
this agreement. To the provisions of that 
law we do not think it worth while to al- 
lude, because their severity and injustice are 
lost in comparison with the enormous false- 
hood of its preamble. In answer to that 
we most distinctly and formally deny that 
any of us did ever publicly or privately, 
directly or indirectly, acknowledge crimes, 
retract opinions, or implore pardon, as is 
therein most falsely stated. A lull and ex- 
plicit declaration lo this cll'cct would have 
been made public at the time, had it, not 
been prevented by a message from Lord 

ComwalliS, delivered In one of the subscrib- 
ers, on the 12th of that month. Notwith- 
standing we had expressly stipulated fit the 

time of the negotiation for the entire liberty 
of publication, in cast; we should find our 
conduct or motives misrepresented, yet ihis 
perfidious and inhuman message threatened 
that such declaration would be considered 
as a breach of the agreement on our part, 
and in that ease the executions in general 
should go on as formerly. 

"Thus was the truth stilled at the time ; 
and we believe firmly that to prevent its 
publication has been one of the principal 
reasons why, in violation of the most, sol- 
emn engagements, we were kept, in close 
custody ever since, and transported from 
our native country against our consent. 

"We conceive that, to ourselves, to our 
cause, and to our country, and lo posterity, 
we owe this brief statement of lads, in 
which we have suppressed everything that 
is not of a nature strictly vindicatory ; be- 
cause our object in this publication is not to 
criminate, but to defend. As to their 
truth, we positively aver them, each for 
himself, as far as they fall within his knowl- 
edge, and we firmly believe the others to bo 
the truth, and nothing but the truth." 

The following part of the statement is in 
(he handwriting of John Sweetman : — 

"Ou the 12th of March, 1TJ8, the depu- 






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345 



:iea from several counties having met in 
Dublin, lo deliberate npon some general 
i urea for tTuion, were arrested in a body 
at Mr. Bond's, as were also many otber of 
Its principal agents, and put into a slate of 
solitary confinement. Some of those persons 
wit.' examined by the Privy Council pre- 
vious to their committal to prison ; when it 
appeared, beyond a possibility of doubt, 
thai the negotiations of the United Irish- 
men with France had been betrayed to the 
British Government. On the 30th, the 
kingdom was officially declared in a state of 
reiirllimi, and pui under martial law. A 
proclamation from the Lord-Lieutenant had 
directed the military to use the most sum- 
mary methods tor repressing disturbances; 
and it was publicly notified by the com- 
manders in some counties that, unless the 
people brought in their arms within ten days 
from the period of publication, large bodies 
of troops would be quartered on them, VgllO 
should be licensed to live at free-quarters, 
and that oiler severities would be exercised 
to enforce acquiescence. In the latter end 
of May, the uuited armed n of the Coun- 
ty Kildare felt themselves obliged to take 
the field, and hostilities commenced between 
them and the King's forces on t lie '24th. 
About this time the Counties of Wexford 
and Wicklow were generally up, and those 
oi Down, Derry, Antrim, Carlow, and 
Meath were preparing to rise. The appeal 
to arms ill these counties was attended with 
various success on both sides, and the mili- 
tary were invested .villi further powers 
by a proclamation, issued by the Lord- 
1, untenant and Council, directing the 
generals to punish all attacks npon the 
Kind's forces, according to martial-law, 
either by death or otherwise, as to them 
should seem expedient. For some time the 

people had the advantage in the field ; lint 

the defeat at New lloss on the 5th of June, 
at Antrim on the 7th, that of Arklow on 
the '.iih, of Ballinahinch on the 12th, of 
Vinegar Hill on the 21st, and Kilconnell 

on the 26th, with the evacuation of Wex- 
ford, and some unsuccessful skirmishes 
which afterwards took place ill the Count \ 
oi Wicklow, removed all lmpe of maintain- 
ing the contest for the present with any 
probability of success. In the interim 



troops were arriving from England, and 
several regiments of Euglish militia had 
volunteered their services for Ireland. 
About the end of June, a proclamation 
was issued, promising pardon and protec- 
tion to all persons, except the leaders, who 
should return to their allegiance and deliver 
up their arms, which, it was said, had a 
wry general effect. A large body of the 
Kildare men had already .surrendered to 
General Ihmdas, and on the 21st of July 
another party, with its leaders, capitulated 
to General Wilford. The King's troops 
by this ti were victorious in every quar- 
ter ; and the park of artillery which had 
been employed in the south had returned 
to the capital. 

"It was now upwards of two months 
since the war broke out, during which time 
no attempt had been made by the French 
to land a force upon the coast, nor was there 
any satisfactory account then received that 
such a design was in contemplation. The 
expedition of Buonaparte and the forces un- 
der his command were already ascertained 
to have some part of the Mediterranean for 
their object. No Other diversion was made 
by the French to distract the British power 
during this period. Military tribunals, com- 
posed of officers who, in many instances, 
as it was publicly admitted, had not ex- 
ceeded the inconsiderate age of boyhood, 
were everywhere instituted, and a vast num- 
ber of executions had been the consequence. 
The yeomen aud soldiery, licensed to in- 
dulge their rancor and revenge, were com- 
mitting those atrocious cruelties which 
unfortunately distinguish the character of 
civil warfare. The shooting of innocent 
peasants at their work was occasionally re- 
sorted to by them as a species of recreation 
— a practice SO inhuman that unless we had 
incontcstible evidence of the fact we never 
should have given it the slightest cre- 
dence. During these transactions, a special 
commission, under an act of Parliament, 
passed for the occasion, was sitting in the 
capital ; and the trials having commenced, 
it was declared from the bench that to be 
proved an United Irishman was sufficient to 
subject the party to the penally of death, 
and that any member of a baronial 
committee was accountable for ev 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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done by the body to which he respectively 
belonged in its collective capacity, whether 
it was done without his cognizance in his 
absence, or even at the extremity of the 
land. As it was openly avowed that con- 
victions would be sought for only through 
the medium of informers, the Government 
nsed every influence to dignify the charac- 
ter of this wretched class of beings in the 
eyes of those who were selected to decide 
on the lives of the accused ; and they so ef- 
fectually succeeded as to secure implicit re- 
spect to whatever any of them chose to 
swear, from juries so appointed, so prepos- 
sessed. It was made a point by the first con- 
nections of Government to Hatter those 
wretches, and some peers of the realm were 
known to have hailed the arch-apostate 
Reynolds with the title of ' Saviour of his 
country.'" 

The following part of the statement is in 
the handwriting of William James Mac- 
Neven : — 

" In the case of Mr. Bond, the jury, 
with an indecent precipitation, returned a 
verdict of guilty, on the 23d of July, and 
on the 25th he was sentenced to die. Byrne 
was also ordered for execution. In this sit- 
uation of our affairs a negotiation was 
opened with Government, and proceeded in 
through the medium of Mr. Dobbs. An 
agreement was in consequence concluded 
ond signed, which among other things stipu- 
lated for the lives of Byrne and Bond ; but 
Government thought fit to annul this by the 
execution of Byrne. As, however, the main 
object, the putting a slop to the useless effusion 
of Mood, was still attainable, it was deemed 
right to open a second negotiation. In its 
progress, Government having insisted OU 
some dishonorable requisitions, which were 
rejected with indignation, occasioned the 
failure of this also. It was, however, pro- 
posed by them to renew it again, and depu- 
ties from the jails were appointed to confer 
with the official servants of the Crown. A 
meeting, accordingly, took place at the 
Castle on the 29th of July, when the Bnal 
agreement was concluded and exchanged. 

" In addition to the fulfillment to the letter 
of this agreement, the official servants of the 
Crown pledged the faith of Government for 
two things— one that the result and end of 



that measure should be the putting a stop 
to the effusion of blood, and that all execu- 
tions should cease, except in cases of willful 
murder ; the other was, that the conditions 
of the agreement should be liberally inter- 
preted. The agreement was, in the course of a 
day or two, generally signed by the prisoners, 
" [laving thus stated the facts, we pro- 
ceed to declare our reasons for entering into 
and ratifying this agreement : First, lie- 
cause we had seen, with great affliction, 
that in the course of the appeal to arms, 
while four or five counties out of the thirty- 
two were making head against the whole of 
the King's forces, no effectual disposition 
was manifested to assist them, owing, as we 
believe, to the extreme difficulty of assem- 
bling, and the want of authentic informa- 
tion as to the real state of affairs. Second. 
Because the concurring or quiescent spirit 
of the English people enabled their Govern- 
ment to seud not only a considerable addi- 
tional regular force, but also many regiments 
of English militia into Ireland. Third. Be- 
cause it was evident that in many instances 
the want of military knowledge in the lead- 
ers had rendered the signal valor of the 
people fruitless. Fourth. Because, not- 
withstanding it was well known in France 
that the revolution had commenced in Ire- 
land — an event that they were previously 
taught to expect — no attempt whatever was 
made by them to land any force during the 
two months which the contest had lasted, 
nor was any account received that, it was 
their intention even shortly to do so. Fifth. 
Because, that by the arrest of many of the 
deputies and chief agents of the Union, and 
by the absence of others, the funds necessary 
for the undertaking were obstructed or un- 
collected, and hence arose insurmountable 
difficulties. Sixth. Because, from the sev- 
eral defeats at New Ross and Wexford, no 
donbt remained on our minds that further 
resistance, for the present, was not only 
vain, but nearly abandoned. Seventh. Be- 
cause we were well assured that the procla- 
mation of amnesty issued on the 29th of 
June had caused great numbers to surrender 
their arms, and take the oath of allegiance. 
Eighth. Because juries were so packed, jus. 
lice so perverted, and the testimony of the 
basest informers so respected, that trial was 



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TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE " COMPACT. 



347 



but a mockery, and arraignment bat the I shed. We have ever since been constrained 



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kery 
tocsin for execution. Ninth. Because we 
were convinced by the official servants of 
the Crown, and by the evidence given on the 
trials, that Government was already in pos- 
session of our external and internal transac- 
tions—the former they obtained, as we be- 
lieve, through the perfidy of some agents of 
the French Government at Hamburg; the 
latter through informers who had been more 
or less confidential in all our affairs. Tenth, 
and final. Every day accounts of the mur- 
ders of our most virtuous and energetic 
countrymen assailed our ears ; many were 
perishing on the scaffold, under pretext of 
martial or other law, but many more the 
victims of individual Orange hatred and re- 
venge. To Stop this torrent of calamity, to 
], nscrvc to Ireland her best blood . . . 
we determined to make a sacrifice of no 
trivial value — we agreed to abandon our 
country, our families, and our friends. 

" And now we feel ourselves further 
called upon to declare that an act, passed 
in Ireland during the autumn of 1798, re- 
citingour names, and asserting that we had 
'retracted out opinions, acknowledged our 
crimes, and implored pardon, 5 is founded 
upon a gross and flagrant calumny— neither 
we, the undersigned, nor any of our fellow- 
prisoners, so far as we know or believe, hav- 
ing ever done cither the one or the other ; 
and we solemnly assert that we never were 
consulted about that act, its provisions, or 
preamble, and that no copy of it was ever 
sen I to us by any servant of the Crown — 
though repeatedly promised by the under- 
Si cretary— nor by any other person. On the 
the contrary, it had, unknown to us, passed 
the House of Commons, when one of us, 
(Samuel Neilson,) having seen by mere ac- 
cident an abstract of it in an English news- 
paper, remonstrated with the servants of 
the Crown on the falsity of the preamble, 
and was >ilenced only by a message from 
the Lord-Lieuteuant, that it was his posi- 
tive determination to annul the agreement 
and proceed with the executions, &c., if any 
further notice whatever was taken of the 
preamble, or if one word was published on 
the subject. We did not conceive ourselves 
warranted, situated as things then were, in 
being instrumental to a renewal of blood- 




to silence, for, in violation of a solemn 
agreement, we have been kept dose prisoners. 
"To our country and to our posterity, we 
felt that we owed this declaration ; and to 
their judgment upon our conduct and mo- 
tives we bow with respectful submission." 

These gentlemen were all still kept close 
prisoners. Three of them, Thomas Addia 
Emmet, Arthur O'Connor, and Dr. Mac- 
Neven, were twice, in the course of the year 
1798, brought up and examined, as already 
described, before secret committees of both 
Houses, and in April, 1799, were sent to 
Fort George, a strong place near Inverness, 
in the Highlands of Scotland, where they 
were kept prisoners until the peace of 
Amiens. The names of the Fort George 
prisoners were : — ■ 

Thomas Annis Emmet. 
Arthur O'Connor, 
Roger O'Connor, 
William James MacNeven, 
John Sweetman, 
Matthew Dowumo, 
John Chambers, 
Edward Hudson, 
George Gumming, 
Samuel Neilson, 
Thomas Russell, 
Robert Simms, 
William Tknnent, 
Robert Hunter, 
Hugh Wilson, 
John Sweeny, 
Joseph Cuthbert, 
William Steele Dixon, 
Joseph Cormick. 
"We were selected," says Dr. Steele 
Dixon, in his narrative, "from the three 
provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and Minister, 
but principally from the city of Dublin and 
town of Belfast ; we comprehended in our 
body three magistrates, three barristers, two 
physicians, one attorney, one apothecary, 
one printer and bookseller, one printer and 
proprietor of a newspaper, one dentist, one 
military captain, one runner to a bank, one 
merchant tailor, and one Presbyterian min- 
ister, with an eminent porter brewer, two 
wholesale merchants, one broker, and two 
young gentlemen without profession, trade, 
or calling. ... 1 should have added, 



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HISToKY OF lltLLAND. 



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a clergyman of the Church of England, as 

Arthur O'Connor was ordained as such pre- 
vious to his being called to the bar ; and as 
Episcopal ordination impresses au indelible 
character, he not only then was, and mow is, 
but ever must be, a clergyman, Of our cir- 
cumstances, I shall only say, that we had 
all been independent, must of us respectable, 
in our professions, some possessed ol large 
capitals in trade, and others of considerable 
lauded property. Perhaps it may not be 
amiss to mention here (hat, as we were se- 
lected from the three principal provinces of 
Ireland, we were respectively members of 
the three priucipal Churches in the kingdom, 
and which alone Government has yet ac- 
knowledged as Churches. Nor is it un- 
worthy of notice that the number of Catho- 
lics, Protestants, and Presbyterians in our 
little colony, was in an inverse ratio of the 
number of each denomination in Ireland at 
large. Perhaps the proportion may be 
staled as follows, though not, correctly : — 

Catholics, (two-thirds of the people,) prisoners. . . 4 
Presbyterians, (more than one tit t li »i the people.,) 

prisoners o* 

Protestants, (less than one seventh of the people,) 

prisoners l't 




CHAPTER XXXVII. 
1798. 
Parliament— The Acta of Attainder — French Landing 
under Humbert Killalo Conduct of the little 
French Arm} Ballina The Racea of Castlebar— 
Panic aud Rout of the British Force Freuchgive 
.i Ball Lord Cornwallia Collects a Great Irnij 
Marches to meet the French Encounters them at 
Ballinamuch Defeat and Capture of the Frenoh - 
Recover; of Ballina Slaughter Courts-Martial, 

&c Kiul of the insurrections oi IT'.is — New 

Frenoh Expedition Com lore Bompart— T. W. 

Tone— Encounter British Fleet at Mouth of Lough 
Swilly— Battle —the Hoche Captured Tone a Pris- 
oner Recognized bj Sir George Hill Carried to 
Dublin in Irons Tried by Courl Martial Con- 
demned to be Hiii I lli> Lddrossto the Court - 

\ \ ls a Favor to bo Shot Refused by Cornwal 
lis— Suicide in Prison. 

In the midst of tins reign of terror and of 
vengeance, Parliament continued to sit from 
time to time. Lord Castlereagh's majority 
in Parliament had its functions to discharge, 
as well us the " Major's People," in the gen- 
eral system of operations which were all to 

ad towards, and end in, the one grand 
point — a Legislative Union. On the l s th 



of duly. Lord Castlereagh, after a long 
speech on the rebellion in general, and its 
atrocities, (which were all, according to 
him, on the part of the people,) proposed 
that a measure should lie brought ill to 
grant compensation to such of His .Majesty's 
loyal subjects as had sustained losses in their 
property during the insurrection. This bill 
was brought in, was passed, and commis- 
sioners were appointed for carrying it into 
effect On the '27th, the Attorney-General 
brought in a bill for the attainder of Lord 
Edward Fitzgerald, Cornelius Grogan, and 
Beanchamp Bagenal Harvey, in order that 
their estates migh) be forfeited. All efforts 

in opposition to this new procedure against 
men who were all dead and had never been 
convicted of any crime, proved quite fruit- 
less. It was the informer Reynolds, who 

bad been implicitly trusted by the unsus- 
pecting Lord Edward, that proved the case 
against him, to the satisfaction of the Com- 
mittee. Curran was heard in defence, on 
the part of Lady Pamela Fitzgerald and 
her children, aud made a very strong argu- 
ment. On the unheard-of nature of ibis 
species of proceeding, he said : " Upon the 
previous and important question, namely, 
the guilt of Lord Edward, (without the full 
proof of which no punishment can be just,) 
1 have been asked by the Committee if 1 
have any defence to go into. . . . Sir, 
1 now answer the question : 1 have no de- 
fensive evidence — it is impossible that I 
should. 1 have often of late gone to the 

dungeon of the captive, but, never have I 
,, to tin' grave of the dead, to receive iu- 
siruetioiis for his defence — nor, in truth, 
have 1 ever before beeu at the trial of a 
dead man." It was all in vain ; that Par- 
liament was quite ready to make a new pre- 
cedent, iii order to starve the widows aud 
children of dead rebels. 'The liills ol' At- 
tainder passed.* Besides these, the Parlia- 
ment was busy with its ■• Fugitive hill," and 
its •• Bauishmeut hill," excepting from all 

* A remnant of Lord Edward's property was saved 
tor liis wi.low by Mr. Ogilvie, Lord Edward's Btep- 

lallier, ulio Imuuht il when sold iii Chancery to sat,- 
isfy a mortgage, lint what, was saved was a trifle ; 
ami Lady Pamela died in poverty. As to Mr.Urogan, 
wlio possess.-. i a large estate, sir Jonah Barringtou 
s.o - : 
" This Attainder bill was oue of the most illegal 



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amnesty certain United irishmen not then 
in the country, and certain others who were 
to be allowed to exile themselves. These 
two lists comprehend one hundred and forty 
names, including Napper Tandy, Wolfe 
Tone, Richard McCormick, I 'ran Swift, 
LewillS, Funnel, Ncilson, O'Connor, &c; 
and all the names may be found in one of 
tin' appendixes of Madden. The last-named 
gentlemen, indeed, before their banishment, 
had snine years to pass in the dreary fort- 
ress of Fort George. 

The whole country was still under mar- 
tial-law ; many were suffering the extreme 
penalty, and that wholesome feeling, called 
by Barrington "an impression of horror," 
was sufficiently prevalent for all the purposes 
of Mr. Pitt, when his policy was materially 

Served by a new and most pitiful French in- 
vasion, which Came too late to serve Ireland, 

but was in admirable time to help England. 
Fortunately for England, and, therefore, 
unhappily for Ireland, the French Republic 
was, during the year L7>98, in its most help- 
less ami chaotic condition. Napoleon was 
in Egypt ; ami the miserable Directory, 
with neither money nor credit, was lamenta- 
bly unequal to the exigencies of the time. 
Wolfe Tone was still in France. As the 
news of each arrest, and of each action. 
Successively reached France, he urged the 

generals and Government to assist the gal- 
lant and desperate struggle of his country- 
men, and pressed on them the necessity of 
availing themselves of the favorable oppor- 
tunity which Hew so rapidly by. They be- 
gan their preparations without delay; lint 
money, anus, ammunition, and ships, all 
were wanting. By the close of June, the 
insurrection was nearly crushed, and it was 
not till the beginning of July that Tone was 

Called up to Paris, to consult, with the Min- 
isters of the War and Navy Departments 
on the organization oi a new expedition. 
At this period Ins journal closes, and the 
subsequent events are elsewhere recorded. 
The plan of the new expedition was to 

and in M titutionat acta ever pr oted by any gov- 
ernment ; inn after much more than £10,000 coats to 
Crown officers, and in Lord Norbury, as Attorney- 
Gem oil. I. nl i" 'ii extracted from tie' property, tin; 
, \m re restored to the surviving brother." 

The surviving brother had fought mi tin: royalist 
biiu liming Hie insurrection. 




ispatch small detatchments from several 
ports, in the hope of keeping up the insur- 
rection, and distracting the attention of the 
enemy, until some favorable opportunity 
should occur for landing the main body, 
under General Omaiue. General Hum- 
bert, with about one thousand men, was 
quartered for this purpose at Rochelle ; 
General Hardy, with three thousand, at 
Brest ; and Ivihnaiue, with nine thousand, 
remained in reserve. This plan was judi- 
cious enough, if it had been taken up in 
time. But, long before the first of these 
expeditions was ready to sail, the insurrec- 
tion was subdued in every quarter. 

The indignation of the unfortunate Irish 
was just and extreme against that French 
Government, which had so repeatedly 
promised them aid, and now appeared to 
desert them in their utmost need. 

A miserable expedition, at the instance of 
Napper Tandy, was at length fitted out, of 
which Tone's sou thus speaks : — ■ 

" The final ruin of the expedition was 
hurried by the precipitancy and indis- 
cretion of a brave but ignorant and impru- 
dent officer. This anecdote, which is not 
generally known, is a striking instance of 
the disorder, indiscipline, and disorganiza- 
tion which began to prevail in the French 
army. Humbert, a gallant soldier of for- 
tune, but whose heart was better than his 
head, impatient of the delays of his Gov- 
ernment, and fired by the recitals of the 
Irish refugees, determined to begin the en- 
terprise on his own responsibility, and thus 
oblige the Directory to second or to abandon 
him." 

With three or four ships, about one thou- 
sand men, and a small force of artillery — 
without instructions, and without any as- 
surance of being supported, he compelled the 
captains to select for the most desperate at- 
tempt which is, perhaps, recorded in history. 
Three Irishmen accompanied him, Mat- 
thew Tone, Bartholomew Teeling, of Lis- 
burn, and Sullivan, nephew to Madgett, 
whose name is often mentioned in Tone's 
memoirs. On the '22.1 of August, they made 
the coast of Oonnaught, and landing in the 
Hay of Killala, immediately stormed and 
occupied that little town. 
The Protestant Bishop of Kill 




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I1ISTOKY OF IIIF.LAND. 




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then at bis bouse, called the Castle, and 
there was with him ti company of parsons, 
holding a visitation. It is from his narra- 
tive that we Irani the details ; and he 

especially hears witness to the excellent con- 
duct of the French, both officers and men; 
although his testimony to this effect was 
"at the expense of Ins own translation "* 

The French entered the bay under Eng- 
lish colors; and the feint succeeded so well 
that two of the bishop's sons, with the l'orl- 
Surveyor, took a fishing-boal and went out 
with the intention of going on board one of 
the ships; they were presently surprised to 

find themselves prisoners, Between seven 
and eight, a terrified messenger came and 
told tin' bishop that the French were honied, 
and that near three hundred of them were 
within a mile of the town. 'The cavalry of- 
ficers rode off directly, in full speed, with 
the intelligence to Ballina. The yeomanry 
and fencibles drew up before the castle-gate, 
and resolutely advanced into the main street 
to meet the French advance-guard. 

Borne down by numbers, and seeiug two 
of their corps fall, they were seized with a 
panic, and fled. ELirkwood and nineteen 
yeomen were taken, and ordered into close 

custody at the castle. All opposition being 

now at an end, the French General marched 
into the castle-yard at the head of his offi- 
cers, and demanded to sic the bishop, who, 
fortunately, was conversant with the French 
language. Humbert desired him to be un- 
der no apprehension for himself Or his peo- 
ple ; they should be treated with respectful 
attention, and nothing should be taken by 
the French troops but what was absolutely 
necessary for their support ; a promise 
which, as long as those troops continued in 
Killala, was most religiously observed. 

Mr. Ktrkwood was examined, as to the 
supplies that could be drawn from the town 
and neighborhood to assist the progress oi 
the invaders. The queries were interpreted 
by some Irish officers, who came with the 
French, to which he answered with such an 
appearance of frankness and candor, that he 
gained the esteem of the French General, 
who told him he was on his parole, and 
should have full permission to return to his 

* Sir J. Harrington, fttie timl Fail, <£o. 



family, and attend to his private affairs. 
The conjugal affection of this gentleman on 
the next, day made him forget his parch', 
and go to attend his sick wife, who, from 
the dread of the enemy, had secreted her- 
self in the mountains. Enraged at this 
breach of parole, the French took every- 
thing they wanted out of his stores — oats, 
salt, and iron, to a considerable amount; nor 
had they been careful to prevent depreda- 
tions by the rebels in his dwelling-house, as 
they would have done if he had not lied ; 
so that when he returned he found it a 
u reek. 

The bishop's castle was made the head- 
quarters of [he French General. But such 
excellent discipline was constantly main- 
tained by these invaders while they re- 
mained in Killala, that with every tempta- 
tion to plunder, which the time and the 
number of valuable articles within their 
reach, presented to them — a side-board of 
plate and glosses, a hall lillcd with hats, 

whips, and great-coats, as well of the guests 

as of the family — not. one single article of 
private property was carried away. 

On the morning after his arrival, Hum- 
bert began his military operations by push- 
inn- forward to Ballina a detachment of a 
hundred men, forty of whom he had mount- 
ed on the best horses he could seize. A 
green flag was mounted over the castle-gate, 
with the inscription Erin go Bragh, import- 
ing to invite the country people to join the 
French Their cause was to be forwarded 
by the immediate delivery of arms, ammu- 
nition, and clothing to the new levies of the 
country. Property was to be inviolable. 
Ready money was to come over in the ships 
expeeled every day from France. In the 
meantime, whatever was bought was paid 
for in drafts on the future Directory. 

Though cash was wanting, the promise 
of clothing and anus to the recruits was 
made good to a considerable extent. The 
first that offered their service received com- 
plete clothing to the amount of about a 
thousand. The next, comers, at least as 
many, received arms and clothing, but no 
shoes and stockings, To the last, arms 
only were given. And of arms, Colonel 
Charost assured the bishop, five thousand 
and five hundred stand were delivered. 




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Tin' Right Rev. narrator thus describes 
thr little army of invaders : — 

" lutelligence, activity, temperance, pa- 
G Op i tience, to a surprising degree, appeared t.> 
In- combined in 1 1 1 < - soldiery that came over 
with Humbert, together with the exactesl 
obedience to discipline ; yet, if you except 
the grenadiers, they had nothing to catch the 
eve. Their stature for the most part was 
low, their complexion pale and sallow, their 
clothes much the worse for the wear ; to a 
superficial observer they would have appear- 
ed almost incapable of enduring any hard- 
ship. These were the men, however, of 
whom it was presently observed that they 

i M lie well content to live on bread or 

potatoes, to drink water, to make the stones 
of the street their bed, and to sleep in their 
\/^x5?5 clothes, with no cover lint the canopy of 
heaven. One half of their number had 
served in Italy, under Buonaparte, the rest 
were from the Army of the Rhine." 

The French, anil the Irish officers who 

aei ipanied them, did not find the Con- 

nanght people so well prepared to receive 
them, nor so well organized, as they had 
hoped and expected. The general insurrec- 
tion which was just suppressed had not pene- 
trated into Mayo at all ; yet the bishop 
mentions some circumstances to show that 
the landing was not unexpected by the peas- 
antry of those parts. At any rate, a French 
Bag displayed anywhere in Ireland, was sure 
tn attract the fighting part of the popula- 
tion around it — as, indeed, the same pheno- 
menon would do at this day. The bishop, 
whose professional prejudices may lead him 
to exaggerate a little, gives a curious ac- 
eoiint of the astonishment of the French 
when they fonnd their Irish allies were de- 
vout Catholics— as if they had not known 
this before ; he says : — 

"The contrast with regard to religious 
sentiments between the French and their 
Irish allies was extremely curious. The 
atheist despised and affronted the bigot; 
but the wonder was, how the zealous papist 
should come to any terms of agreement with 
a set of men who boasted openly in our 
heating, that they had just driven Mr. Pope 
out ot Italy, and did not expect to liud him 
again so suddenly in Ireland. It aslonishci 
the French officers to hear the recruits, when 



they offered their services, declare, that they 
were come to take arms for France and the 
Blessed Virgin." 

Humbert left Killala with a quantity of 
ammunition in the possession of two hundred 
men and six officers, and on the 25th, about 
seven o'clock in the evening, took possession 
of Ballina, from whence the garrison (led on 
his approach. Here he left behind him an 
officer named True, With a very small part 
of the French and several of the Irish re- 
cruits. Humbert was sensible of the ad- 
vantage of pushing forward with vigor, and 
a rapid progress into the interior could 
alone bring t ho natives to his standard. At 
Ballina many hundred peasants repaired to 
the French standard, and with eagerness re- 
ceived arms and uniforms. The French 
commander determined to attack the forces 
at Castlebar, and began his inarch on the 
morning of the 26th, with eight hundred of 
his own men, and less than fifteen hundred 
Irish. 

There was then in Castlebar an army of 
six thousand men, under command of Gen- 
eral Lake, including some fine militia regi- 
ments, with the Marquis of Ormond, Gen- 
eral Lord Hutchinson, the Earls of Long- 
ford and Granard, and Lord Rodeu, with 
his boasted regiment of cavalry, called the 
" Foxhunters," who had shown themselves 
capable of at least riding down flying and 
disarmed peasants in Meath and Kildare. 
It was a force with which General Lake 
reasonably enough thought he should give a 
good account of eight hundred French and 
Mune raw levies of Connanght men. The 
English commander expected the French to 
advance by the high road leading to Castle- 
bar ; but Humbert, having good guides, 
took the way over the pass of Barnagee, 
westward, and so appeared, early in the 
morning, not precisely at the point where he 
was looked for. 

General Lake with his staff had just ar- 
rived and taken command, (as an elder of- 
ficer,) as Lord Hutchinson had determined 
to march the ensuing day and end the ques- 
tion, by a capture of the French detachment. 
The change of commanders had occasioned 
discontent and demoralization amongst the 
troops ; at least that is one of the reasons 
or excuses which loyalist writers have been 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



fain to allege for the shameful conduct of 
the British force in the action which fol- 
lowed. Plowden says, on this" subject : — 

"There is no question but that a very 
serious difference happened previous to the 
disgraceful action at Castlebar, between 
Genera] (now Lord) Hutchinson and Gen- 
eral Lake ; and that the army in general 
was strongly affected by the former's hay- 
ing been superseded in his command by the 
latter. General Hutchinson was acquainted 
with every inch of the country, and had 
prepared an able and efficient plan for stop- 
ping the progress of the enemy ; he com- 
manded ;ilike the confidence of the army 
and the affections of the natives. As cruelty 
and cowardice are ever inseparable, it was 
unlikely that troops, which had debased 
themselves by massacring the fugitive, sur- 
rendered or unoffending, by burning their 
houses and destroying their property, by 
torturing, strangling, and flogging the sus- 
pected to extort confessions, should, when 
left to themselves, or under the command 
of the promoter of that savage warfare, 
bravely face an enemy, upon whom they 
dared not exercise their wonted atrocities." 

However that might be, on the appear- 
ance of the French and Irish deploying from 
the pass of Barnagee, Sir Jonah Barrington 
describes thus the singular action that fol- 
lowed : — 

"The troops were moved to a position, 
about a mile from Castlebar, which, to an 
unskilled person, seemed unassailable. They 
had scarcely been posted, with nine pieces 
of cannon, when the French appeared on 
the opposite side of a small lake, descending 
the hill in columns, directly in front of the 
English. Our artillery played on them with 
effect. The French kept up a scattered fire 
of musketry, and took up the attention of 
our army by irregular movements. In half 
an hour, however, our troops were alarmed 
by a movement of small bodies to turn their 
left, which, being covered by walls, they had 
never apprehended. The orders given were 
either mistaken or misbelieved ; the line 
wavered, and, in a few minutes, the whole of 
the royal army was completely routed ; the 
flight of the infantry was as that of a mob, 
all the royal artillery was taken, our army 
fled to Castlebar, the heavy cavalry galloped 




amongst the infantry and Lord Jocelyn's 
Light Dragoons, and made the best of their 
way, through thick and thin, to Castlebar, 
and towards Tiiain, pursued by such of the 
French as could get horses to carry them. 

"About nine hundred French and some 
peasants took possession of Castlebar, with- 
out resistance, except from a few Highland- 
ers, stationed in the town, who were soon 
destroyed." 

So violent was the panic of the British, 
that they never halted till they reached 
Tuam, forty miles from the field of battle. 
They lost the whole of their artillery — four- 
teen pieces— five stand of colors, and in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners, eighteen officers and 
three hundred and fifty men — but the French 
calculated the loss of the enemy at six hun- 
dred. The fugitives renewed their march, 
or rather flight, from Tuam on the same 
night, and proceeded to Athlone, where an 
officer of Carbineers with sixty of his men 
arrived at one o'clock, on Tuesday, the 29th, 
having performed a march of above seventy 
English miles — the distance of Athlone from 
Castlebar — in twenty -seven hours. Thu 
whole battle and rout are familiarly known 
to this day in Connaught, as the "Races of 
Castlebar." 

The French having thus easily possessed 
themselves of the county town of Mayo, 
immediately gave a ball and supper. Sir 
Jonah Barrington says :— 

"The native character of the French never 
showed itself more strongly than after this 
action. When in full possession of the 
large town of Castlebar, they immediately 
set about putting their persons in the best 
order, and the officers advertised a ball and 
supper that night, for the ladies of the town ; 
this, it is said, was well attended ; decorum 
in all points was .strictly preserved ; they 
paid ready money for everything; in fact, 
the French army established the French 
character wherever they occupied." 

But they thought of something else be- 
sides amusement. With that love of order 
which is a distinguishing trait of their na- 
tion, they established districts, each under 
its own elected magistrate ; they repressed 
any disposition which showed itself on the 
part of the people to maltreat the loyalist 
inhabitants, if, indeed, such disposition ex- 



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is ted, us the bishop affirms. A provincial 
government was at once established, with 
Mr. Moore, of Moore Hall, as President, 
and proclamations were issued in the name 
of the "Irish Republic." 

From tin' terror which this handful of 
French troops inspired, we may form some 
idea of the effects which might have fol- 
lowed the landing of even Humbert's little 
force anywhere in the south of Ireland, 
while the Wexford men were gallantly hold- 
ing their own county ; or we may conjecture 
what might have been the result if Humbert 
had lirought with him ten thousand men in- 
stead of one thousand, even, in that month 
of August, crushed as the people had been 
by the savage suppression of their insurrec- 
tion ; — or, if Grouchy had marched inland 
with his six thousand men, at the moment 
when the people were eager to begin the 
rising, and the English had but three thou- 
sand regular troops in the island. It seemed 
as if England were destined to have all the 
luck, ami either by favor of the elements or 
the miscalculations of her enemies, to escape, 
one after another, the deadly perilst hat fur- 
ever beset her empire. 

As it was, this arrival of Humbert, even 
followed by so brilliant a victory, was really 

s uch profit to the British Government. 

Barrington truly remarks: — 

"The defeat of Castlebar, however, was 
a victory to the Viceroy ; it revived all the 
horrors of the rebellion which had been sub- 
siding, and the desertion of the militia regi- 
ments tended to impress the gentry with an 
idea that England alone could protect the 
country." 

The Marquis Oornwallis determined to 
collect a great army, and march iu imposing 
force ; but he did not hasten his movements 
so much as it was thought he might have 
done ; and, in the meantime, the French and 
insurgents were profiting by the delay. It 
was said that forty thousand of the West- 
]ii> Mtli people were preparing to assemble at 
the Crooked Wood, in that county, so as to 
join the French on their passage, and march 
OD the metropolis. 

At length, the Marquis was ready; and 
having assured himself of the presence of 
twenty thousand men on his line of inarch, 
he thought himself strong enough to en- 



counter the eight hundred audacious French- 
men and their Irish allies. These latter 
were by no means increasing, but rather dim- 
inishing since the day of Castlebar ; and in- 
deed, at no time exceeded two thousand men 
— a circumstance which greatly surprised and 
disgusted the French. 

The Marquis proceeded on the 30th of 
August on the road to Castlebar, and ar- 
rived on the 4th of September at Holly- 
niount, fourteen miles distant from Castle- 
bar ; iu the evening of that day he received 
intelligence, that the enemy had abandoned 
his post, anil marched to Foxford. 

The advanced guard of the French hav- 
ing arrived at Coloony, was opposed on the 
5th by Colonel Vereker, of the city of Lim- 
erick militia, who had inarched from Sligo 
for the purpose, with about two hundred 
infantry, thirty of the Twenty-fourth Regi- 
ment of Light Dragoons, and two curricle 
guns. After a smart action of about an 
hour's continuance, he was obliged to re- 
treat, with the loss of his artillery, to Sligo. 

This opposition, though attended with 
defeat to the opposers, is supposed to have 
caused the French General to relinquish his 
design on Sligo. He directed his march 
by Drumnahair towards Manorhamilton, iu 
the County of Leitrim, leaving on the road, 
for the sake of expedition, three six-pound- 
ers dismounted, and throwing five pieces 
more of artillery over the bridge at Drum- 
nahair, into the river. In approaching 
Manorhamilton he suddenly wheeled to the 
right, taking his way by Drumkeriu, per- 
haps with design of attempting, if possible, 
to reach Granard, in the County of Long- 
ford, Where an insurrection had taken place. 
Crawford's troops hung so close on the rear- 
guard of the French, as to come to action 
with it on the 7 th, between Drumshambo and 
Ballynamore, in which action they were re- 
pulsed with some loss, and admonished to 
observe more caution in the pursuit. 

The French army passing the Shannon 
at Ballintra, and halting some hours iu the 
night at Claone, arrived at Balliuamuck, 
County Longford, on the 8th of September,— 
so closely followed by the troops of Colonel 
Crawford and General Lake, that its rear- 
guard was unable to break the bridge at 
Ballintra, to impede the pursuit ; while 



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Lord Cornwallis, with the grand array, 
crossed the same river at Carrick-on-Shan- 
iidii, marched by Mohill to Saint-Johnstown, 

in the County of Longford, in order to in- 
tercept the enemy in front, on his way to 
Granard; or, should he proceed, to surround 
him with an army of thirty thousand men. 
In this desperate situation, Humbert ar- 
ranged his forces, with no other object, as it 
must be presumed, than to maintain the 
honor of the French arms The rear-guard 
having been attacked by Colonel Crawford, 
about two hundred of the French infantry 
surrendered. The rest continued to defend 
themselves for above half an hour, when, on 
the appearance of the main body of General 
Lake's army, they also surrendered, after 
they had made Lord Roden, with a body of 
dragoons, a prisoner. His lordship had 
precipitately advanced into the French lines 
to obtain their surrender. The Irish insur- 
gents who had accompanied the French to 
this fatal field, being excluded from quar- 
ter, fied in all directions, and were pursued 
with the slaughter of about five hundred 
men, which seems much less to exceed the 
truth than the returns of slain in the south- 
eastern parts of the island. About one 
thousand five hundred insurgents were with 
the French army at Bailinamuck, at the 
time of the surrender of Humbert. The 
loss of the King's troops was officially statl d 
at three privates killed, twelve wounded, 
three missing, and one officer wounded. The 
troops of General Humbert were found, 
when prisoners, to consist of seven hundred 
and forty-six privates, and ninety-six officers, 
having sustained a loss of about two hun- 
dred men since their landing at Killala on 
the 22d of August. 

Vengeful executions began on the field 
of battle. It appears that, on the day of 
the " Races of Castlebar," a considerable 
part, of the Louth and Kilkenny regiments, 
not finding it convenient to retreat, thought 
the next best thing they could do would be to 
join the victors, which they immediately did, 
and in one hour were completely equipped 
as French riflemen. About ninety of those 
men were hung by Lord Cornwallis at Lai 
linamuek. One of them defended himself 
by insisting " that it, was the army, and not 
he, who were deserters ; that whilst he was 



lighting hard they all ran away, and left 
him to be murdered." 

A Mr. Llnke, who had been an officer in 
the British army, was also executed on the 
field. Bartholomew Teeling and Matthew 
Tone (brother of Theobald Wolfe Tone) were 
among the prisoners, and were both exe- 
cuted within a few days in Dublin. Air. 
Moore, President of the Provincial Govern- 
ment, which had been instituted at Castle- 
bar, was one of the prisoners at Bailina- 
muck, and was sentenced to banishment. 
Roger Maguire, one of the leaders of the 
Irish insurgents, was transported, and his 
father, a brewer, was hung. 

The small French garrison which had 
been left in Killala still occupied that place, 
and great part of Norlh Connaught contin- 
ued in insurrection. 

On the 22d of September, thirty-two 
days after the landing of the French army, 
and fifteen after its capture at Bailinamuck, 
a large body of troops arrived at Killala, 
under the command of Major-General 
Trench, who would have been still some 
days later in his arrival, had he not been 
hastened by a message from the bishop, to 
announce the fearful apprehensions his lord- 
ship's family and the other loyalists were 
under. 

The bishop's narrative of what followed 
indicates that the recovery of this place by 
the British forces was a scene rather of in- 
discriminate massacre than of combat. He 
describes how "a troop of fugitives in full 
race from Ballina, women and children, tum- 
bled over one another to get into the castle, 
or into any house in the town where they 
might hope for a momentary shelter, contin- 
ued for a painful length of time to give no- 
tice of the approach of an army." 

There was, however, a momentary re- 
sistance. 

The insurgents quitted their camp to oc- 
cupy the rising ground close by the town, 
on the road to Ballina, and posted them- 
selves under the low stone-walls on each 
side, in such a manner as enabled them 
with great advantage to take aim at the 
King's troops. They had a strong guard 
also on the other side of the town towards 
Foxford, having probably received intelli- 
gence, which was true, that General Trench 



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DEFEAT AND CAPTURE OF THE FRENCH. 



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had divided bis forces at Crosmolina, and 
sent one pari of them by a detour of three 
miles to intercept the fugitives that might 
take that course in their Bight. This last 
detachment consisted chiefly of the Kern 
militia, under the orders of Lieutenant Col- 
onel Crosbie and Maurice Fitzgerald, the 

Knight Of Kerry, their Colonel, the Karl of 

Glandore, attending the General. 

The two divisions of the royal army were 
supposed to make up about twelve hundred 
men, and they had live pieces of cannon. 
The number of the insurgents could not be 
ascertained. Many ran away before the 
L-ugag nt, while a very considerable num- 
ber Hocked into the town in the very heat 
of it, passing under tin' castle windows in 

view of the French officers on horseback, 

ami running upon death with as little ap- 
pearance of reflection of concern as it' they 
wnc hastening to a show. About four hun- 
dred of these people fell in the battle, and 
immediately after it Whence it may lie con- 
jectured that their entire number scarcely 
( xceeded eight or nine hundred. 

The whole seme passed in sight of the 
castle, ami so near it that the family could 
distinctly hear the balls whistling by their 
ears. 

The attempt at resistance lasted twenty 
minutes, when the insurgents scattered in 
two directions, s<mie into the town where 
they were shot down in the streets, some 
along the shore of the bay, where they were 
enfiladed by a gun placed in position for 
that purpose. 

The court-martial began the day after, 
and sat in the house of Mr. Morrison. They 
iad to try not less than seventy-five prison- 
ers at Killala, and a hundred and ten at 
Ballina, besides those who might be brought 
in daily. The two first persons tried at this 
tribunal were General l.ellew and Ml'. Rich- 
aid Bourke. The trial of these two gentle- 
men wa- short. They were found guilty on 
Monday evening, and hung the next morn- 
ing in the park behind the castle. 

So ended the last of the series of partial 
insurrections in Ireland in the year 1798. 

Little reliance is to be phi 1 on the official 

its of the kille 1, wounded, ami missing, 
in the several engagements mid encounters. 
According to the mo=t probable accounts 



to be had from tin- War Office, the number 
of the army lost in this rebellion amounts 
in the whole to nineteen thousand seven 
hundred men ; and according to the general 
Government accounts of the total loss of the 
insurgents, it exceeded fifty thousand, with- 
out including women and children, great 
numbers of whom were shot down by the 
yeomanry, or burned in their own houses. 
The mere loss of life, too, gives but a faint 
idea of the sufferings endured by the poor 
people. Many hundreds had been put to 
the torture, and lacerated by cruel scourg- 
ing to extort information. Never, perhaps, 
was any national insurrection in tin' world 
so savagely crushed ; never was insurrection 
so thoroughly justified by the oppression 
which provoked it ; and never were chiefs 
of any insurrection more pure in their mo- 
tives, more gallant, honorable, and self- 
sacrificing, than those whose bodies were 
now swinging upon gibbets, whose heads 
were grinning upon spikes, or who were 
languishing in various prisons, to expiate 
the crime of loving their country and hating 
its oppressors. 

The policy of Mr. Pitt was now in full 
operation; and the "impression of horror" 
was strong and deep ; indeed, the plans of 
the Minister were rather aided by the drift- 
less and helpless French expeditious, which 
the imbecile government of the Directory 
sent to help the insurgents, but which came 
too late, and arrived at the wrong places. 
Before narrating the measures of the Gov- 
eminent with a view to the Legislative 
Union, it is necessary to tell how it fared 
with Theobald Wolfe Tone. The founder 
of the United Irish Society was not a man 
to evade the consequences and responsibili- 
ties of his own acts, nor to take his ease in 
France, where he held a high commission in 
the army, while his comrades were perishing 
on the field or on the gallows. He never 
for one moment relaxed his efforts to effect 
the great task of his life ; which was to 
bring an adequate force of Frenchmen into 
Ireland, and so to stop and to punish the 
shocking atrocities, of which every new re- 
port tortured his soul. 

The news of Humbert's attempt, as may 
well be imagined, threw the Directory into 
the greatest perplexity. They instantly de- 









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HIST0RT OF IRELAND. 



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termined, however, to hurry all their prepa- 
rations, and send off at least the division of 

General Hardy, to second his efforts, as s 

as possible. The report of his firsl advan- 
tages, which shortly reached them, aug- 
mented their ardor and accelerated their 
movements. But Buch was the state of the 
French navy and arsenals, that it was not 
until the 20th of September that this small 
expedition, consisting of one sail of the line 
and eight frigates, under Commodore Bom- 
part, and three thousand men, under Gen- 
eral Hardy, was ready for sailing. The 
news of Humbert's defeat had not yet 
reached France. 

Paris was then crowded with Irish emi- 
grants, eager for action. Some Irishmen 
embarked before Bompart, in a small and 
fast-sailing vessel, with Napper Tandy at 
their head. They reached, on the 16th of 
September, the Isleof Raghliu, on the north 
coast of Ireland, where they heard of Hum- 
bert's disaster ; they merely spread some 
proclamations, and escaped to Norway. 
Three Irishmen only accompanied Tone in 
Hardy's flotilla ; he alone was embarked 
in the Admiral's vessel, the Hoche, the 
others were on board the frigates. These 
were Mr. T. Corbett, and MacGuire, two 
brave officers, who afterwards died in the 
French service, and a third gentleman, con- 
nected by marriage with his friend Russell, 

At the period of this expedition, Tone 
was hopeless of its success, and in the deep- 
est despondency al the prospect of Irish 
affairs. Such was the wretched indiscretion 
of the Government, that before his departure, 
he read himself, in the Bien In/ormi, a 
Paris newspaper, a detailed account of the 
whole armament, where his own name was 
mentioned in full letters, with the circum- 
stance of liis being on hoard the Hoche. 
There was, therefore, no hope of secresy. 

He had all along deprecated the idea of 
those al tempts on a small scale. But he 
had also declared, repeatedly, that, if the 
Government sent only a corporal's guard, 
he felt it his duty to go along with them ; 

he saw no chance of Kilmaine's large expedi 
t ion being ready in any reasonable lime, and, 

therefore, determined to accompany Hardy. 
His resolution was, however, deliberately 
taken, in caso he fell into the hands of the 



enemy, never to suffer the indignity of a 
public execution. And his sm, William 
Theobald Wolfe Tone, informs us that he 
had expressed himself to this effect " at din- 
ner, in our own house, and in my mother's 
presence, a little before leaving Paris," * 

At length, about the 20th < f September, 
1798, that fatal expedition set sail from the 

May de Gamaret. It consisted of the 
Hoche, ,-cventy-four; Loire, Resolue, Bel- 
lone, Coquille, Erabuseade, Immortality, 
Romaine, and Semillante, frigates ; and 

Biche, schooner, and aviso. To avoid the 
British fleets, Bompart, an excellent sea- 
man, took a large sweep to the westward, 
and then to the northeast, in order to bear 
down on the northern coast of Ireland, from 
the quarter whence a French force would 
lie least expected, lie met, however, with 
contrary winds, and it appears that his 
flotilla was scattered ; lor, on the I 01 li of 
October, after twenty days' cruise, he ar- 
rived off the entry of Loch Swilly, vvith the 
Hoche, the Loire, the Resoluc, and the 
Biche. He was instantly signalled, and, on 
the break of day, next morning, llth of 
October, before he could enter the hay or 
land his troops, he perceived the squadron 
of Sir John Borlase Warren, consisting of 
six sail of the line, one razee of sixty guns, 
ami two frigates, bearing down upon him. 
There was no chance of escape for tin 1 large 
and heavy man-of-war. Bompart ,gnve in- 
stant signals to the frigates and schooner to 
retreat through shallow water, and prepared 
alone to honor the flag of his country and 
liberty, by n desperate hut hopeless defence. 
Al that moment, a boat came from the 
Biche for his last orders. Thai ship had the 
li.sl chance to get off. The French officers 

all supplicated Tone to embark on hoard of 
her. " Our contest is hopeless," they ob- 
served, " we will be prisoners of war, but 
what will become of you ? " "Shall it be 
said," replied he, "that I (led, whilst the 
French were fighting the battles of my 
country?'' He refused their offers, and de- 
termined to stand and fall with the ship. 
The Biche accomplished her escape. 

The British Admiral dispatched two men- 

♦ Memoirs of WoTft Tone; by his son. Tub- 
lished in Washington. Tlio Euglish edition is much 
mutilated. 



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TONE \ I'lUSONKll — CARRIED TO I'liu.iN IN IRONS. 



857 



of-war, the razee and a frigate, after the 
Loire and [tesolae, and the I Indie was soon 
BQiTonnded by four sail of the line and ;i 
frigate, and began one of the mosl obstinate 
mill desperate engagements which have ever 
been fought on the ocean. During six 
hours 'hi' Bastained the Sre of a whole fleet, 
till lift' masts and rigging were swept away, 
her Bcnppers flowed with blood, her wound- 
ed idled the cock-pit, her shattered ribs 
yawned at each new stroke, and let in live 
feel of water in the hold, her rudder was 
curried oil', and she floated a dismantled 
wreck on the waters ; her sails and cordage 
111111^ i» shreds, nor could she reply with a 
single lmiu from her dismounted batteries to 
the nnabating cannonade of the enemy. 

At length, she struck. 'The Kesolue and 

Loire were soon reached by the English 
fleet; the former was in a sinking condi- 
tion ; she made, however, all honorable de- 
fence ; the Loire sustained three attacks, 

drove oil' the English frigates, and had 
almost effected her escape ; al length, en- 
gaged by the Anson, razee of sixty guns, 
sin- struck, alter an action of three hours, 
entirely dismasted. Of the other frigates, 

pursued in all directions the Bellone, Im- 
mortalite, Coquille, and Embuscade were 

taken, and the Roinaine and Seinillante, 

through a thousand dangers, reached sepa- 
rate ports in France. 

During the action, Tone commanded one 
of the batteries, and, according to the re- 
port of the officers who returned to France, 
fought with the utmost desperation, and as 
if he was courting death. When the. ship 
struck, confounded with tic other officers, 

he was not recognized lor some time ; for 

he had i pletely acquired the language 

ami appearance of a Frenchman. The 

two fleets were dispersed in every direction, 
nor was it, till sonic days later that, the 

lloehe was brought into Loch Swilly, and 
the prisoners landed and marched to Letter- 
kei.nv. V'l rumors of his being OU board 
most have been circulated, for the fact was 
public at, Paris. But it, was thought he 

had been killed in the action. It was, at 

length a geutleman well-known in tin 
County Deny n- a leader of the Orange 

parly, and one of the chief magistrates in 

thai neighborhood, Sir George Hill, who 



hod been his fellow-student, in Trinity Col- 
lege, and knew his person, who undertook 
the task of discovering him. It is known 
thai in Spain, grandees and noblemen of the 
first rank pride themselves in the functions 
of familiars, spies, and informers of the 
Holy Inquisition ; it remained for Ireland 
to offer a similar example. The French 
officers were invited to breakfast with the 
Earl of Cavan, who commanded in that dis- 
trict. Time sat undistinguished amongst 
them, when Sir George Hill entered the 
room, followed by police officers. Looking 
narrowly at the company, he singled out the 
object of his search, and, Stepping up to 
him, said, " Mr. Tone, I am very happy to 
see you." Instantly rising, with the utmost 
composure, he replied, " Sir George, I am 
happy to see you; how is Lady Hill and 
your family?" * Beckoned into the next 
room by the police officers, an unexpected 
indignity awaited him. It was filled with 
military, and one General Lavau, who com- 
manded them, ordered him to be ironed, de- 
claring that, as On leaving Ireland, to enter 
the French service, he had not renounced 
his oath of allegiance, he remained a subject 
of Britain, and should be punished as a trai- 
tor. Seized with a momentary burst of in- 
dignation at such unworthy treatment and 
cowardly cruelty to a prisoner of war, he 
Hung off his uniform, and cried, " These let- 
ters shall never degrade the revered insignia 
of the free nation which I have served." 
Resuming then his usual calm, he offered his 
limbs to the irons, and 'when they were 
lixed, he exclaimed, " For the cause which 
1 have embraced, I feel prouder to wear 
these chains than if I were decorated with 
the star and garter of England." 

From Letterkeuny he was hurried to 
Dublin wlhout delay. Contrary to usual 
custom, ho was conveyed, during the whole 
route, lettered and Oil horseback, under an 
escort of dragoons, The escort was com- 
posed of Cambridgeshire yeomanry cavalry, 
and commanded by a Captain Thackeray, af- 

» Dr. Madden points out that this Sir George Hill 
was a regular secret ; 1 1/ . • 1 1 1 of the G6vernmcnt, and 
quotes several payments made to him and through 
him to "Hut agents out of the Secret Service 
money. See aooouuts of Seoret Service money in 
Uaddeu's work. 






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terwards a clergyman and Rector of Dan- 
dalk. lie often, long afterwards!, described 
this journey, and said that Tone was the 
most delightful companion he ever traveled 
with. 

Though the reign of terror was drawing 
l<> a close, and Lord Cornwallis had re- 
stored some appearance of legal order and 
regular administration in the kingdom, a 
prisoner of such importance to the Irish 
Protestant Ascendancy party, as the founder 
and leader of the United Irish Society, and 
the most formidable of their adversaries, 
was not to be trusted to the delays and 
common forms of law. Though the Court 
of King's Bench was then sitting, prepara- 
tions were instantly made for trying him 
summarily before a court-martial. It has 
been erroneously stated that Tone imagined 
his French commission would be a protec- 
tion to him, and that he pleaded it (in his 
trial. He never, indeed, was legally con- 
demned ; for, though a subject of the 
Crown, (not of Britain, but of Ireland,) he 
was not a military man in that kingdom ; 
he had taken no military oath, and, of 
course, the court-martial which tried him 
had no power to pronounce oil his ca.se, 
which belonged to the regular criminal tri- 
bunals. Bui his heart was sunk in despair 
at the total failure of his hopes, and he did 
not wish to survive them. To die with 
honor was his only wish, and his only re- 
quest to he shot like a soldier. For this 
purpose he preferred himself to be tried by 
a court-martial, and proffered his French 
commission, nut to defend his life, but as a 
proof of his rank, as he stated himself on 
his trial. 

If I'uri her proof were required that he 
was perfectly aware of his fate, according to 
the English law, hi.-; own journals, written 
during the Bantry'Bay expedition, afford 
an incontestible one. (SeeJournalof Decem- 
ber 26, 1796.) "Jl we are taken, my fate will 
not. lie a mild one ; the best I can expect is 
to be shot, as an emigre rentre, unless I have 
the good fortune to be killed in the action ; 
for, most assuredly, if the enemy will have 
us, he must fight for us. Perhaps I may lie 
luserved for a trial, lor the sake of striking 
terror into others, in which case I shall lie 
hanged as a traitor, and emboweled, &c. 



As to the emboweling, ' Je rrCen ficlu? If 
ever they hang me, they are welcome to em- 
bowel me if they please. These are pleasant 
prospects 1 Nothing on earth could sustain 
me now but the consciousness that I am en- 
gaged in a just and righteous cause." 

Tone appeared before this Court in the 
uniform of a Chef de Brigade (Colonel.) 
The lirmness and cool serenity of his whole 
deportment gave to the awe-struck assembly 
the measure of his soul. Nor could his 
bitterest enemies, whatever they deemed of 
his political principles, and of the necessity 
of striking a great example, deny him the 
praise of determination and magnanimity. 

The members of the Court having taken 
the usual oath, tin; Judge Advocate pro- 
ceeded to inform the prisoner that the court- 
martial, before which he stood, was ap- 
pointed by the Lord-Lieutenant of the king- 
dom, to try whether he had or had not 
acted traitorously against His Majesty, to 
whom, as a natural-born subject, he owed 
all allegiance, from the very fact of his 
being born in the kingdom. And, according 
to the usual form, he called upon him to 
plead guilty or not guilty. 

The prisoner admitted all the facts, 
" stripping the charge of its technical word 
traitorously. ," He would make no defence, 
and give no trouble, but. asked leave to 
read an address, giving his own account of 
his conduct. This address is given at full 
length in his son's memoir, and is in these 
words : — 

" Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the 
Court-martial — I mean not to give you the 
trouble of bringing judicial proof to convict 
me legally of having acted in hostility to 
the Government of His Britannic Majesty in 
Ireland. 1 admit the fact. From my earliest 
youth, I have regarded the connection be- 
tween Ireland and Great Britain as the 
curse of the Irish nation ; and felt convinced 
that, whilst it lasted, this country could 
never be free nor happy. My mind has 
been confirmed in this opinion by the ex- 
perience of every succeeding year, and the 
conclusions which I have drawn from every 
fact before my eyes. In consequence, I de- 
termined to apply all the powers which my 
individual efforts could move, in order to sep- 
arate the two countries. 



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TRIED EV COURT-MARTIAL. 



359 



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" That Ireland was not able, of hi i i If, 
to throw I'll' i In- yoke, I knew. I, therefore, 
sought l'"i' aid wherever it was to be found. 
In honorable poverty 1 rejected offers, which, 
to a man in my circumstances, might becon- 
Bidered highly advantageous. 1 remained 
faithful to what I thought the cause of my 
country, ami sought in the French Repub- 
lic an ally to rescue three millions of my 
countrymen, from — " 

The President here interrupted the pris- 
oner, observing, that, this language was 
neither relevant to the charge, nor such as 
onula to be delivered in a public court. 
One member said, it seemed calculated only 
to inflame the minds of a certain descrip- 
tion of people, (the United Irishmen,) many 
of whom might probably be present ; ami 
thai, therefore, the Court ought not to suffer 
it. The Judge Advocate said, he thought, 
thai if Mr. Tone meant this paper to be 
laid before His Excellency, in way of exteaw- 
</, it must have quite a contrary effect, if 
any of the foregoing- part was suffered to re- 
main. 

Toiie— " I shall urge this topic no further, 
Binee it seems disagreeable to the Court ; 
but shall proceed to read the few words 
which remain." 

General Loftus—" If the remainder of 
your address, .Mr. Tone, is of t lie same com- 
plexion with what you have already read, 
will you not hesitate for a moment in pro- 
ceeding, since you have learned the opinion 
Court?" 

Tone- " I believe there is nothing in what 
remains for me to say, which can give any 
o ll'i nee. I mean to express my feelings and 
gratitude towards the Catholic body, in 
whose cause I was engaged." 

General I- flus—" That seems to have 
nothing to say to the charge against you, to 
which only yon are to speak. If you have 
anything to offer in defence or extenuation 
of that charge, the Court will hear you ; 
but they beg that you will confine yourself 
to that subject." 

Tone— "I shall, then, confine myself to 
gomi points relative to my connection with 

the French army. Attached party in 

the French Republic, without iuterest, with- 
out money, withont intrigue, the openness 
and integrity of my views raised me to a 



high and confidential rank in its armies. I 
obtained the confidence of the Executive 
Directory, the approbation of my generals, 

and, I venture to add, the esteem and affec- 



tion of my 



brave comrades. When I re- 



view these circumstances, I feel a secret and 
internal consolation which no reverse of for- 
tune, no sentence in the power of this Court 
to inflict can ever deprive me of, or weaken 
in, any degree. "Under the flag of the French 
Republic I originally engaged, with a view 
to save and liberate my own country. For 
that purpose, I have encountered the chances 
of war amongst strangers ; for that purpose, 
I have repeatedly braved the terrors of the 
ocean, covered, as 1 knew it to be, with the 
triumphant fleets of that power, which it 
was my glory and my duty to oppose. I 
have sacrificed -all ray views in life ; I have 
courted poverty ; I have left a beloved wife 
unprotected, and children, whom I adored, 
fatherless., After such sacrifices, in a cause 
which I have always conscientiously consid- 
ered as the cause of justice and freedom — it 
is no great effort at this day, to add, ' the 
sacrifice of my life.' 

" But 1 hear it said, that this unfortunate 
country has beeu a prey to all sorts of hor- 
rors. I sincerely lament it. I beg, how- 
ever, it may lie remembered, that I have 
been absent four years from Ireland. To 
me, these sufferings can never be attributed. 
I designed, by fair and open war, to pro- 
cure the separation of* the two countries. 
For open war I was prepared ; but if, in- 
stead of that, a system of private assassin- 
ation has taken place, I repeat, while 1 de- 
plore it, that it is not chargeable on me. 
Atrocities, it seems, have been committed on 
both sides. I do not less deplore them ; 1 
detest them from my heart ; and to those 
who know my character and sentiments, I 
may safely appeal for the truth of this as- 
sertion. With them, 1 need no justifica- 
tion. 

" In a cause like this, success is everything. 
Success, in the eyes of the vulgar, fixes its 
merits. Washington succeeded, and Kos- 
ciusko failed. 

•■ After a combat nobly sustained, a com- 
bat which would have excited the respect 
and sympathy of a generous enemy, my fate 
was to become a prisoner. To the eternal 



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disgrace of those who gave the order, I was 
brought hither in irons, like a felon. I men- 
tion Ihis for llir sake of others; for me, I 
inn indifferent to it ; I am aware of the fate 
which awaits me, ami scoru equally the tone 
of complaint ami that of supplication. 

" As to the connection between this coun- 
try ami Gnat Britain, 1 repeat it, all that 
has been imputed to me, Words, writings, 
ami actions, 1 here deliberately avow. I 
have spoken ami acted with reflection, and 
on principle, and am ready to meet the con- 
sequences. Whatever be the sentence of 
this Court, 1 am prepared for it. Its mem- 
bers will surely discharge their duty ; 1 shall 
take earc not to be wanting to mine." 

This speech was pronounced in a tone so 
magna'nimous, so full of noble and calm se- 
renity, as seemed deeply and visibly to affect 
all its hearers, the members of the Court not 
excepted. A pause ensued of some continu- 
ance, and silence reigned in the hall, till in- 
terrupted by Tone himself, who inquired, 
whether it was not usual to assign an inter- 
val between the sentence and execution? 
The Judge Advocate answered, that the 

voices of the Court would be collected 
without delay, and the result transmitted 
forthwith to the Lord-Lieutenant. If the 
prisoner, therefore, had any observations to 
make, now was the moment. 

Tone — " 1 wish to offer a few words rela- 
tive to one single point — to the mode of pun- 
ishment. In Francepour Emigres, who stand 
nearly in the same situation in which I sup- 
pose 1 now stand before you, are condemned 
to be shot. I ask, that the Court should ad- 
judge me the death of a soldier, and let me 
lie shot by a platoon of grenadiers. 1 re- 
quest this indulgence, rather in consideration 
of the uniform which 1 wear, the uniform of 
a Chef de Bfigade in the French army, than 
from any personal regard to myself. In or- 
der to evince my claim to Ihis favor, I beg 
that the Court may take the trouble to per- 
use my commission and letters of service in 
the French army. It will appear from these 
papers, that I have not received them as a 
mask to cover me, but thai 1 have been long 
and bona fide an officer in the French service. 

Judge Advocate — " You must feel that the 
papers you allude to, will serve as undeni- 
able proofs against you." 




HISTORY OF IRELAND, 



Tone — "Oh!—/ know it well — I liavo 
already admit led the facts, and 1 now ad- 
mit the papers as full proofs of conviction." 

The papers were then examined ; they 
consisted of a brevet of Chef de Brigade, 
from the Directory, signed by the Minister 
of War ; of a letter of service, granting 
him the rank of Adjutant-General ; anil of 
a passport. 

General Loflus — " In these papers you 
are designated as serving in the Army of 
England." 

Tone — "I did serve in that army, when 
it was commanded by Buonaparte, by De- 
saix, and by Kilmaine, who is, as I am, an 
Irishman, lint I have served elsewhere." 

General Loftus observed, that the Court 
would, undoubtedly, submit to the Lord-Lieu- 
tenant the address which he had read to 
them, and, also, the subject of his last de- 
mand. In transmitting the address, he, 
however, took care to efface all that part 
of it which he would not allow to be read. 
Lord Cornwallis refused the last demaira of 
I he prisoner, and he was sentenced to die the 
death of a traitor, in forty-eight hours, on 
the l'ilh of November. This cruelty he 
had foreseen ; for England, from the days 
of Llewellyn of Wales, and Wallace of Scot- 
land, to those of Tone and Napoleon, has 
uever shown mercy or generosity to a fallen 
enemy. He, then, in perfect coolness and 
self-possession, determined to execute his 
purpose, and anticipate their sentence. 

The sentence upon Tone, pronounced by a 
court-martial, was obviously illegal ; and so 
every lawyer knew it to be. But the people 
looked on as if in Stupor. The son of Tone 
has truly described the condition of Dublin 
at that moment j — 

" No man dared to trust his next neigh- 
bor, nor one of the pale citizens to betray, 
by look or word, his feelings or sympathy. 
The terror which prevailed in Paris, under 
the rule of the Jacobins, or in Rome, dur- 
ing the proscriptions of Marius, Sylla, and 
the Triumviri, and under the reigns of Tib- 
erius, Nero, Caligula, and Domitian, was 
never deeper or more universal than that of 
Ireland, at this fatal and shameful period. 
It was, in short, the feeling which made the 
people, soon after, passively acquiesce in 
the Union, and in the extinction of their 



r 




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M** 



SUICIDE IN PRISON. 



3G1 



name as n nation. Of the numerous friends 
nf my father, and of those who had shared 
in his political principles mid career, some 
had perished on the Bcaffold, others rotted 
in dungeons, and tin' remainder dreaded, by 
the slightest 111:11k of recognition, to be in- 
volved in his fate." 

But there was one friend of the gallant 
prisoner who was determined that the law 
of the land should at least lie invoked, and 
one effort made to rescue this noble Irish- 
man from the jaws of death. The friend 
was John Philpol Cnrran. He believed 
that by moving the Court of King's Bench 

to assert its jurisdiction some delay might 

be interposed — the French Government 
might threaten to retaliate upon some im- 
portant prisoner of war -the case might 
thus become a political and not a criminal 
one, and, in the end, either through threats 
of retaliation, or by an arrangement with 
the British Government, Tone might be 
saved. 

On the next day, November 12th, (the 
day fixed for his execution,) the scene in 

the Court of King's Bench was awful and 

impressive to the highest degree. As soon 
as it opened, Cnrran advanced, leading the 
aged father of Tone, who produced his affi- 
davit that his son had been brought before 
a bench of officers, calling itself a court- 
martial, and sentenced to death. " I do not 
pretend," said Cnrran, " that Mr. Tone is 
not guilty of the charges of which he is ac- 
cused. 1 presume the officers were honor- 
able nicn. But it is stated in this affidavit, 
as a solemn fact, that Mr. Tone had no 
commission under His .Majesty ; and, there- 
fore, no court-martial could have cognizance 
of any crime imputed to Imn whilst, the 
Court of Kind's Bench sat in the capacity 
of the great Criminal Court of the land. 
In times when war was raging, when man 
was opposed to man in the field, coiirts- 
mariial might be endured ; but every law 
authority is with me whilst I stand upon 
this sacred and immutable principle of the 
Constitution — that martial law and civil law- 
arc incompatible, and that the former must 
cease with tie- existence of the latter. This 
is not, however, the time for arguing this 
momentous question. My client must ap- 



pear in this Court. 



is cast for death 



this very day lie may be ordered for exe- 
cution whilst I address you. I call on the 
Court to support the law, and move for a 
habeas corpus, to lie directed to the Provost- 
Marshal of the barracks of Dublin and 
Major Sandys, to bring up the body of 
Tone." 

Chief-Justice — "Have a writ instantly 
prepared." 

Cnrran — " My client may die whilst the 
writ is preparing." 

Chief-Justice — " Mr. Sheriff, proceed to 
the barracks ami acquaint the Provost- 
Marshal that a writ is preparing to suspend 
Mr. Tone's execution, and see that he lie 
not, executed." 

The Court awaited, in a state of the ut- 
most agitation and suspense, the return of 
the Sheriff lie speedily appeared, and 
said: ".My lord, I have been to the bar- 
racks, in pursuance of your order. The 
Provost-Marshal says he must obey Major 
Sandys. Major Sandys says he must obey 
Lord Cornwallis." Mr. Curran announced, 
at the same time, that Mr. Tone (the father, 
was just returned, after serving the habeas 
corpus, and that General Craig would not 
obey it. The Chief-Justice exclaimed : " Mr. 
Sheriff, take the body of Tone into custody • 
take the Provost-Marshal and Major San- 
dys into custody, and show the order of the 
Court to General Craig." 

The general impression was now that, the 
prisoner would be led out to execution, in 
defiance of the Court. This apprehension 
was legible in the countenance of Lord Kil- 
warden, a man who, in the worst of times, 
preserved a religious respect for the laws, 
and who, besides, I may add, felt every 
personal feeling of pity ami respect for the 
prisoner, whom he had formerly contributed 
to shield from the vengeance of Government 
on an occasion almost as perilous. His 
agitation, according to the expression of an 
eye-witness, was magnificent. 

The Sheriff returned at length with the 
fatal news. He had been refused admit- 
tance in the barracks ; but was informed 
that Mr. Tone, who had wounded himself 
dangerously in the neck the night before, 
was not in a condition to be removed. In 
short, on the night before, after writing a 
letter to the French Directory, and a toue 






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ing adieu to his wife, while the soldiers were 
erecting a gibbet fur him in the yard before 
his window, he cut his throat with a knife. 
But it was not effectually done, and he lin 
gered in that dungeon, stretched on his 
bloody pallet, in the extremity of agony, 
seven days and uights. No friend was 
allowed access to him ; and nobody saw 
him but the prison surgeon, a French emi- 
grant, and, therefore, his natural enemy. 
At length he died.* 

The Government allowed the body to be 
carried away by a relative named Punbuvin, 
and it was buried in the little churchyard 
of Bodenstown, County Kildare, where 
Thomas Davis caused a monumental slab to 
be erected in his memory. 

"Thus passed away," says Madden, "one 
of the master spirits of his time. The curse 
of Swift was upon this man — he was an 
Irishman. Had he been a native of any 
other European country, his noble qualities, 
his brilliant talents, would have raised him 
to the first honors in the state, and to the 
highest place in the esteem of his fellow- 
citizens. His name lives, however, and his 
memory is probably destined to survive as 
long as his country has a history. Peace 
be to his ashes !" 

The expenses incurred in first exciting the 
insurrection, next in suppressing it, and 
afterwards in carrying cut its real object — a 
Legislative Union, are estimated moderately 
by Dr. Maddtn, as follows :— 

From 17'JT In L802, the cost of the large 
military force that was kept up in lie- 
land, estimated at £1,000,000 per an- 
num £ir,,ooo,ooo 

Purchase of the Irish Parliament . . 1,500,000 
Payment of claims of suffering loyalists . 1,500,000 
secret Service money, from 1797 to 1804, 

(from official reports,) 63,547 

Secret Service money previous to Au- 
gust 21, 1707, date of first entry in pre- 

* Madden states that one friend of Tone, a Mr. 
Fitzpatriek, of Capel street, wa - admitted to see him 
once. This is a matter <m which Tone's son, who 
was then fir away, might easily have been misin- 
formed. Madden further testifies that the surgeon, 

Dr. Lcntaigne, was a very good and humane man. 




ceding account— say from date of Jack- 
son's mission in 1794, estimated at . . 

Probable amount of pensions paid for 
services in suppression of the rebellion 
and the promotion of the Union, to the 
present time 

Increased expense of legal proceedings 
and judicial tribunals 

Additional expenditure in public offices, 
consequent on increased duties in 1708, 
and alterations in establishments at- 
tendant on the Union, the removal of 
Parliamentary archives, and compensa- 
tion of officers, servants, &c 



800,000 



Total £21,573,647 



The whole of which was the next year, 
in the arrangement of the terms of "Union," 
carried to the account of Ireland, and made 
part of her national debt — as if it were 
Ireland that profited by these transactions. 

The military force, in Ireland during and 
immediately after, the insurrection, was : — 

FKOM PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS. 

The Regulars 32,281 

The Militia 26,634 

The Yeomanry 51^74 

The English Militia 24.201 

Artillery 1,500 

Commissariat 1,700 



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Total 1117,500 

These figures are taken from a report of 
the Parliamentary proceedings of the 18th 
of February, 1799. They are introduced in 
a speech of Lord Castlereagh, prefacing a 
motion on military estimates. lie did not 
think that one man could be then spared of 
the 137,590, though the rebellion was com- 
pletely over, and though he had to deal 
with a population only one-half of the pres- 
ent. We have not at hand the means of 
ascertaining the force of 1800, bnt there is 
ground for concluding that it was over that 
of 1799, though the time of the rebellion 
was still further off by a year. 

But, in fact, Ministers had in reserve 
still another ordeal which our country had 
to pass through — the Union; and this im- 
mense military force was still thought need- 
ful, "as good lookers-on" — to use Lord 
Strafford's phrase of a century and a half 
earlier. 




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EXAMINATION OF O CONNOR, EMMET, AND MACNEVEN. 



363 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

1708 L7»9. 

Examination of O'Connor, Kmmet, and MacNeven — 

Lord Ennisbllen and bis Coart-Martjal Project of 

Union Bar Meeting Speeoh (Venn the Throne- - 

l ii-ii Proposed -K« ption in the Lords— In the 

Commons — Poosonby — Fitzgerald- -Sir Jonah Bar- 
i ii [ton -Castlereagh's Explanation— Speech of 
Plunkel First Division on the Union — Majority of 
One— Mr. Trench and Mr. Fox— Methods of Con- 
version to Unionism- First Contest a drawu Bat- 
tle — Excitement in Dublin. 

Parmamemt continued sitting In An- 
gus! and September, LT98, the examination 
of Thomas Addis Emmet, Arthur O'Connor, 
and I>r. MacNeven, proceeded before the 
secret committees. While the report of 
these examinations was still secret, the Dub- 
lin newspapers under the control of the Gov- 
ernment, published .some very garbled and 
falsified accounts of them, calculated not 
only to criminate and degrade those gen- 
tlemen themselves, but to hold them forth 
as betraying their comrades and associates. 
The object of this was very plain. They 
thought it necessary to protest against it by 
a published card. Thereupon, they were 
examined again ; were asked whether they 
meant to retract anything ; were shown the 
minutes of their evidence as taken down, 
and interrogated as to its correctness and 
fidelity. They answered that they found it 
correct, so far as it went; but Kmmet de- 
clared that very much of their evidence was 
omitted. On the whole, they admitted 
that the report shown to them was substan- 
tially correct, (except the omissions,) and 
that they had only meant to protest against 
the false newspaper accounts. Their new 
examination was triumphantly paraded as a 
complete exculpation of the committees 
from all charge of garbling ; but, in fact, 
the newspapers could not have come by even 
t heir partial and carefully-distorted accounts 
of this evidence, except through some one 
connected with the Government or secret 
committees ; and so the intended effect was 
in part produced, without the Government 
seeming to be a party to il. This affair is 
obscure; but, in justice to the unfortunate 
gentlemen then in the hands of most unscru- 
pulous enemies, it is right to throw nil the 
light possible upon it. Arthur O'Connor, 



in a letter to Lord Castlereagh, gives this 
account of the misunderstanding : — 

" At the instance of Government, Emmet, 
MacNeven, and I, draw up a memoir con- 
taining thirty-six pages, giving an account 
of the origin, principles, conduct, and views 
of the Union, which we signed and delivered 
to you on the 4th of August last. On the 
6th, Mr. Cook came, to our prison, and 
after acknowledging that the memoir was a 
perfect performance of our agreement, he 
told us that Lord Cornwallis had read it, 
but, as it was a vindication of the Union, 
and a condemnation of the Ministers, the 
Government, anil Legislature of Ireland, he 
could not receive it ; and, therefore, he 
wished we would alter it. We declared we 
would not change one letter — it was all 
true, and it was the truth we stood pledged 
to deliver, lie then asked us if Govern- 
ment should publish such parts only as might 
suit them, whether we would refrain from 
publishing the memoir entire. We answered 
that, having stipulated for the liberty of 
publication, we would use that right when 
and as we should feel ourselves called on. 
To which he added that, if we published, 
he would have to hire persons to answer us; 
that then he supposed we would reply, by 
which a paper war would be carried on 
without end between us and the Govern- 
ment. Finding that we would not suffer 
the memoir to be garbled, and that the 
literary contest between us and these hire- 
lings was not likely to turn out to your 
credit, it was determined to examine us be- 
fore the secret committees, whereby a more 
complete selection might be made out of the 
memoir, and all the objectionable truths — 
with which it was observed it abounded — 
might be suppressed. For the present I 
shall only remark that, of one hundred 
pages, to which the whole of the informa- 
tion I gave to the Government and to the 
secret committees amounts, only one page 
has been published." 

On the 6th of October, Parliament was 
prorogued with a highly congratulatory 
speech from the Throne, on the suppression 
of the "dangerous and wicked rebellion," 
and on the glorious victory obtained by 
"Sir Horatio Nelson over the French fleet 
in the Mediterranean." 



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About the same time occurred a certain 
sham court-martial, under the presidency of 
the Earl of Enniskillen, a Colonel in the 
army — a great favorite with the Orange- 
men, aud probably an Orangeman himself. 
A man named Wollaghan, a yeoman, had 
brutally shot a poor, peaceable man in his 
own house. The affair is not otherwise de- 
serving of notice than that the evidence on 
this trial shows the horrid .state of the coun- 
try. A corporal of the corps deposed that 
a certain Captain Armstrong, who com- 
manded at Mount Kennedy before and alter 
the murder, had given orders " that any 
body of yeomanry going out, i, he would not 
wish them less than nine or ten for their 
own safety,) and, if they should meet with 
any rebels, whom they knew or suspected to 
be such, they need not be at the trouble of 
bringing them in, but were to shoot them on 
the spot; that he (the witness) communi- 
cated this to the corps, and, is' wry certain, 
in the hearing of the prisoner Wollaghan, 
who was a sober, faithful, and loyal yeoman, 
and not degrading the rest of the corps — 
one of the best in it ; that it was the prac- 
tice of the corps to go out upon scouring 
parties without orders," &c. 

The affair, however, made a noise — be- 
came notorious; and Lord Cornwallis 
thought himself obliged to disapprove the 
judgment of the court-martial, (which ac- 
quitted Wollaghan,) and to rebuke Lord 
Enniskillen. The murderer, however, was 
only dismissed the service. The Orange- 
men were highly disgusted with Lord Corn- 
wallis, and called him " Croppy Corny." 
But the cases of local tyranny and brutality 
exercised upon the people were very seldom, 
indeed, brought into any court. Scldomer 
still were they punished. The juryman who 
should have ventured to hesitate about ac- 
quitting an Orangeman would have been 
himsell hunted down as a "croppy." The 
moment was come to propose the Union as 
the only way of putting a stop to these hor- 
rors, and to all the other woes of Ireland. 

Even before the fury of rebellion had 
subsided, had the British Ministry recom- 
mended preparatory steps to enable the 
Irish Government to introduce the proposal 
of a Legislative Union with plausibility and 
effect upon the lirst favorable opening. In 



pursuance of this recommendation, a pam- 
phlet was written, or procured to be writ- 
ten, by Mr. Edward Cooke, the under-Sec- 
retary of the Civil Department. It was pub- 
lished anonymously, but was well under- 
stood to speak the sentiments of the IJritish 
Administration, aud the Chief-Governor, and 
those of the Irish Administration who went 
with his excellency upon the question of 
union. It was circulated with incredible 
industry and profusion throughout every 
part of the nation, and certainly was pro- 
ductive of many conversations on the ques- 
tion under the then existing circumstances 
of that nation ; the most prominent of 
which were — the still unallayed horrors of 
blood and carnage, the excessive cruelty and 
vindictive ferocity of the Irish yeomanry 
towards their countrymen, compared with 
the pacific, orderly, and humane conduct of 
the English militia, of which about eighteen 
regiments were still in the country, and, 
above all, the confidence which the concili- 
atory conduct of the Chief- Governor in- 
spired. This pamphlet was considered as a 
kind of official proclamation of the senti- 
ments of Government upon the question, 
aud had no sooner appeared than it pro- 
duced a general warfare of the press, and 
threw the whole nation into a new division 
of parties. 

No sooner was the intention of Govern- 
ment unequivocally known, than most of 
the leading characters took their ranks 
according to their respective views aud 
sentiments, the Earl of Clare at the head 
of the Unionists, aud the Right Honorable 
Mr. Foster, his late zealous colleague in 
the extorted system of coercion and terror, 
put himsell at the head of the Anti-Union- 
ists. Amongst the first dismissals for op- 
posing the LTniou were those of Sir John 
Parnell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
ami Mr. Fitzgerald, the Prime-Sergeant. 
The most interesting public meeting upon 
the subject of the Union was that of the 
gentlemen of the Irish bar. It has before 
been observed, that in Ireland the bar was 
the groat road that led to preferment, and 
lew were the families in the nation which 
looked up to it that did not furnish one 
member or more to that profession. The 
bar, consequently, commanded a very pow- 






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PROJECT OF UNION BAR MEETING. 



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fi In! influence over the public mind, even 
independently of the weight of respectability 
attending tbe opinions of that learned body. 
In pursuance of a requisition signed by 
twenty-seven lawyers of the first respecta- 
bility and character in the professi m, a 
meeting of the Irish bar took place on the 
9th of December, at the Exhibition House 
in William street, to deliberate on the ques- 
tion of Legislative Union. The meeting 
was very numerous. 

It must 1h: observed that the bar of Ire- 
land was the only great body in the state 
or in society that Lords Clare and Castle- 
reagh feared, as a serious obstruction to 

their plans. In its ranks were the st 

accomplished statesmen and most formida- 
ble debaters of the country, and the most 
earnest opponents of Union to the last were 
barristers. Lord Clare, therefore, had ta- 
ken measures to corrupt the bar, by creating 
a great many new legal offices, which they 
were expected to solicit, and for which they 
would sell themselves to the Castle. He 
'doubled the number of the bankrupt com- 
missioners ; he revived gome unices, created 
others, and, under pretence of furnishing 
each county with a local judge, in two 
months lie established thirty-two new offices, 
of about six or seven hundred pounds per 
annum each. His arrogance in court intimi- 
dated many whom his patronage could not 
corrupt ; and he had no doubt of overpow- 
ering the whole profession. 

There was much interest, therefore, felt 
in the result of this preliminary meeting of 

the bar. Among tl "ho had called the 

meeting were fourteen of the King's coun- 
sel : E Mayne, W. Saurin, W. C. Piunket, 
C. Bushe, \V. Sankey, B. Burton, J. Bar- 
rington, A M'Cartuey, G. O'Farrell, J. 

O'Dliscoll, J. Lloyd, P. Burrowes, 11. J ebb, 

ami II. Joy, Esquires, — a very distinguished 
list of names ; some of which will be met 
with again and agaiu, before the final catas- 
trophe of the nation. Saurin spoke against 
the Cuion project. " He was a moderate 
Huguenot," says Sir Jonah Barrington, 
" and grandson of the great preacher at. The 
Hague— an excellent lawyer and a stead- 
fasl and pious Christian." Sir Jinub goes 
eribe this important meeting : — 
Mr. Saint George Daly, a briefless 



barrister, was the first supporter of the 
Union. Of all men he was the least, thought 
of for preferment ; but it was wittily ob- 
served, 'that the Union was the first brief 
Mr. Daly had spoken from.' He moved an 
adjournment. 

"Mr. Thomas Grady was the Fitzgibbon 
spokesman— a gentleman of independent 
property, a tolerable lawyer, an amatory 
poet, a severe satirist, and an indefatigable 
quality-hunter. He had written the 'Flesh 
Brush,' for Lady Clare ; the 'West Briton,' 
for the Union; the ' Barrister,' for the bar; 
and the 'Nosegay,' for a banker at Limer- 
ick — who sued him successfully for a libel. 

"'The Irish,' said Mr. Grady, 'arc only 
the rump of an aristocracy. Shall I visit 
posterity with a system of war, pestilence, 
and famine?* No! no! give me a Union. 
Unite me to that country where all is peace, 
and order, and prosperity. Without a Union 
we shall see embryo chief judges, attorney- 
generals in perspective, and animalcula ser- 
geants. All the cities of the south and west 
are on the Atlantic Ocean, between the rest 
of the world and Great Britain ; they are all 
for it — they must all become warehouses ; 
the people are Catholics, and they are all 
for it,' &c, &c., &c. Such an oration as 
Mr. Grady's had never before been heard 
at a meeting of lawyers in Europe. 

" Mr. John Beresford, Lord Clare's 
nephew and purse-bearer, followed, as if lor 
the charitable purpose of taking the laugh 
from Mr. Grady, in which he perfectly suc- 
ceeded, by turning it on himself. Mr. Beres- 
ford afterwards became a parson, and is now 
Lord Decies. 

"Mr. Goold said: 'There are forty 
thousand British troops in Ireland, and with 
forty thousand bayonets at my breast the 
Minister shall not plant another Sicily in 
the bosom of the Atlantic. 1 want not the 
assistance of divine inspiration to foretell, 
for I am enabled by the visible and uucrr- 

* Nothing could be more unfortunate than this 
crude observation oi Mr. Grady, a- the very three 
evils— war, pestilence, and famine,— which he de- 
clared a union would avert, have since visited, and 
are still visiting, the onioned country; which has, 

■ the connection with England, been depopulated 

in the famim which that I' » caused; anil, in- 

oculati i « Hi- H"' late plague from Greai Britain, 
they are now declared in a state of war by the 
British Legislature. 



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HISTORY OF IM'.LAN-n 




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ing demonstrations of nature to assert, that 
Ireland was destined to be a Free and inde- 
pendent nation. Our patent to be a state, 
nol a shire, comes direct from heaven. The 
Almighty has, in majestic characters, signed 
the great charter of our independence. The 
great Creator of the world has given our 
lelorcd country the gigantic nut lines of a 
kingdom. The God of nature never intended 
that [reland should be a province, and, by 
(,' , she never shall !' 

"The assembly burst into n tumult of 
applause. A repetition of the words came 
from mauy mouths, and many an able law- 
yer swore hard upon the subject. The di- 
vision was — 



Against the Union 
lu favor of it . . 



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Majority 134 

" Thirty-two," continues Sir Jonah Bar- 
rington, "was the precise number of the 
county judges, and of this minority the fol- 
lowing persons were afterwards rewarded 
for their adherence to Lord Clare : — 
" List of Barristers who Supported the 
Union, and their Respective Rewards. 

Per Annum, 
1. Charles Osborn, appointed a Judge of the 

King's Bench £3,300 

•j. s.niit John Daly, appointed o Judge of the 

King's Bench 3,300 

3. William Smith, appointed Baron of the Ex- 

chequer 3,300 

4. Mr. M'CIeland, appointed Baron of the Ex- 

chequer 3,300 

fi. Robert Johnson, appointed Judge ol the 

Common Pleas S,300 

fi. William Johns appointed Judge of the 

i lomi Pleas 8,300 

7. Mr. lorrens, appointed Judge of the Com- 
mon Pleas 3,300 

s. Mr. Vandeleur, appointed a Judge of the 

King's Bench 3,300 

9. Thomas Maunsell, a County Judge ■ . . 600 

10. William Turner, a County Judge . . . . nun 

11. John ScholeB, a County Judge .... BOO 

12. Thomas Vickors, a County Judge . . . 600 

13. J, Roman, a < lounty Judge 600 

11. Thomas Grady, a County Judge 

l."». John Dwyer, a County Judge 600 

16. Qeorge Leslie, a Count] Judge .... 600 

17. Thomas Scott, a Count) Judge .... 600 
is. Henry Brook, a County Judge .... coo 

19. James Geraghty, a County Judge . . . 600 

20. Richard Sharkey, a County Judge . . . 600 
2f. William Stokes, a County. Judge . . . . 600 
'.'■_'. William Roper, a County Judge .... 600 

23. C. Garnet, a County Judge 600 

24. Mr. Jenison, n Commissioner tor the dis- 

tribution "i I'm 1 million and a half Union 
compensation 1,200 



Per Annum. 

25. Mr. Fitzgibbon Henchy, Commissioner of 

Bankrupts £400 

26. J. Keller,"Offlcar In the Conrt of Chancery. 600 

27. P. W. Portescue, M. P., a snTrl pension . 400 

28. W. Longfield, an officer in the Custom 

Mouse , . 600 

29. Arthur Brown, Commission of Inspeotor ■ son 

30. Edmund Stanley, Commissi f Inspector. 800 

31. Charles Ormsby, Counsel to Commission- 

ers Value 5,000 

32. William Knott, M. P., Commission of Ap- 

peals 800 

33. Henry Deane Grady, Counsel to Commls- 

tin i srs Value 5,000 

3J. John Bere I ird, bis father a title." 

It was already so notorious, during this 
winter, that a Union was to be immediately 
proposed that the measure was already 
warmly discussed, in anticipation of the 
approaching meeting of Parliament. Mr. 
Cnuke's pamphlet called forth scores of 
other pamphlets, for and against. Before 
the end of December no less than thirty 
appeared, of which Plowden records the 
titles. 

The city of Dublin, which it was natural 
tn suppose would be more prejudiced by the 
Union than any other part of the kingdom, 
inasmuch as it would lose much of the ad- 
vantages nf a metropolis by the abolition of 
the Parliament, was also prominently for- 
ward in its opposition t" that measure. A 
post-assembly of the Lord Mayor, sheriffs, 
commons, and citizens of the city of Dublin 
was convened on the 17th of Decembor ; 
who, referring to a variety of rumors that 
were then in circulation, of an intended 
union of Ireland with Great Britain, came 
to resolutions strongly denouncing any such 
project ; which certainly, whatever, it might 

lie supposed to do for other parts of the 

kingdom, was sure to ruin Dublin at all 
events. 

Next came a very numerous and respect- 
able meeting of the merchants and bankers 
of the city, who resolved — "That they look- 
ed with abhorrence on any attempt to deprive 
the people of Ireland of their Parliament, 
and thereby of their constitutional right, and 
immediate power to legislate for themselves. 
That, impressed with every sentiment of 
loyalty to their King, and affectionate attach- 
ment to British connection, they conceived 
that to agitate in Parliament a question of 
the Legislative Union between that kingdom 



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UNION pr.orosED. 



367 






and Great Britain, would be highly danger- 
ous and impolitic." 

Even the fellows and scholars of Trinity 
College held their meeting, and passed a 
resolution calling on their representatives in 
Parliament to oppose the Union. Similar 
resolutions of county and borough meetings 
appeared nearly every day ; so that when 
Lord Cornwallis, on the 22d of January, 
1 799, came down, along with his trusiy coun- 
, Lords Clare and Castlereagh, to 
open the session of Parliament, it was very 
evident that there was a considerable mass 
of opposition to be broken down. 

On that day there was B great concourse 
in Dublin streets; and College Green was 
filled with anxious multitudes ; not gay and 
jubilant, as they had been when once before 
they had crowded those avenues to witness 
the parade of the volunteers, but with a 

gl iv feeling Of the. miseries then actually 

upon the country, and foreboding of some- 
thing worse to come. The Viceroy came 
from the Castle to the llou-e with a Strong 

guard, ami duly delivered his speech from 
lie' throne; of which these two portentous 
paragraphs were listened to with breathless 
ai tention : — 

"The /.eal of ] lis Majesty's regular and 
militia forces, the gallantry of the yeomanry, 
the honorable cooperation of the British 
fencibles and militia, and the activity, skill, 
and valor of 1 lis Majesty's fleets, will, I 
doubt not, defeat every future effort of the 
enemy. But the more I have reflected on 
th i situation and circumstances of this king- 
dom, Considering on the one hand the 
strength and stability of Great Britain, 
and on the other those divisions, which have 
Bhaken Ireland to its foundations, the more 

anxious I am for some permanent adjust- 
ment which may extend the advantages en- 
joyed by our sister kingdom to every [tart 
ol this island. 

"'The unremitting industry with which 
our enemies persevere in their avowed de- 
sign of endeavoring to effect a separation of 
this kingdom from Great Britain, must have 

enga I J our particular attention ; and 

His Majesty commands me to express his 
anxious hope that this consideration, joined 
to the sentiment of mutual affection and 
common interest, may dispose the Parlia- 




ments in both kingdoms to provide the most 
effectual means of maintaining and improv- 
ing a connection, essential to their common 

security, and of consolidating, as far as pos- 
sible, into one firm ami lasting fabric, the J (^ 
Strength, the power, and the resources of 
the British empire." 

Here, then, was the dreaded Union dis- 
tinctly enough raised up before Parliament 
and the country, and avowed as the policy 
of the Administration, At once began the 
tumult of debate on the address. In the 
Lords, an address was proposed which was 
almost an echo of the speech, promising to 

"give the fullest attention to measures of 

such importance." 

Upon which it was proposed by Lord 

Powerscourt to a nd the said motion, by 

inserting after the word importance, the fol- 
lowing words : -" That it is our most earn- 
est desire to strengthen the connection be- 
tween the, two countries by every possible 
means, but the measure of a Legislative 
Union we apprehend is not within the limit 
of our power ; we beg leave also to repre- 
sent to your Majesty, that although this 
House were competent to adopt such a mea- 
sure, we conceive that it would bo highly 
impolitic so to do, as it would tend, in our 
opinion, more than any other cause, ulti- 
mately to a separation of this kingdom from 
that ol Great Britain." 

A motion was then made for leave, to 
withdraw the amendment. A debate arose 
thereupon, ami lie question being put, the 
House divided, and the Earl of Glandbre 

reported, that the < tents below the bar 

were nineteen, and the non-contents in the 
House were forty-six. 

A motion was then made, that after the 
word "security," in the same paragraph, 
the following words be expunged, "and of 
consolidating as far as possible into one firm 

and lasting fabric, I lie strength, the power, 

and the resources of the British empire," 
which also passed in the negative. Another 
motion was then made by the Earl of Bel- 
lamont, that after the said word "import- 
•ance," the following words be inserted : " so 
far as maybe consistent with the permanent, : iJ/5J 
enjoyment, exercise, and tutelary vigilance 
of our resident and independent Parliament, 
as established, acknowledged, and reeojj- 






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nized" This motion was also negatived by 
u division of forty-nine against sixteen. 
Fourteen of the lords in the minority pro- 
tested.* 

In the House of Commons were many 
anxious faces and gloomy brows. It had 
already been sufficiently indicated that Oov- 
ernment, to carry this measure, would stop 
at nothing. Immediately after the bar 
meeting the Right Honorable James Fitz- 
gerald, Prime Sergeant, was dismissed from 

oilier, and deprived of his precedency at I lie 

bar. It was known, also, that unlimited 
funds would be used by Government, with- 
out scruple, both in buying up boroughs 
(which were then treated as the private 
property Of their patrons,) and in direct 
bribery, to pay for votes, The innumerable 
methods which a powerful government has 
at its disposal both to reward and to pun- 
ish — all these considerations rose up before 

the anxious minds of the members occupy- 
ing those benches. It must be confessed, 
too, thai the previous history of the Irish 
Parliament, as recorded in these pages, was 

not calculated to make the country expect 
any exhibition of stern patriotism, "I have 
now seen,'' said Theobald Wolfe Tone, 
'• the Parliament of Ireland, the Parliament 
of England, the Congress of the United 
States of America, the Corps Legislatif of 
France, and the Convention of Batavia ; I 
have likewise Been our shabby Volunteer 
Convention in 1158, and the Genera] Com- 
mittee of the Catholics in 1793 ; so that I 
have seen, in the way of deliberate bodies, 
as many 1 believe as most men, and of all 
those 1 have mentioned, beyond all com- 
parison the most shamelessly profligate and 
abandoned by all sense of virtue, principle, 
or even common decency, was the Legislature 
of my own unfortunate country ; the scoun- 
drels 1" 

But when we read so harsh a judgment 
upiHi the Legislature of our country, it must 
Mot lie forgotten that it did not repre- 
sent the country ; did not even represent 



* Viz., Lolnstor 



(ininanl. 

Beli Idere, 

Allan, 

Charlemont, 

I'm II. ll, 

Mountoashel, 



Kilkenny, 
Belmore, 
Pon araoourt, 

1 v \ ,.>»'i, 

Duns&ny, 

l.ismoro. 

Win. Down and Connor, 



the Protestant minority of the country; 
represented nothing (as to its vast majority,) 

save a few nolile families, great proprietors, 
and the enormous " interest " of place and 
pension. Considering all this, it is rather 
surprising, and was, indeed, very surprising 
to Lord Castlereagh, that on the present 
vital occasion, the policy of the Castle met 
With so hearty an opposition, 

The address in the Commons was moved 
by Lord Tyrone, eldest son of the Marquis 

of Waterford. The address, lie said, did 
not pledge him in any manner to support 

the asure of ar. union ; let that question 

of policy stand upon its own merits; let it 
he adopted or rejected as the interests of 
Ireland and the prosperity of the empire 
should dictate. 

Colonel Fitzgerald, (member for the 

County of Cork,") seconded the address, 
i icpressillg a zealous desire that any step 
likely to cement and strengthen the connec- 
tion between the two countries should be 

adopted. * 

After several speeches, Opposing the mea- 
sure of a union, in a vague and hypotheti- 
cal sort of way, as if there were really no 
such question before the House, Lord Castle- 
reagh, whose fault was certainly not lack of 
boldness, rose to say, that although there 

were not in the address any Specific pledge 
to a measure of union, yet it was clearly 
implied in the wish to Strengthen the re- 
sources of the empire; lor he hail DO diffi- 
culty in saying, that he thought the only 
means of Bottling that unhappy country in 
permanent tranquillity and connection with 
Britain, were to be found in a. Legislative 
Union ; and on that subject he did intend at 
an early day to submit a specific motion to 
tin' House.* 

Mr. (J. Ponsonby entered on an able at- 
tack and exposure of the general principle 
of an union, by boldly avowing the princi- 
ple, that neither the Legislature, nor any 
power on earth, had a right or authority lo 

* On occasion of tlii-- first and most remarkable of 
the debates on tie' Union, II ins been judged expe- 
dient i" go Borneo iiit farther into detail than osual. 
It wuh new that Members of Parliament took their 
positions en that great question ; from whloh posi- 
tions iiemv of them afterwards retreated an, l ohanged 
Bides : from motives, onhappily, too well known, as 

will BOOD appear. 







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annihilate the Irish Parliament, and deprive 
people forever of their rights to tlic bene- 
fits of the Constitution, and civil liberty. 

The Minister had told them they ought 
to discuss this measure with coolness ; bul 
wheu the Minister himself would not leave 

men to the free exercise of their lerstand- 

ing, bul turned oul of office the best and 
oldest servants of the Crown, because they 
would not prostitute their conscience, when 
the terror of dismissal was thus holden oul 
to deter men in office from a fairexerci eof 
their private judgment, how could he talk 
of cool discussion f He concluded by mov- 
ing an amendment, which would give every 
gentleman, who did not wish to pledge him- 
self to a surrender of the rights of the 
country, an opportunity of speaking his 
mind. The amendment was ■ - that after 
the passage which declared the willingness 
of the House to enter on a consideration of 
what measures might best tend to confirm 
the common strength of the empire, should 
be inserted, "maintaining, however, the un- 
doubted birth-right of the people of Ireland 
to have a resident and independent legisla- 
ture, such as was recognized by the British 
Legislature in 1782, and was finally .settled 
at the adjust incut of all differences between 
the two countries." 

Sir L. Parsons seconded the amendment. 

Many gentle n warmly supported Pon- 

sonby's amendment ; amongst others, Mr. 
Fitzgerald, ex-Prime-Sergeant, who raised 
the vital Constitutional question — "It was 
not, in his opinion, within the moral compe- 
tence of Parliament, to destroy and extin- 
guish itself, and with it the rights and lib- 
erties of those who created it. The consti- 
tuent parts iif a state are obliged to hold 
their public faith with each other, and with 
all those who derive any serious interest, un- 
der their engagements ; such a compact may, 
with respect to Great Britain, be an union ; 

but with respect to Ireland, it will be a re- 
volution, and a revolution of a most alarm- 
ing nature.'' 

Mr. Fitzgerald also quoted Dr. Johnson's 
remark to an Irishman, on the subject of an 
union : " Don't unite with us," said he, "we 
shall Quite wilh you only to rob you ; we 
should have robbed the Scots, if they had 

anything to be robbed of." 



'I'ic debate proceeded, warming as ii went. 
Sir 1'ioyle Roche, in Ids blundering way, 
stumbled upon a most accurate descrip- 
tion of the real Castle policy. He said 
" he was for an union to put an end to 
uniting between Presbyterians, Protest- 
ants, and Catholics, to overturn the Consti- 
tution." 

One of the most patriotic speeches made 
in tin' course of this historic argument was 
by Sir Jonah Bnrrington, then a. Indue of the 
Admiralty Court. lie strongly deprecated 
this plan to subject irrevocably one in- 
dependent country to the will of another, 
and both to the will of a Minister already 
stronger than the Crown, and more power- 
ful than the people ; and this great and im- 
portant usurpation stolen into Parliament 

through the fulsome paragraphs of an echo- 
ing congratulation, pledging the House to 
the discussion of a principle subversive of 
their liberties, and in the hour of convales- 
cence calling on it. to commit suicide, Ire- 
land (he said) had not fair play ; her Par- 
liament had not fair play ; the foulest and 
most unconstitutional means, he believed, 
had been used to intimidate and corrupt il, 
and either to force or to seduce a suffrage, 
when nothing but. general, independent, un- 
influenced opinion could warrant for a mo- 
ment the most distant view of so ruinous a 
subject. lie had good reason to believe, 
that corrupt and unconstitutional means hail 

I n used by the noble lord to individuals of 

the Irish Parliament. Some of those means 
were open and avowed ; two of the oldest, 
most, respectable, and most beloved officers 
of the Crown had been displaced, because 
they presumed to hint an opinion adverse 
to the stripling's dictates, on a subject 
where their country was at stake ; their re- 
movals crowned them with glory, and the 
Minister with contempt, lie asserted, that 
other gentlemen in office, whose opinions 
were decidedly adverse to the measure, 
but whose circumstances could not bear 
similar sacrifices, were dragged to the altar 
of pollution, and forced, against their will, to 
vote against their country ; he had good 
reason to believe, that unconstitutional in- 
terference had been used wilh the executive 
power with the legislative body ; one gentle- 
man refused the instructions of his coustitu- 




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370 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




fins, ami had been promoted. Peerages 
(us was rumored) were bartered for the 
rights of minors, and every effort used to 
destroy the free agency of Parliament ; if 
this were true, it encroached on the Consti- 
tution, and if the executive power overstep- 
ped its bounds, the people wire warranted 
to do the same mi their part, and between 
both it might be annihilated, and leave a 
wondering world in amazement how the 
same people could have been wise enough 
to frame the best constitution on earth, and 
foolish enough to destroy it. One king and 
two kingdoms was the cry of the people of 
Ireland. 

Sir John Blaquiere, on the side of the 
Government, remonstrated against " the 
charges of undue influence and corruption;" 
and then proceeded to use an argument in 
behalf of the Union, which may serve as a 
sample of the means by which SO many of 
the Catholics were induced to favor that 
measure. Sir John said, " the houorable 
member who proposed amendment, with a 
flow of such transceiidant eloquence as had 
seldom been heard in that House, had ex- 
pressly stated, that the Roman Catholics 
must oppose the Union. He knew not the 
mind of Catholics upon the subject ; but 
he should speak his own — that the Ro- 
man Catholics, under the present order of 
things, could never lie accommodated, us he 
feared, with what they asked, without im- 
minent danger to the Protestant establish- 
ment, both in church and state ; but ('/' 
once mi union should be adopted, (ill those dif- 
ficulties would vanish, and lie should see none 
in granting them everything they desired." 

Mr. Knox and Mr. Hans Hamilton made 
violent attacks upon the Union and upon 
the Government. 

Mr. Knox (member for Philipstown) la- 
mented that that accursed measure had long- 
been the favorite object of that Minister of 
England, whose wild ambition had already 
led to the destruction of empires ; and which 
then sought to annihilate that nation. In 
order to forward that wicked scheme, great 
paius had been tiken by those who man- 
aged the affairs ol Government under his 
guidance, to promote and beep alive among 
the people ever} dsiinction of party and 
religion, all differences of opinion, whether 



in politics or religion, had been industriously 

fomented and encouraged, and every means 
taken to distract and divide the inhabitants 
of that land. If that fatal measure should 
ever be carried, henceforth that insulted, de- 
graded, debased country would be made a 
barrack, a depot from whence to draw the 
means of enslaving Great Britain, and no 
resource left to save either country but a 
revolution. 

Mr. Hans Hamilton declared that an 
union was a measure he should very firmly 
oppose within those walls with his vote, w ith- 
out them with his life ; but he foresaw that 
the hour was at hand which would prove this 
to be the most glorious day that Ireland 
had ever beheld, and enable the members 
to go forth to their constituents, and as- 
sure them they were represented by an 
Irish Parliament, and never would betray 
their independence. 

Lord Castlereagh felt that the day was 
going against him. He rose to State his 
reasons for favoring the measure of a Legis- 
lative Union ; and spoke, as he well knew 
how, with a noble air of candor. It is al- 
most incredible, however, that in the ab- 
stract of his speech which has come down to 
us, actually appear the following words : — 

" His lordship trusted, that no man would 
decide on a measure of such importance as 
that in part before the House, on private or 
personal motives; for if a decision were thus 
to be influenced, it would bo the most unfor- 
tunate that could ever affect the country." 

His reasons for supporting the mea- 
sure were, of course, of the purest descrip- 
tion ; if the means he used to support it 
had been as free from taint as his personal 
conduct, his lordship's name and fame would 
now be much higher than they are. " Dis- 
sensions" and "divisions" unhappily exist- 
ing in Ireland (which Mr. Knox said the 
Government bad " industriously fomented,") 
formed the chief motive, in his mind, for our 
country to tling itself |into the arms of the 
English, who hail carefully created and kept 
alive those dissensions and divisions in Ire- 
land for centuries ! One passage in his lord- 
ship's argument reads strangely in the light 
of subsequent history : — 

" Absentees (he said) formed another ob- 
jection. They would be somewhat increased, 






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c\ IMMV.HS EXPLANATION SPEECH OF PLUNKET. 



371 



no doubt, by an union ; but the evil would 
be compensated by other advantages, and 
among them by the growth of am interne- 
iltute. class of men between the landlord and 
the peasant ; a class of wen whose loss was 
fell in Ireland, to train the mind of the lower 
These an union would bring over 
from England. They would also have 
lal from theme. At all events, these in- 
conveniences would be but a grain of sand 
compared with the advantages which would 
be derived from internal security, and their 
growing together in habits of amity and af- 
fection." 

The next powerful speech on the debate 
was that of William Conyngham Plnnket, 
then in the prime of life ; he had been the 
warm friend of Tone and of Emmet, and 
was now Cast rising into high eminence, both 
a> a barrister and a member of Parliament. 
It is his famous llamilear speech, in which he 
assails the Government, as he had promised 
to do, more daringly than Sir Jonah Bar- 
riugton. He spoke of the apparently bluff, 
downright old soldier (Cornwallis) " who, as 
an additional evidence of the directness and 
purity of his views, had chosen for his sec- 
retary a simple and modest youth ( Ptier 
bngenui rutins ivgenuique jntdoris) whose in- 
experience was the voucher of his innocence ; 
yet, was he bold to say, that during the 
Vice-royalty of that unspotted veteran, and 
during the adminstration of that unassum- 
ing stripling, within the last six weeks, a 
system of black corruption had been carried 
on within the walls of the Castle, which 
would disgrace the annals of the worst period 
of the history of either country. Did they 
choose to take down his words ? He needed 
to call no witnesses to their bar to prove 
them. He saw two right honorable gentle- 
men sitting within those walls, who had long 
and faithfully served the Crown, and who 
had been dismissed, because they dared to 
express a sentiment in favor of the freedom 
of their country. He saw another honor- 
able gentleman, who had been forced to re- 
sign his place, as Commissioner of the Re- 
venue, because lie refused to cooperate in 
that dirty job of a dirty Administration ; 
did they dare to deny this? I say, (he 
continued,) that at this moment, the threat 
of dismissal from office is suspended over the 



heads of the members who now sit around 
me, in order to influence their votes on the 
question of this night, involving everything 
that can be sacred or dear to man"; do you 
desire to take down my words? Utter the 
desire, and I will prove the truth of them 
at your bar. Sir, I would warn you against 
the consequences of carrying this measure 
by such means as this, but that I see the 
necessary defeat of it in the honest and uni- 
versal indignation which the adoption of 
such means excites ; I see the protection 
against the wickedness of the plan iu the 
imbecility of its execution, and I congratu- 
late my country that when a design was 
formed against their liberties, the prosecu- 
tion of it was entrusted to such hands as it 
is now placed in." 

Mr. Plunket then dealt with the Consti- 
tutional grounds of opposition to a union, 
and especially to the time of its being pro- 
posed. It is impossible, within our limits, 
to give more than a mere abstract of such a 
speech : — 

" At a moment," he said, "when Ireland 
was filled with British troops, when the 
loyal men were fatigued and exhausted by 
their efforts to subdue rebellion — efforts in 
which they had succeeded before those 
troops arrived ; whilst their habeas corpus 
act was suspended, whilst trials by court- 
martial were carrying on in many parts of 
the kingdom, whilst the people were taught 
to think that they had no right to meet or 
to deliberate, and whilst the great body of 
them were so palsied by their fears and 
worn down by their exertions that even the 
vital question was scarcely able to rouse 
them from their lethargy; at a momentwhen 
they were distracted by domestic dissensions 
— dissensions artfully kept alive as the pre- 
text for their present subjugation, and the 
instrument of their future thraldom. He 
thanked Administration for the measure. 
They were, without intending it, putting an 
end to Irish dissensions. Through that 
black cloud, which they had collected over 
them, he saw the light breaking in upon 
their unfortunate country. They had com- 
posed dissensions, not by fomenting the em- 
bers of a lingering and subdued rebellion ; 
not by hallooing the Protestant against the 
Catholic and the Catholic against the Pro- 



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testant; nut by committing the North against 
the South ; not by inconsistent appeals to 
local oi- party prejudices. No ! but by the 
avowal of that atrocious conspiracy against 
the liberties of Ireland they had subdued 
every petty feeling and subordinate distinc- 
tion. They had united every rank ami de- 
scriptiou of men by the pressure of that 
grand and momentous subject ; and he told 
them that they would see every honest and 
independent man in Ireland rally round her 
Constitution, and merge every other consid- 
eration in his opposition to that ungenerous 
and odious measure. For his own part, he 
would resist it to the last gasp of his exist- 
ence, and with the last drop of his blood ; 
and when he felt the hour of 1 1 is dissolution 
approaching, he would, like the father of 
Hannibal, take his children to the altar, and 
swear them to eternal hostility against the in- 
vaders of their enuntrys freedom." 

This gallant speech was often cited after- 
wards against Plunket ; and it was re- 
marked that Hamilcar, after that swearing 
scene, never helped the Romans to govern 
Carthage as a province. 

Strange to say, of all the Beresfords, John 
Claudius Beresford (of the Riding-House 
and the pitch-caps) opposed the Govern- 
ment measure, and supported Mr. Pouson- 
by's amendment. Some of the strongest 
Irish nationalists of that day were Orange- 
men, and bitter persecutors of Catholics. 

At length, after twenty-two hours' de- 
bate, at ten o'elock on the morning of the 
24th, the House divided, and the vote stood 
■ — fur Mr. Ponsonby's amendment, 105 ; 
against it, 10G. Majority for the Govern- 
ment, 1. 

It was held by both sides of the House to 
be substantially a defeat for the Govern- 
ment, and the multitudes who had been 
thronging the corridors, the porticos, and 
the streets all around, burst into acclama- 
tions of joy. The mob waited for members 
as they came out, and hooted or cheered, 
as they heard each member had voted for 
the Castle or the nation. 

As to the method by wdiich Castlereagh 
had gained oven that apparent and most 
unsatisfactory victory, Sir Jonah Barring- 
ton, an eye-witness, gives us this detail, 
which illustrates the whole mode aud ma- 



chinery whereby the Union was finally car- 
ried : — ■ 

"Avery remarkable incident," says Sir 
Jonah, "during the first night's debate oc- 
curred in the conduct of Mr. Luke Fox an 1 
Mr. Trench, of Woodlawn, afterwards ere- 
aied Lord Ashtown. These were the most 
palpable, undisguised acts of public tergiver- 
sation and seduction ever exhibited in a popu- 
lar assembly. They afterwards became the 
Subject of many speeches and of many pub- 
lications ; and their consequences turned the 
majority of one in favor of the Minister. 

"It was suspected that Mr. Trench had 
been long in negotiation with Lord Castle- 
reagh ; but it did not, in the early part of 
that night, appear to have been brought to 
any conclusion — his conditions were supposed 
to be too extravagant. Mr. Trench, after 
some preliminary observations, declared, in a 
speech, that he would vote against the Min- 
ister, and support Mr. Ponsonby's amend- 
ment. This appeared a stunning blow to 
Mr. Cooke, who had been previously in con- 
versation with Mr. Trench. He was imme- 
diately observed sideling from his seat nearer 
to Lord Castlereagh. They whispered ear- 
nestly, and, as if restless and undecided, both 
looked wistfully towards Mr. Trench. At 
length, the matter seemed to be determined 
on. Mr. Cooke retired to a back seat, and 
was obviously endeavoring to count the 
House, probably to guess if they could that 
night dispense with Mr. Trench's services, 
He returned to Lord Castlereagh — they 
whispered, again looked most affectionately 
at Mr. Trench, who seemed unconscious 
that he was thy subject of their considera- 
tion. But there was no time to lose — the 
question was approaching — all shame was 
banished — they decided on the terms ; and 
a significant and certain glance, obvious to 
everybody, convinced Mr. Trench that his 
conditions were agreed to. Mr. Cooke then 
went and sat down by his side ; an earnest 
but very short conversation took place ; a 
parting smile completely told the House that 
Mr. Trench was that moment satisfied. 
These surmises were soon verified. Mr. 
Cooke went back to Lord Castlereagh ; a 
congratulatory nod announced his satisfac- 
tion. But could any man for one moment 
suppose that a member of Parliament, a man 




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METHODS OF CONVERSION TO UNIONISM. 



of very large fortune, of respectable family, 
ami gooil character, could be publicly, and 
without shame or compunction, actually se- 
duced by Lord Castlereagh, in the very 
body of the House, and under the eye of two 
hundred and twenty gentlemen ? Set this 
was the fact. In a few minutes Mr. Trench 
rose, to apologize for having indiscreetly 
declared lie would support the amendment. 
He added, that he had thought better of the 
subject since he had unguardedly expressed 
himself; that he had beeu convinced he was 
wrong, and would support the Miuister. 

"Scarcely was there a member of any 
parly who was not disgusted. It had, how- 
ever, the effect iutended by the desperate 
purchase]', of proving that ministers would 
stop at nothing to effect their objects, how- 
ever shameless or corrupt. This purchase 
of Mr. Trench had a much more fatal effect 
upon the destinies of Ireland. His change 
of sides, and the majority of one to which 
it contributed, were probably the remote 
causes of persevering in a Union. Mr. 
^Trench's venality excited indignation in 
every friend of Ireland.* 

" Another circumstance that night proved 
by what means Lord Castlereagh's majority 
of even one was acquired. 

"The Place Bill, so lontr and so pertina- 
ciously sought for, and so indiscreetly framed 
by Mr. (j rattan and the Whigs of Ireland, 
now, for the first time, proved the very eu- 
gine by which the Minister upset the oppo- 
sition, and annihilated the Constitution. 

"That bill enacted, that members accept- 
ing offices, places, or pensions, during the 
pleasure of the Crown, should not sit in 
Parliament unless reelected ; but, unfortu- 
nately, the bill made no distinction between 
valuable offices which might influence, and 
nominal offices, which might job; and the 
Chiltern Hundreds of England were, under 
the title of the Bscheatorships of Minister, 
Leiuster, Connaught, &c, transferred to 

Ireland, with salaries of lolly shillings, to 

1h- used at pleasure by tin- Secretary. Oc- 
Casioual and temporary seats were thus bar- 
tered for by Government, and by the ensu- 

* No fewer tli. 111 three Trenches are found in the 
"Black Last," as voting for the L'ni<»n. They were 
all appointed e> valuabli offices i"i it, and one was 
made u peer and an ambassador. 



iug session made the complete and fatal in- 
strument of packing the Parliament, and 
effecting a union. 

" Mr. Luke Fox, a barrister of very hum- 
ble origin, of vulgar manners, and of a 
coarse, harsh appearance, was indued with 
a clear, strong, and acute mind, and was 
possessed of much cuuning. He had ac- 
quired very considerable legal information, 
and was an obstinate and persevering advo 
cate. He had been the usher of a school, 
and a sizcr in Dublin University ; but nei- 
ther politics nor the belles-lettres were his 
pursuit. On acquiring eminence at the bar, 
he married an obscure niece of the Earl of 
Ely's, lie had originally professed what 
was called whiggism, merely, as people sup- 
posed, because his name was Fox. His 
progress was impeded by no political princi- 
ples ; but he kept his own secrets well, and, 
being a man of no importance, it was per- 
fectly indifferent to everybody what side he 
took. Lord Ely, perceiving he was man- ' 
ageable, returned him to Parliament as one 
of his automata; and Mr. Fox played his part 
very much to the satisfaction of his manager. 

"When the Union was announced, Lord 
Ely had not made his terms, and remained 
long iu abeyance ; * and, as his lordship 
had not issued his orders to Mr. Fox, he 
was very unwilling to commit himself until 
he could dive deeper into probabilities ; but 
rather believing the Opposition would have 
the majority, he remained in the body of the 
House, with the Anti-Unionists, when the 
division took place. The doors were scarce- 
ly locked, when lie became alarmed, and 
slunk, unperceived, into one of the dark cor- 
ridors, where he concealed himself. He was. 
however, discovered, and the Sergeunt-at- 
Arms was ordered to bring him forth, to be 
counted amongst the Anti-Unionists. His 
confusion was very great, and he seemed at 
his wit's end. At length, he declared he 
had taken advantage of the Place Bill ; had 
actually accepted the Eschmtorship of Minis- 
ter, and had thereby vacated his scat, and 
could not vote. 

* He "made his term-,'' however, m due time. We 
afterwards find him in receipt of a sum of £45,000, the 
price of his three boroughs, which he sold to Govern- 
ment that it might put its own creatures into the 
representation. 




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"The fact was doubted ; but, alter much 
discussion, his excuse, upon his honor, was 
admitted, and he w:is allowed to return into 
the corridor. On the numbers being count- 
ed, there was a majority of one for Lord 
Castlereagh, and exclusive of Mr. Trench's 
conduct ; but for that of Mr. Fox the num- 
bers would have been equal. The measure 
would have been negatived by the Speaker's 
vote, aud the renewal (if it, the next day 
would have been prevented. This would 
have been a most important victory. 

" The mischief of the Place Bill now stared 
its franicrs in the face, and gave the Secre- 
tary a code of instruction how to arrange a 
Parliament against the ensuing session. 

"To lender the circumstance still more 
extraordinary and unfortunate for Mr. Fox's 
reputation, it was subsequently discovered, 
by the public records, that Mr. Fox's asser- 
tion was false. But the following day, Lord 
Castlereagh purchased him outright ; and 
then, and not before, appointed hi in to the 
nominal office of Escheator of Muuster, and 
lefl the seal of Lord Fly for another of his 
creatures.* This is mentioned, not only as 
one of the mosl reprehensible public acts 

committed during the discussion, but be- 
cause it was the primary cause of the mea- 
sure being persisted in." 

Thus the preliminary contest on the very 
threshold of the Union question may be said 
to have ended in a drawn battle. It was 
known, however, that it was to be renewed 
on that very evening. It was an exciting 
dav for the people of Dublin ; and to those 
who know into wdiat a dismal condition the 
Union has since dragged down the once 
proud metropolis of our island, there is 
something pathetic in the passionate anxiety 
with which its thronging people then crowd- 
ed round their Parliament House, hanging 
on the momentous vote ; watching with 
beating hearts, the progress of a Struggle 
which was to decide the destinies of their 
City and their nation. 



* This did not conclude the remarkable acts of Mr. 
Fox. After liis m ;ii had been so vacated, he got 
himself reelected for a borough under the Influence 
oj i 1 "' Earl ofGranard, a zealous Anti-Unionist; here 
he "i more betrayed the country, and was ap- 
pointed a Judge when the subject was decided. 




CHAPTER XXXIX. 

i7:iy 

Second Debate on Union — Sir Lawrence Parsons— 
Mr. Smith -Ponsonby and Plnnkel — Division— Ma- 
jority against Government — Posonby's Resolution 

for Perpetual Independence Defect!) f Fortes- 

cue and Others — Resolution Lost — " Possible Cir- 
cumstances " — Tumult — Danger of Lord ('hire— 
Second Debate in the Lords — Lord Clare Triumph- 
ant "Loyalists' Claim-Bill" -"RebelB Disqualifi- 
cation Hill" — "Flogging Fitzgerald"- asks In- 
demnity — Regenoy Act— opposed by Castlereagh. 

It was naturally supposed that if the 
Minister was left in a minority on the sec- 
ond debate upon the reception of the ad- 
dress, he would, according to all precedents, 
resign his situation ; whilst an increased ma- 
jority, however small, in favor of his mea- 
sure might, give plausible grounds for pressing 
it forward at all hazards. No wonder, then, 
that the excitement and anxiety were intense 
on that day. Sir Jonah Harrington de- 
scribes the scene : — 

"The people collected in vast multitudes 
around the House ; a strong sensation was 

everywhere perceptible ; immense numbers 
of ladies of distinction crowded at an early 
hour, into the galleries, and by their pres- 
ence and their gestures animated that patri- 
otic spirit, upon the prompt energy of which 
alone depended the fate of Ireland. 

" Secret messengers were dispatched in 
every direction, to bring in loitering or re- 
luctant members — every emissary that Gov- 
ernment could rely upon was busily employ- 
ed the entire morning ; and live and thirty 
minutes after four o'clock, in the afternoon 
of the '24th of January, 1799, the House 
met to decide, by the adoption or rejection 
of the address — the question of national in- 
dependence or annihilation. Within the cor- 
ridors of the House, a shameless aud un- 
precedented alacrity appeared among the 
friends of the l.ovcrnnient. 

" Mr. Cooke, the under-Secretary, wdio, 
throughout all the subsequent stages of the 
question, was the private and efficient actu- 
ary of the Parliamentary seduction, on this 
night exceeded even himself, both in his 
public and private exertions to gain over the 
wavering members. Admiral l'akenham. a 
naturally friendly and good-natured gentle- 
man, that night acted like the captain of a 
press-gang, and actually hauled in soma 



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members who were desirous of retiring. 
He had declared thai he would acl in any 
capacity, according to the exigencies of his 
party ; and he did not sin-ink from his 

task. 

" This debate, in point of warmth, much 
exceeded the Former. Lord Castlereagh sat 
long silent ; his eye run round the assembly, 
ns if to ascertain his situation, and was often 
withdrawn, with a look of uncertainty and 
disappointment. The members had a little 
increased since the last division, principally 
by members who had nol declared them- 
selves, and of whose opinions the Secretary 
was ignorant." 

When the address was reported, on the 
reading of that part of it which related to 
the Union, Sir Lawrence Parsons offered 
an amendment, objecting to the paragraph 
which "pledged the House, under a meta- 
phorical expression (' maintaining and im- 
ploring a connection,' &C.,) to admit the 
principle of the Legislative Union." Two 
short passages of his long speech are enough 
to show its spirit : — 

" Were the Union ever so good a measure, 
why bring it forward at that time ? Was 
it not evidently to take advantage of Eng- 
land's strength there, and their own internal 
weakness? It. was always in times of di- 
vision and disaster that a nation availed it- 
self of the infirmities of its neighbor, to 
obtain an unjust dominion. That Great 
Britain should desire to do so, he did not, 
much wonder ; for what nation did not de- 
sire to rule another? Nor was he surprised 
that there should he some among them base 
enough to conspire with her in doing so ; 
for no country could expect to be so fortu- 
nate as not to have betrayers and parricides 

an l; its citizens." 

" Annihilate the Parliament of Ireland ; 
thai i- the cry that came across the water. 
Now is I hi' lime -Ireland is weak- Ireland 
is divided — Ireland is appalled by civil war 

Inland is covered with troops, martial 

Ian brandishes its sword throughout the laud 
- now is the time to put down Ireland for- 
ever—now Btrike the blow. Who? is it 

Will vim obey that voice? Will 




SECOND DK1SATE ON UNION. 



you betray your country ?" 

On the second debate, the mosl important 
speech in la vor of union (though Castlereagh 



spoke strongly,) was that -if Mr. William 
Smith, a barrister — afterwards rewarded 
with the place of a Baron of the Exchequer. 

lie addressed himself principally to the re- 
futation of th,. main Constitutional objection 
to an union, decreed by Parliament— namely, 
the objection that Parliament had been 
"elected to make laws, and not legisla- 
tures,"-- that it had no powers to divest it- 
self of its legislative capacity to give itself 
away to another people, still less to sell it- 
self, and sell its constituents along with it- 
self. Mr. Smith said : — 

"Of the competency of Parliament to 
the enactment of such reform he had never 
heard any doubts expressed ; and the argu- 
ments which, he thought, might be offered 
against the alleged right were inconclusive, 
yet, perhaps, as plausible as any (hat could 
be urged against, the competency of the Leg- 
islature to a decree of union. That the 
authority of the Parliament had this extent, 
he had not the slightest doubt. His opinion'' 
he said, was founded on precedent, on the 
mischiefs which would result from a contrary 
doctrine, on the express authority of Con- 
stitutional writers, and on the genuine prin- 
ciples of the Constitution itself. By enact- 
ing an union, Parliament would do no more 
than change (it. would not surrender or sub- 
vert) the Constitution. Ireland, after a Leg- 
islative incorporation, would still be gov- 
erned by three estates ; and her inhabitants 
would enjoy all their privileges unimpaired. 
If the Legislature could new-model the suc- 
cession of the Crown, or change the estab- 
lished religion, it might certainly ordain 
those alterations which an union would in- 
volve. To controvert its right, would be to 
deny the validity of the act for the incor- 
poration of Scotland with England and 
Wales. But (he added) that, if he con- 
ceived that the measure would be a surren- 
der of national independence, he would by 
no means agree to if ; but it would merely 

he an i irporation of national distinctions ■ 

nor would he promote the scheme, if he 
thought that it would not. insure an iden- 
tity or community of iteresls." 

Between Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Pon- 
sonby, the debate took a very bitter per- 
sonal turn. The Secretary was .provoked 
out of his usual cool indifference. To the 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



bar lie applied the term "pettifoggers ;" to 
tlie Opposition, "cabal — combinatory — des- 
perate faction;" and to the nation itself, 
" barbarism — ignorance," and " insensibility 
to protection ami paternal regards she had 
ever experienced from the British nation." 
His speech was severe beyond anything he 
had ever uttered within the walls of Parlia- 
ment, and far exceeded the powers he was 
supposed to possess. 

After many speeches on each side, Mr. 
Plunket arose ; and, in what Sir Jonah Bar- 
rington calls " the ablest speech ever heard 
from any member in that Parliament," went 
at once to the grand and decisive point, the 
incompetence of Parliament ; he could go no 
further on principle than Mr. Ponsonby, but 
his language was irresistible, and he left noth- 
ing to be urged. It was perfect in eloquence, 
and unanswerable in reasoning. Its effect 
was indescribable ; and, for the first time, 
Lord Castlereagh, whom he personally as- 
sailed, seemed to shrink from the encounter. 
That speech was uf great weight, and it 
proved the eloquence, and the fortitude of 
the speaker. 

But a short speech, on that night, which 
gave a new sensation, and excited novel ob- 
servations, was a maiden speech by Colonel 
O'Donnell, of Mayo County, the eldest son 
of Sir Neil O'Donnell, a man of very large 
fortune in that county ; he was Colonel of a 
Mayo regiment. He was a brave officer, 
ami a well-bred gentleman ; and in all the 
situations of life he showed excellent quali- 
ties. On this night, roused by Lord Castle- 
reagh's invectives, he could not. contain his 
indignation ; and by anticipation, ''disclaim- 
ed all future allegiance ; if a union were ef- 
fected, he held it as a vicious revolution, 
and avowed that he would take the field at 
thi' head of his regiment to oppose its exe- 
cution, and would resist rebels in rich clothes 
as he had done the rebels in rags." And 

for this speech in Parliament, he was dis- 
missed his regiment without further notice. 

On a division being called for, there ap- 
peared a majority of six against the Union. 
The gratification of the Anti-Unionists was 
unbounded ; and as they walked in one by 
one to be counted, " the eager spectators," 
says Sir Jonah, " ladies as well as gentle- 
men, leaning over the galleries, ignorant of | 



the result, were panting with expectation. 
Lady Castlereagh, then one of the finest 
women of the Court, appeared in the Ser- 
geant's box, palpitating for her hnsbaud's 
fate. The desponding appearance and fallen 
crests of the Ministerial benches, and the 
exulting air of the Opposition members, as 
they entered, were intelligible. Mr. Kgan, 
Chairman of Dublin County, a large, bluff, 
red-faced gentleman, was the -last who en- 
tered. As No. 110 was announced, he 
stopped a moment at the bar, flourished a 
Stick which he held in his hand over his head, 
and, with the voice of a stentor, cried out : 
' And I'm a hundred and ele.ren ! ' " 

The same writer has thus analyzed for us 
this celebrated division : — 

For Mr. Fonsonby's amendment Ill 

For Lord Tyrone's address 105 



Majority against Government 



On this debate, the members who voted 

were circumstanced as follows : — 

« 

Members holding offices during pleasure . . . G9 
Members rewarded by offices for their votes . . 13 
Member openly seduced in the body of the House . 1 
Commoners created peers, or their wives peer- 
esses, for their votes IS 



Total 

Supposed to be uninfluenced 



102 



The House composed of 300 

Voted that night 210 



Absent members . 



84 



Of these eighty-four absent members, 
twenty-four were kept away by absolute ne- 
cessity, and of the residue there can be no 
doubt they were not friends to the Union, 
from this plain reason, that the Govern- 
ment had the power of enforcing the attend- 
ance of all dependent members. Thus the 
moral effect of this victory — to those who 
knew the composition of the House — was 
much greater than was indicated by the 
mere numerical majority. It was hoped 
that "Union" was defeated forever. 

But now, in the very moment of triumph, 
and even by the means taken to make that 
triumph definitive and irreversible, the tide 
was turned. 

The members assembled in the lobby were 
preparing to separate, when Mr. Ponsonby 



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PONSONDY'S RESOI.UTION FOR PERPETUAL INDEPENDENCE. 



377 



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requested they would return into the House 
and continue a very few minutes, a< he had 
business of the utmost importance for their 
Qjj^ consideration. This produced 11 profound 
silence. Mr. Ponsonby then, in a few words, 
"congratulated the House and the country 
on the honest and patriotic assertion of their 
liberties ; but declared that he considered 
there would be no security against future 
attempts to overthrow tleir independence 
but by a direct and absolute declaration of 
the rights of Irishmen, recorded upon their 
journals, as the decided sense of the people, 

through their Parliament ; and he, there- 
fore, without, further preface, moved — 'That 
this House will ever maintain the undoubted 
birthright of Irishmen, bi/ preserving an in- 
dependent Parliament of L<>nls and Com- 
mons residing in this kingdom, as staled and 
approved by His Majesty and the British 
Parliament in 17*2.'" 

Lord Castlereagh, conceiving that fur- 
ther resistance was unavailing, only said, 
"that he considered such a motion of the 
most dangerous tendency ; however, if the 
House were determined on it, he begged to 
declare his entire dissent, and on their own 
heads be the consequences of so wrong and 
inconsiderate a measure." No further op- 
position was made by Government ; and 
the Speaker putting the question, a loud 
cry of approbation followed, with but two 
negatives — those of Lord Castlereagh anil 
Mr. Toler (Lord Noibury); the motion was 
carried, and the members were rising to 
withdraw, when the Speaker, wishing to be 
strictly correct, called to Mr. Ponsonby to 
■write down his motion accurately. He, ac- 
cordingly, walked to the table to write it 
down. 

During this short delay, the Ministerialists 
and Opposition regarded one another in si- 
lence. Some members who had voted with 
Mr. Ponsonby did not wish the Govern- 
■'^i * ' inent to be finally defeated. They had 

heard of the determination of the Castle to 
ba\ a majority, and that at very high prices ; 
and these patriots, though they would not 
give themselves away, desired to sell them- 
selves Accordingly, when Mr. Pjnsonby's 
absolute resolution was put in writing, and 
the Speaker had read it, and put the ques- 
tion, aud a loud cry of "Aye" burst forth, 



Jp 



Mr. Chichester Forteseue, of Louth County, 

desired to be heard before the resolution 
should finally pass He said he was "adverse 
to the Union — had voted against it, — but 
did not wish to bind himself forever ; possi- 
ble circumstances might occur which should 
render that measure expedient for the em- 
pire," &c. This was caught at by some 
moderate and hesitating members of Parlia- 
ment — by some from honest, and by others 
from dishonest motives — amongst others by 
John Claudius Beresford (of the Hiding- 
House); and the motion was not pressed 
by Mr. Ponsonby, for fear of a defeat.* 

This created great despondency and alarm 
amongst the honest Anti-Unionists. But 
lor this incident Cornwallis and Castlereagh 
must probably. have resigned ; lint now cha- 
grin and disappointment had changed sides, 
aud the friends of the Union, who a moment 
before had. considered their measure as near- 
ly extinguished, rose upon their success, re- 
torted in their turn, and opposed its being 
withdrawn. It. was, however, too tender a 
ground for either party to insist upon a di- 
vision ; a debate was equally to be avoided, 
and the motion was suffered to be withdrawn. 
Sir Henry Cavendish keenly and sarcastical- 
ly remarked, that "it was a retreat after a 
victory." After a day's and a night's de- 
bate, without intermission, the House ad- 
journed at eleven o'clock the ensuing morn- 
ing. 

Upon the rising of the House, the popu- 
lace became tumultuous, aud a violent dis- 
position against those who had supported 
the Union was manifest, rot only amongst 
the common people, but amongst, those of a 
much higher class, who had been mingling 
with them. 

On the Speaker's coming out of the House, 
the horses were taken from his carriage, and 
he was drawn in triumph through the streets 
by the people, who conceived the whimsical 
idea of tackling the Lord-Chancellor to the 
coach, and (as a captive general in a Roman 
triumph) forcing him to tug at the chariot 
of his conqueror. 

The populace closely pursued his lordship 

* Those " possible circumstances " did occur— and 
very soon. Both Mr. Fortescue and others who had 
voted with I'onsonby voted for the Union on its pas 
sage in the next session. 




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378 



HISTOnY OF IRELAND. 



for that extraordinary purpose ; lie escaped 
wiili great difficulty, and Bed, with a pistol 
in his hand, to a receding doorway in Claren- 
don street. But the people, who pursued 
him in sport, set up a loud laugh at him, as 
he stood terrified against the door. They 
offered him no personal violence, and re- 
turned in high glee to their more innocent 
amusement of drawing the Speaker. 

Formally, however, ami for the moment, 
the division of that day was a triumph. A 
scene of joy anil triumph appeared universal 
■ — every countenance had a smile, through- 
out all ranks anil classes ol the people 

men shook their neighbors heartily by the 

hand, as if the Minister's defeat, was all 
event, of individual good fortune, the mol> 
seemed as well disposed to joy as mischief, 
and that was savin;;' much for a Dublin as- 
semblage. Hut a view of their enemies, us 
I hey ciune skulking from behind the corri- 
dors, occasionally roused them to no very 
tranquil temperature. Some members had 
to try their speed, and others their intre- 
pidity. 

Sir Jonah Barrington, who looked on at 
all these proceedings with the eye rather of 
a humorist than of a statesman, tells us that 
Mr. Richard Martin, unable to get clear, 
turned on his hunters, and boldly faced a 
mob of many thousands, with a small pocket 
pistol in his hand. lie swore most vehe- 
mently that, if they advanced six inches on 
him, he would immediately "shoot every 
mother's babe of them as dead as that paving 
stone" (kicking one). The united spirit 
and fun of his declaration, and his little 

pocket pistol, aimed at ten thousand men, 
women, and children, were so entirely to 
the taste of our Irish populace, that all 
symptoms of hostility ceased. They gave 
him three cheers, mid lie regained his home 
without, further molestation. 

In the House of Lords, on the same ques- 
tion, upon the reception of this aidress, 
Lord flare carried everything with a high 

hand The same handful of Spirited peers 

who had voted against Union on the former 
division agaiu opposed it; and it is remarked 
that Dr. Dickson, Bishop of Down, and 
Marlay, Bishop of Limerick, were the only 
two spiritual peers who ventured to stand 
up against the stern and haughty Chancel- 




lor. The Bishop of Limerick was Qrattan's 
uncle, and the Hishop of Down was an inti- 
mate friend of Mr. Fox. That degraded 
assemblage, the Irish House of Peers, many 
of whom had bought their titles within the 
past few years for money, or for the Castle- 
votes of their borough members, and others 
of whom were promised a noble price for 
those boroughs to promote the Union, lay 
helplessly prostrate at the feet of Govern- 
ment, and the low-born but audacious 
Chancellor cracked his whip over the coro- 
netted slaves. 

Not much business of great national im- 
portance was transacted in the remainder 

of that session ; the Government had re- 
solved to employ all its resources in favor 
of union during the recess. 'The Loyalist 
Claim bill, however, was passed; under 
which bill the country was afterwards 
charged more than a. million sterling, to 
compensate "loyalists'' who had suffered 
loss by the insurrection. An attempt was 
made to pass also a " Rebel Disqualification 
hill ;" the title was " A Bill for preventing 
persons who have ever taken the Oath of the 
United Irishmen from voting for members 
to serve in Parliament." On the second 
reading this hill of disfranchisement, was 
opposed '•)' Sir Hercules Latigrishe, sup- 
ported vehemently, of course, by Dr. Dui- 

genan, John Claudius Beresford, and Mr. 

Ogle ; but was defeated. 

A very singular discussion took place in 
the Souse of Commons this session, on the 
presentation of a petition from Mr. Thomas 
Judkill Fitzgerald, known as the "Hogging 
sheriff" of Tipperary. It seems that he 
had been so wanton and indiscriminate in 
his flagellations, that he thought even the 
"Indemnity act" not sufficient to screen 

him from the legal consequences of such a 
raging loyalty; and this petition was to 
ask a special indemnity for himself. " Many 
actions," the petition said," had been brought, 
and many more threatened.'' Several mem- 
bers of Parliament from Munster, bore the 

wannest testimony to the zeal and activity 
of this monster in dealing with rebels. The 

Attorney-General "bore testimony from of- 
ficial information, as well as from local 
knowledge, to the very spirited and meritori- 
ous conduct of Mr. Fitzgerald, and he 



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i INDEMNITY, 



trusted the Bouse would cheerfully accede 
tu the prayerof the petition." Mr. reiver- 
ton then read to the Hou e the Bworn testi- 
mony of witnesses in one case that of Mr. 
Wright, (which has been already mention- 
ed 

"The action (he said) bronght by Mr. 
Wright was for assault and battery. It 
appeared thai Mr. Wright was a teacher 
of tin- French language, of which lie was 
employed as professor by two eminent board- 
ing-schools al Clnmncl, anil in the families 
of several respectable gentlemen in the town 
and neighborhood. 

'• Mr. Wright had heard that Mr. Fitz- 
gerald had received so charges of a sedi- 
tions nature against him, and with a prompti- 
tude not very characteristic of conscious 
guilt, he immediately went to the house of 
Mr. Fitzgerald, whom he did not find at 
home, and afterwards to that of another 
magistrate, who was also out, for the pur- 
pose of surrendering himself for trial ; he 
went again the same day, accompanied l>y a 
gentleman, to the lionse of Mr. Fitzgerald, 
and being shown into his presence, explained 
the purpose of his coming, when Mr. Fitz- 
gerald drawing his sword, said, ' down on 
your knees, you rebellious scoundrel, and re- 
ceive your sentence.' In vain did the poor 
man protest his innocence ; in vain did he 
implore trial, on his knees. Mr. Fitzgerald 
sentenced him first to lie flogged, and then 
shut. The unfortunate man surrendered his 
keys to have his papers searched, and ex- 
pressed his readiness to suffer any punish- 
ment the proof of guilt could justify ; but no 
— this was not agreeable to Mr. Fitzgerald's 
principles of jurisdiction ; his mode was first 
to sentence, then punish, and afterwards in- 
vestigate. Ilis answer to the unfortunate 
man was, ' What, you Carmelite rascal, do 
you dare to speak after sentence ?' and then 
struck him, and ordered him to prison. 

" Next day this unhappy man was dragged 
to a ladder iu Clonmel .street, to undergo 
his sentence. He knell down in prayer with 
his bat Inline his face. Mr. Fitzgerald 
came up, dragged his hat from him and 
trampled on it, seized the man by the liair, 
dragged him to the earth, kicked him, and 
cut him across the forehead with his sword, 
uud then had hnu Stripped naked, tied 





up to the ladder, 
lashes. 

" Major Rial, an officer in the town, came 
up as I he fifty lashes were completed, and 
asked Mr. F. the cause. Mr. F. handed 
the major a note, written in French, saying, 
he did not himself understand French, 
though he understood Irish, but lie (Major 
Rial) would find in that letter, what would 
justify him in flogging the scoundrel to 
death. 

" Major Rial read the letter. lie found 
it to be a note addressed for the victim, 
translated in these words : — 

"'Sir, — I am extremely sorry I cannot 
wait on you at the hour appointed, being 
unavoidably obliged lo attend Sir Lawrence 
Parsons. Yours, 

" ' Baron de Clues.' 

"Notwithstanding this translation, which 
Major Rial read to Mr. Fitzgerald, he or- 
dered fifty lashes more to be inflicted, and ■ 
with such peculiar severity, that, horrid to 
relate, the bowels of the bleeding victim 
could be perceived to be convulsed and 
working through his wounds 1 Mr. Fitz- 
gerald finding he could not continue the ap- 
plication of his cat-o'nine-tails on that part 
without cutting his way into his body, or- 
dered the waistband of his breeches to be 
cut opeu and fifty more lashes to be inflicted 
there. He then left the unfortunate man 

bleeding and suspended, while he went to 
the barrack to demand a file of men to come 
and shoot him ; but being refused by the 

commanding officer, he came back and 
sought for a rope to hang him, but could 
not get one. He then ordered him to be 
cut down and sent back to prison, where he 

was confined in a dark, s II r i, with no 

other furniture than a wretched pallet of 
straw, without covering, and there he re- 
mained six or seven days, without medical 
assistance I * 

* Mr. Plowden records another case, almost pre- 
cisely alike, in which Fitzgerald's victim was a young 
man, named I > . ._%!*■ . a respectable tradesman oi Car- 
rick. Tin- action u as tried at < llonmel Spring Assizes, 
in 1801. Mr, Plowden says: "The plaintiff, who was 
a young man of excellent character and untainted 
loyalty, was seized in the strei i by the defendant in 
order to be flagellated. In vain <lnl be protest Ins in- 
nocence, which was also supported by some of the 
most re pectable inhabitants of the place. He lug- 
ged to bave ( laptain Jcpusou tieut l'ur, the commander 



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The Attorney-General, in reply, said : 
" The petitioner, whose exertions had been 
productive of the happiest consequences, 
only complained of the persecutions to which 
lie was exposed. His property, ami what was 
of infinitely more important to an honora- 
ble man, his character, was at stake." II'' 
also censured Mr. relverton, ami said that 
gentleman would have acted more becoming- 
ly by awaiting in discreet patience the testi- 
mony offered by the petitioner, &c. The 
petition was at length referred to a commit- 
tee, then to a secret committee. Nothing 
seems to have been done upon it ; out Mr. 
Judkin Fitzgerald afterwards received a 
considerable pension, "lor his active ser- 
vices in quelling the rebellion."* 

Bi ore the adjournment of Parliament, 
the Anti-TJuiouists conceived they might 
preclude the possibility of any conflict be- 
tween the two Parliaments—and thus take 

one main argument away from the Unionists 

— by the simple measure of a Regency act, 
enacting that the Regency in Ireland should 
forevei be exercised by the same person who 

should he Regent of England. Lord Cas- 
tlereagh opposed the measure, being unwil- 
ling to lose any of his arguments, and main- 
tained that such an act would not meet the 
difficult} 

His lordship's opinion was, that it would 
not prove a remedy lor the inconvenience 
i n plaiued of. It went, in his mind, only 
to a part of the evil, namely, the effect — but 
left the cause of the evil untouched. Thus 

the great malady still remained, and the 

connection between both countries would in 
no instance be better secured. Two Parlia- 
ments, perfectly equal in point of rights, 
might, at any future period, differ respecting 
their choice '>; a r geut ; and, therefore, I - 
bdl CCuld not effect that unity ot the e.xecu- 

of the yeomanry, of which he was a member ; that 
was refised. He offered to go to instant execution 
if the least nice of guilt appeared against him on 
inquiry ; that was also refused. Bail was offered to 
any amount tor ins appearance. ' No,' says the shcr- 

ill, • I know bj his lace that l.e is a traitor - a Carme- 
lite scoundrel.' The plaintiff was tie. I to the whip- 
ping-post; ne reoeived one hundred lashes, till his 
rihs appeared, rhe young man's e was 

afterwards fully established, lie applied to a court of 
law for redress ; the action was tried at Clonmel As- 
sizes ; these facts tally proved ; an Orange jury acqnit- 
td the defendant." 

* Piowden'B Hist. Review, 6th vol. 



live winch the measure proposed to estab- 
lish. 

Circumstanced as the countries were, the 
questions of peace and war, of. treaties with 
foreign powers, of different religions, might, 

ai - e future period, had to a difference 

of decision between their Parliaments; and 
such an occurrence would shake the connec- 
tion, and, in consequence, the empire, to its 
foundations. 

If c|iiesiinns of comparative advantage 
between countries might arise, how could a 
Regency bill operate as a remedy for the 
evil ? 

His lordship wished to be informed how a 
bill, which went to establish the unity of the 
regal powers, could identify the necessary 
:s of a regent for other countries. 
Might not the particular circumstances of 
one country differ so materially from the 
other that the Regency tor both kingdoms 
could not conveniently be exercised by the 
same person? Or, did not the bilLtro to 
oblige the monarch to appoint one ami the 
sune Regent, which, in fact, went to restrict 
the regal authority? Thus, either the regal 
powers «ere curtailed, or the Regency bill 
was inefficient to remove the inconvenience 

it went to remedy The Regent was, to all 
intents and purposes, a deputy : and could 
a B gent in thai case appoint u Lord-Lieu- 
tenaut? Could a deputy appoint a deputy .' 
He presumed he could not ; and should a 
R gent send over a Lord-Lieutenant to that 
country, he was satisfied that the Council 
. object to his authority. 
His lordship read part of a speech of Mr. 
Pox, to show that the adjustment of I'^l 

was not considered as a linal one ; that it 

wenl merely to quiet the political struggle 
which then existed : and that it was indis- 
pensably necessary to give up something for 

that imperial purpose. 

His lordship concluded by saying that 
the measure was inefficient to the purpose it 
held forth ; calculated to blind the country, 
and disgrace the Legislature. 

It must be acknowledged licit these argu- 
ments of Lord Castlereagh have considera- 
ble weight, and that the only possibility of 
Ireland's real and effective independence lies 
in complete separation from England. It 
was on the discussion of the Regency bill 






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UNION PROPOSED IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT. 



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thai Mr. Poster, the Speaker, took ocea 
e i ;i to express his sentiments with greal 
weight :iik1 earnestness against the project 

of [Jnion ; < tending that the settlement 

of 1789 was a final settlement, ami that the 
pending Regency bill would remove the last 
remaining difficulty in the way of harmouious 
action between the two independent coun- 
tries. The Regency bill, however, was not 
acted upon. That, with all other legislation 
having reference to the Union, was thrown 
over tili the next session ; i>y which time, 
Lord Castlereagh hoped to have his votes 
r,a.lv to carry his grand measure. Hi' vio- 
lently opposed tic Regency bill, and got rid 
of it by moving an adjournment of tie- 
Hon e, which was carried. 

In the meantime, the Euglish Lords and 
Commons wire also busy upon the Union ; 
ami we must now turn from College Green 
to Westminster for a time. 



1 commending a Union in tin' following terms : 
"His Majesty is persuaded that the m 



CHAT IT.;: XL. 



1709. 
Union Proposed in British Parliament— Oppo ed bj 
i ,.j ,n Supported by Canning Great Speech 
of Mr. Pitt— Ireland to be Assured of English Pro- 
tection -Of laiu'li-h Capital Promises t" tin- Cath- 
olics—Mr. Pitt's Resolutions for Onion— Sheridan 
Dnndas -Resolutions Passed — In the House of 
Lords— Labors of Cornwallis and Castlereagh— 
Corruption— Intimidation -Onslaught of Troops in 
Dublin -Lord Cornwallis Makes a Tour — Lord 
Downstiire ! ' lluiUock of Athlone-^His 

Song and Palinode— Opposition Inorganic— The 
Orangemen -The Catholics— Arts to Delude Them 
—Dublin Catholics Against Onion — O'Connell — 
System of Terror— County Meeting Dispersed by 
Itoops— Castlereagh'a Announcement of "Com- 
pensation. 11 

On- the same day, (January 2'2, 17 DO,) on 
which the Union was proposed to the Irish 
Parliament in the speech of Lord Corn- 
wallis, the same business was brought be- 
fore both Houses in England. -Mr. Pitt 
was .,, confident "f his power to carry that 
measure that he did not think it advisable 
to await the result. of the deliberations of 
the Irish Senate upon it; hut, presuming on 
his Strength in the Irish as much as in the 
British Houses of Parliament, he opened his 
plan of operations in both on the same day 
Accordingly, on the 22d of January, 1799, 
a message from the Sovereign was delivered 
to the British Peers by Lurd G ten ville, re- 



remitting industry with which our enemies 
persevere in their avowed design of effecting 
the separation of Ireland from this kingdom 
cannol fail to engage the particular atten- 
tion of Parliament ; ami His Majesty recom- 
mends it to this House to consider of the 
most effectual means' of counteracting and 
finally defeating this design; and he trusts 
thai a review of all the circumstances which 
have recently occurred (joined to the senti- 
ments of mutual affection and common in- 
terests) will dispose the Parliaments .of both 
kingdoms to provide, in the manner which 
they shall judge most expedient, for settling 
such a complete and final adjustment as may 
best tend to improve and perpetuate a con- 
nection."' 

The same day a similar message was pre- 
sented to the Commons by Mr. Dundas, who 
moved that it should be taken into consid- 
eration on the morrow. Richard Brinsley " 
Sheridan, though a member for an English 
borough, did not forget that he was an 
Irishman. He immediately rose, and while 
he declared his concurrence in the general 
sentiments which the message conveyed, he 
thought it but fair thus to give early notice 
that he viewed the bringing forward of that 
question at that time as a measure replete 
with so much mischief, that he held it his 
duty to take the first opportunity to do 
everything in his power to arrest the fur- 
ther progress of it. 

Mr. Pitt, in reply, said he was at a loss 
to guess on what grounds the honorable gen- 
tleman would attempt to satisfy the House 
they ought not to proceed to the considera- 
tion of the important, measure, which His 
Majesty, from his paternal regard to the iu- 
terests of the empire, had thought proper to 
recommend to their consideration ; at the 
same time, he informed the House that his 
intention was only to propose an address 
to His Majesty on the nexl day ; and then, 
after a sufficient interval, (about ten days, | 
to proceed to the further discussion of the 
subject. 

When the address, accordingly, was pro- 
posed the next day, Mr. Sheridan made a 
I „,(, and able speech against the whole pro- 
ject. "He thought It incumbent,'' lie said, 



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"upon Ministers to offer some explanations 
with regard to the failure of the last solemn 
adjustment between the countries, which had 
been generally deemed Bnal. There was the 
stronger reason to expect this mode of pro- 
ceeding, when the declaration of the Irish 
Parliament in 1782* was recollected. The 
British Legislature having acquiesced in this 
declaration, no other basis of connection 
ought to be adopted " 

He thru spoke of the injustice of attempt- 
ing to consummate this union by intimida- 
tion and corruption. He contended that the 
adjustment proposed would only unite two 
wretched bodies : thai the minds would still 
be distinct ; and that eventually it mighl 
lead to separation. 

"Let no suspicion," he continued, "be 
entertaiued that we gained our object by 
intimidation or corruption. Lei our Union 
oe an union of affection and attachment, of 
plain-dealing and free-will. Lot it be an union 
of mind and spirit, as well as of interest and 
power. Lei il nol resemble those Irish 
marriages which commenced in fraud and 
were consummated by force. Let us nol 
sommit a brutal rapt' on the independence 
:f Ireland, when, by tenderness of behavior, 
we may have her the willing partner of our 
fate. Tho state o( Ireland did not admit 
such a marriage. Her baus ought not to 
be publish, '.l to the sound of the trump,'!. 
with an army of forty thousand men. She 
was not qualified for hymeneal rites, wheu 
the grave and the prison held so large a 
share of her population." 

Sheridan was answered by George Can- 
ning ; who spoke earnestly in favor of an l 
ion. Canning is sometimes claimed as an 
Irishman, but he was born in Loudon, and 
never in all his Life allowed the claim, n i 



* •• We beg leave to represent to His Majesty thai 
the Bubjeots >>t" Ireland are entitled to a tree Consti- 
tution; that the Imperial Crown of Ireland is insepa- 
rably annexed to the Crown of Great Britain, on 
which connection the happiness of t<> > t li nations es- 
sentially depends ; but tli.a tlio kingdom of Ireland 
is a distinct dominion, having a Parliament of her 
out, the sol,- legislature thereof; tli.it there is no 
powei v, ii , i apetent to nuke laws to bind 

tins nation, except the King, Lords, and C 

ot Ireland, Upon which exclusive right of Legislation 
we ci nsider the \ of oar liberties to de- 

pend a right which we claim as the birthri 
the people of Ireland, and which wo are determined, 
In every situation of life, I id maintain." 



more than Swift, who said it wast,'" hard 
if hr was to be considered an Irishman, 
although he had the misfortune to be "drop- 
ped" in that island. At any rate, Mr. Can- 
ning, never, in his whole career, showed the 
slightest Irish feeling ; and on this occasion 
he viewed the question wholly as an Eng- 
lishman, as he was. Here is an extract 
from lliS speech ; — 

" It had been said, that for the space of 
three hundred years we had oppressed Ire- 
land ; but for the last twenty years, tho 
conduct of England had ben a series of 
ssions. The Irish wanted an octennial 
parliament — it was granted. They wished 

lot' ail independent legislature — they had 

their wish. They desired a free trade — it 
was given to them. A very large body of 

the people of Ireland desired a repeal of a 

part of the Penal Code which they deemed 
oppressive— the repeal was granted. The 

honorable gentleman had spoken as if noth- 
ing had been done for Ireland but jghat 
she extorted, and what she had a right to 

demand he seemed to think that past 
favors were no proofs of kindness. It was, 
undoubtedly, expedient that these advanta- 
ges should be giveu to Ireland, because her 

prosperity was the prosperity of England; 
but they were not privileges whit h she amid 

IS mutters of right.'' 

It was on the 3 1 st, after the message had 
again read, that Mr. Pitt made his 
great speech, tally developing the view 
which the British Ministry desired to be re- 
ceived on the question of Union. In jus- 
tice to the Unionists it is necessary to give 
an abstract of what this able Statesman 
urged on his own part : — 

"The nature of the existing connection," 
hesaid, "evidently did not afford that de- 
gree of security, which, even in times less 
dangerous and less critical, was necessary to 
enable the empire to avail itself of its 
Strength and resources. 

"The settlement of 1782, far from deserv- 
ing the name ol a final adjustment, was one 
that left the connection bet ween Great Brit- 
ain and Ireland exposed to all the attacks 
,f party and all the effects of accident. 
Dial settlement consisted in the demolition 
,,f the system which before held the two 
countries together. A system unworthy of 



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MB. PITT s GREAT SPEECH. 



S33 



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the liberality of Qrea( Britain, and injurious 
to the interests of Ireland. But to call 
thai a system in itself to call that a glo- 
rious fabric of human wisdom, which was 
no more than the mere demolition of an- 
other system was a perversion of terms." 

Mr, Pitt then quoted the Parliamentary 
journals, to prove that the repeal of the 
Declaratory act was not considered by the 
Minister of the day as precluding endea- 
vours for the formation of an ulterior settle- 
ment between the kingdoms. 

Mr Pitt was good enough to add, that 
Great Britain had always felt a common in- 
terest in the safely of Inland ; but that in- 
terest was never so obvious anil urgent as 
when the common enemy made her attack 
npon Britain through the medium of [re- 
and, and when the attack upon Ireland 
tended to deprive her of her connection with 
Britain, and to substitute in lieu of it the 
new government of the French Republic. 
When that danger threatened Ireland, the 
purse of Great Britain was opened for the 
wants of Ireland, as for the necessities of 
England. 

To those who know how Ireland has been 
,ir lined of her wealth and crushed in her in- 
dustry since the Union, and by the Union, 
the following paragraph of Mr. Pitt'sspeech 
will seem strange : — 

" Among tie' great and known defects of 
Ireland, one of the most prominent features 
was its want of industry and of capital. 
How wnr those wants to be supplied, but 
by blending more closely with Ireland the 
industry and capital of (treat Britain?" 

The Minister enlarged very much npon 
the benefit which Ireland would derive from 
the certainty of being defended by England 

against foreign enemies, and upon her ina- 
bility to protect herself. Of course, he did 
not advert to the fact (which he well knew) 
that the great majority of the Irish people. 
Protestants as well as Catholics, knew of 
no other foreign enemy than England ; that 
in resisting French invasions of Ireland, 
England Was defending not Ireland but her- 
self ; and that in capturing Frenchmen at 
Bnllinamnck, or in Loigh Swilly, the Eng- 
lish forces were not capturing Ireland's ene- 
mies, but Ireland's friend-. He drew a 
glowing picture of the great advantages 




which the lesser country would draw from 
her union with the greater, the protection 
which she would secure to herself in the 
hour of danger ; the most effectual means 
of increasing her commerce and improving 
her agriculture, the command of English 
capital, the infusion of English manners and 
English industry, necessarily tending to 
meliorate her condition, to accelerate the 
progress of internal civilization, and to ter- 
minate those feuds and dissensions, which 
distracted the country, and which she did 
not possess within herself the power either 
to control or to extinguish. She would see 
the avenue to honors, to distinctions, and 
exalted situations in the general seat of em- 
pin., opened lo all those, whose abilities and 
talents enabled them to indulge an honora- 
ble and laudable ambition. 

lie did not forget to make his bid for the 
Catholics ; and without giving, in this 
speech, any distinct pledge of emancipation 
by the Imperial Parliament, he intimated 
very clearly that the principal difficulty in the 
way of that measure would be removed by 
the Union. " Xo man could say," he re- 
marked, " that, in the present state of things, 
and while Ireland remained a separate king- 
dom, full concessions could be made to the 
Catholics, without endangering the State, 
and shaking the Constitution of Ireland to 
its centre. On the other hand, when the 
conduct of the Catholics should be such as 
to make it safe for the Government to ad- 
mit them to the participation of the priv- 
ileges granted to those of the established 
religion, and when the temper of the times 
should be favorable to such a measure, it 
was obvious that this question might be 
agitated in an United Imperial Parliament, 
with much greater safety than it could be in 
a separate Legislature." 

The Minister dwelt much upon the weak- 
ness of Ireland, which was not, he said, able 
to protect herself— he had not said so in the 
days of the volunteers ; upon the confusions 
and atrocities which prevailed at that mo- 
ment throughout the country — but he did 
not sny that it was he. wdio had ordered and 
organized those horrors ; upon "the hos'ile 
division of sects in Ireland, and the animosi- 
ties 1., t iveen ancient settlers and original in 
habitants"— but without saying that Eug- 



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is ti policy had created and perpetuated 
those evils ; upon the " ignorance and want 
of civilization which," he was pleased to say, 
" marked that country more than any in 
Europe" — bill lie forgot to say i hat for a cen- 
tury it had been a penal offence for any 
Catholic lo go to school, or to teach a school. 
For all iliis, lir insisted there was no cure 

lut in the formation of a General Imperial 
Legislature, free alike from terror and from 
resentment, removed from the danger ami 
agitation, uninfluenced by the prejudices, 
ami nninflamed by the passions of that dis- 
tricted country. 

Ireland, Mr. Pitt admitted, might suffer 
somewhat "by the absence of the chief 
nobility and gentry who would flock to the 
imperial metropolis ;" but this disadvantage 
would be far more than counterbalanced by 
the beneficial results of the system in other 
respects. And as to the idea that the pro- 
ject of union with England meant subject- 
ing Ireland to a foreign yoke, Mr. Pitt met 
that with a quotation from Virgil — 
-Nee Teucris Italos parere jubebo, 



Nee imva regna peto : paribus se legibus ambec 
tnvictSB gentes eeterna in ttedera mittant." 

All this looks to-day like cruel and deadly 
irony. It was with the most severe gravity, 
however, thai Mr. Pitt enumerated all the 
great blessings which would flow from the 
Union to Ireland; — if England was to 
benefit by it, he did not seem to be aware 
of that circumstance, did not think of it ap- 
parently at all; so much absorbed was he 
U by the generous thought of binding up the 
bleeding wounds of Ireland, and whispering 
peace to her distracted spirit. He ended 
by moving his eight, resolutions, to serve as a 
basis for the proposed Union. As these 
preliminary resolutions were greatly en- 
larged in the subsequent "Articles" and 
"Act of Union," they need not be here 
given at length. They were to the effect 
that it was fit to propose an union of the 
two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. 
That the succession to the Crown should re- 
main settled as it was. That the United 
Kingdom should be represented in one Par- 
liament, in proportions afterwards to be 
agreed upon. That the two Churches of 
England and Ireland should be preserved. 
That the people of the two kingdoms should 




stand on the same looting, as to trade and 
navigation, and no duties should be imposed 
on export or import between the two islands 
That the charge for the debts of the two 
kingdoms should be separately defrayed ; 
the proportions of future expenses to be set- 
tled by the two Parliaments previous to the 
Union. That all laws and courts should re- 
main as they were theu established, subject 
to future modifications by the United Par- 
liament. Mr. Sheridan opposed these reso- 
lutions from first to last. 

" If the condition of Ireland," he said, 
•' were really as deplorable as it was stated 
to be, the House ought to be informed from 
what misconceptions such evils had arisen, 
amidst the advantages which God and na- 
ture had bestowed upon her. It might be 
concluded, iudeed, that her poverty was 
chiefly occasioned by the narrow, unwise 
policy of Britain, a policy which, he was 
glad to find, the Minister now disapproved. 
Her weakness, perhaps, was not so great as 
it was supposed to be ; and, if it were," it 
was ungenerous to insult her. Such an in- 
sult would not have been offered to hci 
while her volunteers were in arms." 

In the course of the several debates which 
took place, Sheridan was supported by sev- 
eral eminent members of the House ; by 
Mr. Grey, (afterwards Lord Grey,) by 
General Fitzpatrick, (who had been Irish 
Secretary under Lord Portland,) Mr. Tier- 
ney, the Honorable Mr. St. John, Mr. Hob- 
house, and others ; most of whom opposed 
i he measure on account of the time being 
improper for ils discussion. Of those who 
supported it may be named Sir John Mit- 
ford, Mr. Perceval, Mr. Dudley Ryder, Mr. 
Secretary Duudas, afterwards Lord Mel- 
ville, (a Scotchman,) spoke warmly for the 
Union ; ami in his speech took occasion to 
throw out again tin- bail which was to catch 
the Catholics ; and as he was a member of 
the administration, his words were supposed 
to have weight. He said " that, after union, 
the Protestants would lay aside their jeal- 
ousies and distrust, being certain that against 
any attempt to endanger their establishment 
the whole strength of the United Legislature 
would be exerted ; and, on the other hand, 
the Catholics would expect that their cause 
would be candidly and impartially considered 



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bj a genera] Parliament, the great body of 
which would be relieved from the apprehen- 
sions and animosities interwoven with t lie 
Constitution of the existing Legislature." 

Mr. Dundas further vaunted the excellent 
effects which, he said, had followed the 
union of Scotland with England, and re- 
ferred to a letter of Queen Anne to the 
Northern Parliament, predicting the various 
blessings, with respect to religion, liberty, 
and property, which would result from the 
Bcheme ol incorporation ; and, he said, thai 
not one syllable of her predictions had failed. 

It is observable that, throughout the 
whole of these debates in the English Par- 
liament, not one of the advocates of Union 
ever seems to have thought of the interest 
or honor of his own country. It was for 

Ireland they were all ( rued. At length, 

On the 12th of February, came the division 
on bringing up the report. The ayes were 
120 ; nays, 16. This was followed by a con- 
ference between the Lords and Commons ; 
and the House of Peers ordered a month's 
interval before entering upon the discussion 
in their House. 

On the 19th of March, the matter was 
brought before the British House of Peers 
by Lord fjrenville. He went through all 
the common arguments for the Union, and re- 
peat, d the usual carefully-calculated phrases 
intended to win the Irish Catholics without 
any distinct ministerial pledge for emancipa- 
tion. He said : — 

" The good consequences of union would 
quickly appear, in the progress of civiliza- 
tion, the prevalence of order, the increase of 
industry and wealth, and the improvement 
of moral habits. The Hibernian Protestants 
would feel themselves secure under the pro- 
!• cl ion of a Protestant Imperial Parliament ; 
and the anxiety of the Catholics would be 
allayed by the hope of a more candid exam- 
ination of their claims from a Parliament 
not influenced by the prejudices of a local 
legislature." 

The Union was opposed by Earl Fitzwil- 
liam, advocated by the Marquis of Town- 
shend, Lord Clifton, Lord Minto, the Bish- 
op of Llandaff, and many others. Lord 
Moira opposed it. Lord Camden (the re- 
bellion Viceroy) supported it. This noble- 
man took occasion to cuter on a defence of 
49 



333 

lis own administration in Ireland, which 
seemed indeed to need defence. He denied 
that the recall of Earl Fitzwilliam was pro- 
ductive of disorder or disaffection, and af 
tinned that the rigorous proceedings of the 
Government were rendered neei ssary by that 
seditious spirit which existed independently 
of the Catholic question. He declared that 
all the severities imputed to his administra- 
tion were preceded by acts of outrage, of in- 
surrection, or of rebellion. He allowed that 
his conduct, in adopting active and vigorous 
measures, and apprehending some of the 
leaders, did accelerate the rebellion ; but, 
as the same steps facilitated its suppression, 
he did not think that he could justly be 
blamed. 

Lord Minto advised the insertion of a dis- 
tinct clause in the articles or act of Union, 
providing for the "just claims of the Catholic 
Irish ;" but he did not insist on this, and 
Ministers took care that no such clause 
should be inserted. Their policy at that 
moment, with regard to Catholics, was only 
to whisper hopes and private promises into 
the ear of bishops and peers of that persua- 
sion, as will be seen more fully hereafter. 
At the end of a long debate the address was 
finally adopted, embracing Mr. Pitt's pro- 
posals ; and so the matter rested until the 
next session. 

The remainder of the year 1199 was a 
busy time for Lord Cornwallis, Lord Clare, 
Lord Castlereagh, and nnder-Seeretary 
Cooke. They were all excessively mortified 
at the temporary failure of this measure ; 
but if certain too credulous and generous 
Irishmen fondly imagined that the danger 
was over, they were signally mistaken. Nei- 
ther Clare nor Castlereagh was the man to 
be so easily discouraged at a crisis on which 
their own future political honors and exist- 
ence depended. They had it in command from 
London to carry the Union through. Mr, 
Pitt, by a private dispatch to Lord Corn- 
wall^, desired that the measure should not 
be pressed unless he could be certain of a 
majority of fifty ;* and his lordship knew 
what that meant, coming from Mr. Pitt. 
Lord Cornwallis seems to have been quite a 
willing agent in the system of corruption and 

* " This original dispatch I saw and read."— Sir J. 
Barrunjton. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAITD. 




intimidation now to be inaugurated on a 
grander .scale than ever before ; and, indeed, 
to an extent never witnessed, either before 
or since, in any country of the globe. And 
never bad a government two more efficient 
officers for snch a purpose than Clare, the 
Lord-Chancellor, and Castlereagh, the Sec- 
retary. The Chancellor, in fact, was too 
violent and arrogant to be politic. He called 
that a pusillanimous idea ; and could have 
been well content for his part to cany the 
Union with a majority of one, and then dra- 
goon the island into submission. In his rage 
at the first check in Parliament, and at tile 
somewhat tumultuous rejoicings of the Dub- 
lin mob, (who, however, hurt nobody,) he 
hastily hail the Privy Council called togeth- 
er, and urged the necessity of making what 
in Ireland is called a salutary example. Ac- 
cordingly, about nine at night, u party of 
the military stationed in the old Custom 
House, near Essex Bridge, silently sallied 
out, with trailed arms, without any civil 
magistrate, and only a sergeant to command 
them ; arriving at Cupel street, the populace 
were in the act of violently huzzaing for their 
friends, and, of course, with equal vehemence 
execrating their enemies ; but no riot act 
was read, no magistrate appeared, and no 
disturbance or tumult existed to warrant 
military interference. 

The soldiers, however, having taken a 
position a short way down the street, with- 
out being in any way assailed, fired a volley 
of balls amongst the people. Of course, a 
lew were killed and some wounded ; amongst 
the former, were a woman and a boy. A 
man fell dead at the feet of Mr. P. Hamil- 
ton, the King's Proctor of the Admiralty, 
who, as a mere spectator, was viewing the 
illumination. This is only mentioned to 
evince the violent spirit which guided the 
Government of that day, and the tyrannic 
means which were employed to terrify the 
people from testifying their joy at their de- 
iverance, as they fancied, from the proposed 
annexation.* 

Lord Castlereagh, however, knew a bet- 
ter way of going to work: The session had 
scarcely closed, when his lordship recom- 
menced his warfare against his country. 
The treasury was in his hands, patronage in 
*Sir J. Barrington. 




his note-book, and all the influence w 
the scourge or the pardon, reward or pun- 
ishment, could possibly produce on the tremb- 
ling rebels, was openly resorted to. Lord 
Cornwallis determined to put Irish honesty 
to the test, and set out upon an experiment- 
al tour through those parts of the country 
where the nobility and gentry were most 
likely to entertain him. He artfully select- 
ed those places where he could best make 
his way with corporations at public dinners, 
and with the aristocracy, country-gentlemen, 
and farmers, by visiting their mansions and 
cottages. Ireland was thus canvassed, and 
every jail was converted to a hustings, at 
which prisoners of various grades of crime 
were asked to sign petitions for the Union, 
by the promise of pardon. f Lord Castle- 
reagh's ulterior efforts were extensive and in- 
defatigable, his spirit revived and every hour 
gained ground on his opponents. He clear- 
ly perceived that the ranks of the Opposi- 
tion were too open to be strong, and too 
mixed to be unanimous. The extraordi- 
nary fate of Mr. Ponsonby's declaration of 
rights, and the debate on a similar motion 
by Lord Corry, which so shortly afterwards 
met a more serious negative, proved the 
truth of these observations, and identified 
the persons through whom that truth was to 
be afterwards exemplified. 

It was soon perceived by the Anti-Union- 
ists, that Government was recruiting and 
marshalling its forces to carry its measure 
with a high hand in the next session ; and 
that they also must do somewhat on their 
side, to maintain the high national spirit in 
resistance to the hated measure. The Mar- 
quis of Downshire, the Earl of Charlemont, 
and William Brabazon Ponsonby, member 
for the county of Kilkenny, sent circular 
letters to the Irish gentry and yeomanry, to 
the following effect. They were authorize 1, 
they saitl, by a number of gentlemen of 
both houses of Parliament — thirty eight of 
whom were representatives of counties — to 
intimate their opinion, that petitions to Par- 
liament, declaring the real sense of the free- 
holders on the subject of a Legislative Union, 
would at that time be highly expedient. 

f This fact, that felons in the jails were thus induo- 
ed to sign Union petitions, was mentioned in Parlia- 
mentary debate, and not contradicted. Sir J, Bar- 
riwjt&ii. 



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HANDCOCK OF ATHLONK HIS 80NO AXD PALINODE. 



387 



The Marquis of Downshire was at once 
dismissed fi <>m the government of his coun- 
ty—the colonelcy of the Royal Downshire 
regiment of twelve hundred men, and his 
name was erased from the list of Privy 
i louncillors.* All the resources of Govern- 
ment, either for reward or punishment, 
were to be used, and that without reserve. 
The management of Mr. Handcock, mem- 
ber forAthlone, is an example of the system 

ol treatment opposite to that, ]iursue>l to- 
wards Lord Downshire. Immediately after 
the close of the session of 1799, a public din- 
ner of the patriotic members was had in Dub 
(in, to commemorate Lhe rescue of their coun- 
try from so imminent a danger. One hundred 
mid ten members of Parliament sat down to 
that splendid and triumphant entertainment. 
Never was a more cordial, happy assem- 
blage of men of rank, consideration, and 
integrity, collected in one chamber, 
than upon that remarkable occasion. Every 
man's tried and avowed principles were sup- 
posed to be untaintable, and pledged to his 
own honor and his country's safety ; and 
amongst others, Mr. Handcock, member for 

Athh .appeared to be conspicuous. Up 

spoke Btrongly, gave numerous Anti-Union 
toasts, vowed his eternal hostility to so in- 
famous a measure, pledged himself to God 
and man to resist it to the utmost, and, to 
finish and record his sentiments, lie had 
composed an Auti-Union son- of many stan- 
i , , which he sun- himself with a general 
chorus. In short, he was the life of the 
party. Lord Castlereagh marked him as 
a man to lie won upon any terms. Before 
Parliament assembled iu the next session, 
Mr. Uandcock was composing and singing 
Union songs. He received a large bribe in 
money ; " but," says Sir Jonah Barrington, 
"still" lie held out until title was added to 
the bribe, his own conscience was not Strong 
enough to resist the charge, the vanity of 

,is tainily lusted tor nobility, lie wavered, 

but be yielded ; his vows, his declaration, 
bis son- all vanished before vanity, and the 
year 1 son, saw Mr. Handcock of Atldone, 
Lord Castlemaine." It is unnecessary to say 

that he voted for the Union. 

The very heteroge us nature of the 

Opposition which had rejected the Union in 
• l'luwtkn. 




the last session, gave Lord Castlereagh great 
facilities in breaking it down. In that for- 
tuitous concourse of members, were to be 
found old reformers, and those who had 
always opposed reform, Catholic Emanci- 
pators, as well as the most violent and bit- 
ter of the Orangemen. Indeed, the most 
fatal cause of division amongst them, was 
their radical difference of opinion on the 
Catholic question. Those who had deter- 
mined to support the Catholic cause, as the 
surest mode of preventing any future 
attempts to attain a Union, were obliged to 
dissemble their intentions of proposing eman- 
cipation, lest they should disgust the As- 
cendancy party who acted with them solely 
against the Union. Those who were ene- 
mies to Catholic relaxation, were also oblig- 
ed to conceal their wishes, lest their deter- 
mination to resist that measure should dis- 
gust the advocates of emancipation, who had 
united with them on the present occasion. 

The latent of Parliament principally exist- 
ed amongst the members who had formed 
the general opposition to the Union. Some 
habitual friends of administration, therefore, 
who had on this single question seceded from 
the Court, and who wished to resume their 
old habits on the Union being disposed of, 
obviously felt a portion of narrow jealousy 
at being ltd by those they had been accus- 
tomed to oppose, and reluctantly joined in 
any liberal opposition to a Court which they 
had been iu the habit of supporting. They 
desired to vote against the Union iu the 
abstract, but to commit themselves no fur- 
ther against the Minister. Many, upon this 
temporizing and ineffective principle, cau- 
tiously avoided any discussion, save upon the 
direct proposition ; and this was remarkable, 
and felt to be ruinous iu the succeeding ses- 
sion. 

In the meetings and discussions which 
took place during that anxious interval be- 
tween the two sessions, and in the first days 
of the new one, the Orange body held aloof 
from the question as Orangemen ; and iu 
the first days of the new session, a circular 
was issued signed by the " Grand Master," 
and " (J rand Secretary," and dated " Grand 
Orange Lodge," exhorting Orangemen "to 
avoid, as injurious to the institution, all con- 
troversy upon subjects not connected with 




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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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their principles." There is no doubt, how- 
ever, that most of the (Srangemen were for 
the Union ; and both the Grand Master 
and Grand Secretary, being members of 
Parliament, voted for it in 1800. 

To the countless petitions which were 
poured in, almost all against the Union, 
were signed the names of Catholics and 
Protestants indiscriminately ; but the Cath- 
olic Bishops certainly used their influence 
in many cases to dissuade the people of their 
flocks from coining forward against the mea- 
sure. " It may, indeed, be said with truth," 
says Mr. Plowden, "that a very great pre- 
ponderance in favor of the Union existed 
in the Catholic body, particularly in their 
nobility, gentry, and clergy." The same 
authority accounts for this by " the severities 
and indignities practiced upon them after 
the rebellion by many of the Orange party, 
and the offensive, affected confusion, in the 
use of the terms, papist and rebel, producing 
fresh soreness in the minds of many." But 
this is not a satisfactory account of the in- 
different or hostile position assumed at that 
time of peril, by many leading Catholics 
towards the Legislature of their country. 
If they did see some Orangemen sitting 
upon the Opposition benches, they also saw 
there all their own old and tried friends and 
advocates; ami their attitude is rather to 
be ascribed to the impression produced by 
the underhand half-promises made by people 
connected with the Government. Sir Jonah 
Barrington says : — 

"The Viceroy knew mankind too will to 
dismiss the Catholics without a comfortable 
conviction of their certain emancipation ; he 
turned to them the honest side of his coun- 
tenance ; the priests bowed before the sol- 
dierly condescensions of a starred veteran. 
The titular archbishop was led to believe 
he would instantly become a real pre- 
late ; and before the negotiation conclud- 
ed, Dr. Troy was consecrated a decided 
Unionist, and was directed to send pas- 
toral letters to his colleagues to promote 
it." 

Sir Jonah tells us, further, that "some of 
the persons, assuming to themselves the title 
of Calholic leaders, sought an audience, in 
order to inquire from Marquis Cornwallis, 
' What would be the advantage to the 



Catholics, if a union should happen to be 
effected in Ireland ?' 

" .Mr. Bellew, (brother to Sir Patrick Bel- 
lew,) Mr. Lynch, and some others, had sev- 
eral audiences with the Viceroy ; the Catho- 
lic Bishops were generally deceived into the 
most disgusting subservience, rewards were 
not withheld, Mr. Bellew was to be appoint- 
ed a County Judge, but that being found im- 
practicable, he got a secret pension, which 
he has now enjoyed for thirty-two years." 

But, undoubtedly, the main motive of the 
anti-national conduct of leading Catholics is 
to be sought in those uniform declarations 
of Ministers, both in England and in Ire- 
land, that the Union, and the Union alone, 
would remove all impediments to a fair set- 
tlement of the demands of the Catholics. 

There were, however, some Catholics not 
to be so easily deluded. The trading and com- 
mercial class of Catholics in Dublin was ve- 
hemently opposed to union ; and, immediately 
before the opening of the session, a meeting 
of these people was held at the Royal Ex- 
change, to deliver their opinions upon it. 
It was proposed to prevent this meeting 
from assembling, by military force — such 
was always Lord Clare's first m thought ; 
but better counsels prevailed, and the meet- 
ing was held, Mr. Ambrose Moore in the 
chair. 

>*o less a person than Darnel O' Council, 
then a rising young barrister, took the lead- 
ing part at this meeting; and it is interest- 
ing to see with what patriotic earnestness he 
then protested against the perpetration of 
that Union which, near half a century later, 
he laid down his life iu the effort to repeal, 
lb' s iid : — 

"That under the circumstances of the 
present day, and the systematic calumnies 
flung at the Catholic character, it was more 
than once determined by the Roman Catho- 
lics of Dublin to stand entirely aloof, as a 
mere sect, from all political discussion, at 
the same time that they were ready, as 
forming generally a part of the people of 
Ireland, to confer with and express their 
opinions in conjunction with their Protest- 
ant fellow-subjects. This resolution, which 
they had entered into, gave rise to an 
extensive and injurious misrepresentation, 
and it was asserted by the advocates of 



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COUSTI MEF.TIN'O DISPERSED BY TROOPS. 



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Union, daringly and insolently asserted, that 
the Roman Catholics of Ireland were friends 
to the measure of Onion, and silent allies to 
that conspiracy formed against the name, 
the interests, and the liberties of Ireland. 
This libel on the Catholic character was 
strengthened by the partial declarations of 
some mean and degenerate members of the 
commnuion, wrought npon by corruption or 
by fear, and, unfortunately, it was received 
with a too general credulity. Every Union 
pamphlet, every Union speech imprudently 
j m t forth the Catholic name as sanctioning 
a measure which would annihilate the name 
of the country, and there was none to re- 
fute the calumny. In the speeches and 
pamphlets of A.nti-T7nionists, it was rather 
admitted than denied, and, at length, the 
Catholics themselves were obliged to break 
through a resolution which they had formed, 
in order to guard against misrepresentation, 
for the purpose of repelling this worst of 
misrepresentations. To refute a calumny di- 
rected against them, as a sect, they were 
'obliged to come forward as a sect, and in the 
face of their country to disavow the base 
conduct imputed to them, and to declare 
that the assertion of their being favorably 
inclined to the measure of a legislative in- 
corporation with Great Britain, was a slan- 
der the most vile ; a libel the most false, 
scandalous, and wicked, that ever was di- 
rected against the character of an individual 
or a people. 

"Sir," continued Mr. O'Connell, "it is 
my sentiment, and I am satisfied it is the 
sentiment, not only of every gentleman who 
now hears me, but of the Catholic people 
of Ireland, that if our opposition to this in- 
jurious, insulting, and hated measure of 
Union were to draw upon us the revival of 
the penal laws, we would boldly meet a pro- 
scription and oppression, which would be the 
testimonies of our virtue, and sooner throw 
ourselves once more on the mercy of our 
P otestant brethren, than give our assent 
to the political murder of our country ; yes, 
1 know — I do know, that although exclu- 
sive advantages may be ambiguously held forth 
to (he Trish Catholic, to seduce him from the 
sacred duty which he owes his country ; I 
know that the Catholics of Ireland still re- 
member that they have a country, and that 




they will never accept of any advantages, 
as a sect, which would debase and destroy 
them as a people." 

After which Mr. O'Connell moved cer- 
tain resolutions which were unanimously 
agreed to. 

The first of these resolutions was — 

" Resolved, That we are of opinion that 
the proposed incorporate Union of the Leg- 
islature of Great Britain and Ireland, is, in 
fact, an extinction of the liberty of this 
country, which would be reduced to the ab- 
ject, condition of a province, surrendered to 
the mercy of the Minister and Legislature 
of another country, to be bound by their 
absolute will, and taxed at/heir pleasure by 
laws, in the making of which this country 
could have no efficient participation what- 
ever." 

As the decisive moment approached for 
the trial of this great issue, men's minds be- 
came more and more excited on both sides 
of the question. The patriotic leaders did ' 
what was possible to evoke a respectable 
body of public, opinion by way of meetings, 
petitions, and resolutions ; but this was a 
service of danger, as Lord Downshire had 
found. A far more extraordinary example 
of the determination of Government to 
crush down all legitimate expression of pub- 
lic feeling occurred at a proposed county 
meeting in Kings County. The circum- 
stances were thus related by Sir Lawrence 
Parsons, in his place in Parliament, and were 
never denied : — ■ 

" Some time ago, Major Rogers, wdio com- 
mands at Birr, having been told that there 
was an intention of assembling the freehold- 
ers and inhabitants to deliberate on the pro- 
priety of petitioning against a Legislative 
Uuion, the Major replied that he would dis- 
perse them by force if they attempted any 
such thing ; that the Major, however, ap- 
plied to Government for direction. 'What 
answer or directions he received could only 
be judged of by his immediate conduct. On 
Sunday last, several magistrates and respec- 
table inhabitants assembled in the session 
bouse, when the High-Sheriff (Mr. Derby) 
went to them and ordered them to disperse, 
or he would compel them. They were about 
to depart, when a gentleman came and told 
them the army was approaching. The As>- 



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sembly had but just time to vote the resolu- 
tions, but not to sign them. They broke up, 
and as they went out of the session house 
they saw moving towards it a column of 
troops with four pieces of cannon in front, 
matches lighted, and every disposition for an 
attack upon the session house — a building 
so constructed that if a cannon had been 
fired it must have fallen on the magistrates 
and the people, and buried them in its ruins. 
A gentleman spoke to Major Rogers on the 
subject of his approaching in that hostile 
manner. His answer was that he waited 
but for one word from the Sheriff that he 
might blow them to atoms ! These were 
the dreadful incisures, Sir Lawrence said, 
by which Government endeavored to force 
the Union upon the people of Ireland, by 
stifling their sentiments and dragooning them 
into submission." 

Sir Jonah Barrington states positively 
that many other meetings throughout the 
counties were thus prevented by simple 
" dread of grape-shot." English generals 
then quartered in various parts of the island, 
at a moment when either martial law still 
existed or the horrible memory of it was 
fresh, could not fail to have their own influ- 
ence over proclaimed districts and a bleeding 
peasantry. To them nothing could be easier 
than to prevent any political meetings, under 
pretence that they might endanger the pub- 
he peace. 

Tne Anti-Union addresses, innumerable 
and ardent, in their very nature voluntary, 
and with signatures of high consideration, 
were stigmatized by Government journals 
as seditious and disloyal ; " while those of 
the compelled, the bribed, and the culprit, 
were printed and circulated by every means 
that the Treasury or the influence of the 
Government could effect."* 

There were a good many new elections 
held this summer ; because members were 
persuaded to resign their seats " upon terms,'' 
says Mr. Plowden ; but he does not tell us 
what those terms were. In fact, they simply 

* Sir Jonah Barrington. He states, and O'Connell 
baa affirmed the same, that, notwithstanding all ob- 
stacles and intimidation-, seven hundred thousand 
persons petitioned against union; ami. notwithstand- 
ing all inducements, only three thousand petitioned 
for it — the most of these being Government officials 
and prisoners iu the jails. 



accepted one of the " Escheatorships," a 
species of " Chiltern Hundreds," to vacate 
their seats, that those seats might be filled 
by creatures of the Castle. In this way a 
small majority had already been secured be- 
fore the opening of the session. 

Lords Uornwallis and Cnstlereagh, having 
made so good progress during the recess, now 
discarded all secrecy and reserve. Many of 
the peers and several of the commoners had 
the patronage of boroughs, the control of 
which was essential to the success of the 
Minister's project. These patrons Lord Cas- 
tlereagh assailed by every means which his 
power and situation afforded. Lord Corn- 
wallis was the remote, Lord Cnstlereagh the 
intermediate, and Mr. Secretary Cooke, the 
immediate agents on many of these bargains. 
Lord Shannon, the Marquis of Ely, and sev- 
eral other peers commanding votes, after 
much coquetry had been secured during the 
first session ; but the defeat of Government 
rendered their future support uncertain, .The 
Parliamentary patrons had breathing time 
after the preceding session, and began to 
tremble for their patronage and importance ; 
and some desperate step became necessary 
to Government, to insure a continuance of 
the support of these personages. 

Accordingly, Lord Castlereagh boldly an- 
nounced his intention to turn the scale, by 
bribes to all who would accept them, under 
the name of compensation for the loss of pa- 
tronage and interest. lie publicly declared, 
first, that every nobleman who returned 
members to Parliament should be paid, iu 
cash, £1 5,000 for every member so returned; 
secondly, that every member who had purchased 
a seat in Parliament should have his purchase- 
money repaid to him out of the Treasury of 
Ireland ; thirdly, that all members of Par- 
liament, or others, who were losers by the 
Union should be fully recompensed for their 
losses, and that £1,000,000 should be devot- 
ed to this service. In other words, all who 
should affectionately support his measure 
were, under some pretext or other, to share 
iu this " bank of corruption." 

A declaration so desperately and reckless- 
ly flagitious was never made in any country 
on earth by the Minister of any Sovereign. 
It was treating the elective franchise of the 
country as the private property of those pro- 



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prietors « bo returned the members by means 
of their unconstitutional influence. It was 
acknow ledging and consecrating the practice 

of those tubers themselves in treating their 

seats also as a property, fi i which, during 

their tenure, they drew profit in bribes, or 
place, or some substantia] Court favor. And 
it was charging the whole expense of this 
nefarious transaction to the Irish tax-payers 
themselves, the very people who were thus to 
be sold by their representatives, and pur- 
chased with their o\\ li money by their ene- 
mies. 

But the declaration had a powerful effect 
in favor of the Castle ; and before the meet- 
ing of Parliament in January he found, 
throngh the infallible information of the 
under-Secretary, Mr. Cooke, that he could 
count npon a small majority of about eight. 
This he hoped to increase. 



C II AFTER XLI. 
1799—1800. 
Progress of Union Conspiracy — Grand Scale of Brib- 
ery— Castlereagh I Organizes " Fighting Men'' — Din- 
ner at liis House— La9t Session of the Irish Parlia- 
ment—Warm Debate the First Day — Daly Attacks 
Bnshe and Plnnket — Reappearance of Grattan — His 
Speech— ( lorry Attacks Him— Division — Majority 
for Government— Castlereagh Proposes " Articles" 
of Union — His Speech— Promises Great Cain to 
Ireland from Union — Ireland to " Save a Million a 
Year " — Proposed Constitution of United Parlia- 
ment— Irish Peerage— Ponsonby — Grattan — Again 
a Majority for the Castle— Lord Clare's Famous 
Speech — Duel of Grattan and Corry— Torpor and 
Gloom in Dublin — The Catholics — " Articles " final- 
ly Adopted — By Commons — By Lords. 

Is the cool, calculating head of the Irish 
Secretary, the whole project was now ma- 
tared, and its accomplishment provided for. 
Things »ere, he thought, in a good train. 
County meetings of freeholders were pre- 
vented by "dread of grape-shot ; " the Cath- 
olic Bishops and gentry were lulled asleep 
by what Mr. O'Connell had well described 
as "hopes of advantage ambiguously held 
forth ;" the people were crashed, disarmed, 
bleeding ; there were one hundred add fifty 
thousand armed men in the country, one- 
third regular troops, the other two-thirds of- 
ficered and controlled by Government ; and 
above all, ami beyond till, Mr. Cooke was 
successfully driving his bargains with the 
Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Com- 



mons of the Parliament of Ireland. Yet his 
lordship evidently dreaded the meeting of 
Parliament, lie loved not that inevitable 
encounter with so many honest, ardent, and 
able men, who all knew and would proclaim 
the villanies he was practising. In fact, he 
felt, with uneasiness, that the genius and elo- 
quence of the land, as well as its integrity, 
were full against him ; and no legislative 
body ever yet sitting in one house has pos- 
sessed so large a proportion of grand orators, 
learned lawyers, and accomplished gentle- 
men. It may be fearlessly added, that no 
Parliament has ever had so large a propor- 
tion of honorable men. Had it not been so, 
the splendid bribes then ready to be thrust 
into every man's band would have insured to 
the Castle a much greater majority, and we 
should not have seen the noble ranks of un- 
purchasable patriots thronging so thick on 
the Opposition benches to the last. What 
Parliament or Congress has ever been tempt- 
ed so?* There is no need to make inviili- - 
ous or disparaging reflections ; but English- 
men, and Frenchmen, and Americans, should 
pray that their respective Legislatures may 
never be subjected to such an ordeal. 

But still, Castlereagh disliked this meet- 
ing with the Irish Parliament ; and, as his 
party fell so far short of their opponents in 
point of talent and oratory, he bethought 
him of a singular expedient to make sure of 
an effective corps of fighting men amongst 
his supporters iu the House. He was him- 
self a man of most reckless courage ; but he 
saw the necessity of infusing a little of that 
spirit into his party. Sir Jonah Barriugton 
describes his system of procedure in this 

* It must be remembered that the compensation 
fund of £1,500,000 represents a small part of the 
bribery. Vast sums were also paid for votes out of the 
Secret Service money. O'Connell, in his Corporation 
Speech, estimates these latter bribes at "more than 
a million." Then there were about forty new peer- 
ages created, and conferred as bribes. The tariff of 
prices for Union votes was familiarly known— £8,000, 
or an office worth £2,000 a year if the member did 
not like to touch the ready-money. Ten bishoprics, 
one chief-justiceship, six puisne-judgeships, besides 
regiments and ships given to officers of the army and 
navy. Ou the whole, the amount of all this in money 
must have been, at least, five millions sterling— $25,- 
000,000. If bribery npon the same scale, say, $100,- 
000,000, were now judiciously administered in the En- 
glish Parliament, a majority could be obtained which 
wnul, 1 annex the Three Kingdoms to the United 
States. 



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time aud of the country to be here omitted : 
•' He invited to dinner, at Lis house in 

- 
supporters, consist! g 
mer.' ghting ' who 

ridoal pride in 
i - f the Opposition, and iu 

ir own honor 

. s dinner was snmp- 

tnous _ and Madeira had 

< man could be more con- 

..a the noble h.- & r due 

" was. skiiif.: 

duecd by Sir John I - nee created 

ho, of ail men. 
be>: 

fighting 
the o'.d school, an able diplo:_ . with 

most polished mauuersand imposing 
35, he con. heart, and de- 

lit ; in p .viality he was 

..led. 
"11.. _ • I round many loyal, mingled 
with - and exhilarate z • • 

e understood 
sed to personal 
even iuci-. - I 3 His Majesty's 

friends — the D sts of 1 .'.and. 11. 
rmined that no man should ad 
upou him by _ g the party he had 

and the measures he was ] » . 
A full bumper proved hi- 
cerity, the subject was ■ -- . 

• '.;e company began to feel 
r ' r.l serrice.' 

je coquetry, 
. --aould a pi _ 

with him : a he perceived 

many had made up their mi:. I even 

on I - i:nly observed. 

some mode s - sen to 

■ - 
number ol 3 during 

- •• ::most im- 

r want of 
due attendance. > . _ -j.and 

man juggle more exi 

- repared accessor- 
re a new _ roposed, 
hum have a dinuer for I 

.he comm. 
could • .: 



hand to make up a Hous 

. tor an unexpected 
reinforcement, during any part of the dis- 

- 'U. 

'"The noTel id 'a a detachment 

of le_ • and 

humorous, and, of course, wa- : ted. 

Wit ai .'. puns - bot- 

Mr. Cooke, the £ en, ^'::'z 

■ _ : nods and smirking iuuendos, be- 

ite his official rewar i- I i 
company. The hints and the claret, u- 
to rais risions of t - _ _ 

every man became in a pros 
official pr 2 — embryo j 3 :;isel 

to boards, envoys to foreign courts, com- 
pensation pe;.- aen and com- 
missioners iu assortments, ail revelled in 

g substent'. 
. iven to every member who would d. 
Secretary the honor of ae . 

- me was unanimously a". 

■ . v After mo 
many fl - - .. ry, the meet 

g sepai got, :"ul!y res i 

~;>eak, and^Af for Lord ( 

I 

re one of 
tlemen found an oj -his 

>t session 

of ti T . : :' led. 

/ member expected that the speech 
Throne would have again introduc- 
ed : ■ - - for 

D of 
iiament i 
tides I • I ex- 

■ 
neat upon " victories of the 
combined imperial armies" over I 
npon good u 

upon the failure of the p'. ins of 
in India ; upc:. 

pane's Eg; and he went 

on to demanu - • • ".to 

prom - — and earnestly recom- 

mended to their care and patron . _ - 

i - . . i . • 

ended without 
saving one word of Union* 



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Lord Viscount Loftns i afterwards Marquis 
of Ely) moved the address, which was as 
vague as the speech was empty. It was 
this gentleman's father, Marquis of Ely, 
who had been pnniiivrd £45,000 for his 
roughs. Sir Jonah Barrington 
says this young nobleman "had been chris- 
tened by the humorous party of the 
House, and was only selected to show the 
Commons that his father had been purchas- 
i ii other words, pour encwrdger les 

a u tin. 

T i re was not a point in the Viceroy's 
speech intended to be debated. Lord Cas- 
tlereagh, having judiciously collected his 
Qock, was better euabled to decide on num- 
bers, and to count, with sufficient certainty 
on the result of his labors since the pre- 
ceding session, without any hasty or pre- 
mature disclosure of his definitive measure. 
This negative and insidious mode of pro- 
ceedii g, however, could not be permitted by 
the Opposition, and Sir Lawrence Parsons, 
after one of the most able and luminous 
ehes he bad ever uttered, moved an 
amendmeut, declaratory of the resolution of 
Parliament, to preserve the Constitution as 
established in 1782, and to support the free- 
dom and independence of the nation. This 
motion occasioned a warm debate on the 
very first day of the session. Lord Castle- 
reagh, in pursuance of the bullying policy 
which had been agreed upon, spoke con- 
temptuously of the arguments of Sir Law- 
rence. The silence of the Lord-Lieutenanl 
(.n the subject, did not arise from any con- 
viction of the impolicy of prosecuting the 
me. The question had been withdrawn, 
when the House of Commons seemed unwil- 
ling to entertain it, but, as a great majority 
•/<• people now approved the measure, and 
as there was reason to believe, that many of 
its late Parliamentary opponents had re- 
nounced their ideas of its demerits, His 
Majesty's counselors had resolved to give it 
a new chance of regular investigation. The 
reason of its not having been mentioned in 
the Viceroy's speech, was merely that it was 
to be made a subject of distinct communi- 
on to Parliament. 

I ensued a vehement debate on the 

whole question of Union. Many men 

now ventured to show their hands. After 
60 



Bushe made a vigorous 



Mr. Ponsonby had spoken strongly and earn- 
estly in favor of Sir L. Parsons' amendment, 
up rose Dr. Brown, member for the Univer 

siiy, who had voted against the Union iii 

the preceding session. He said "he had 
become more inclined to the Union than he 
had been in the preceding session, because 
he th Might it more necessary from interme- 
diate circumstances." Unhappily, we know 
what ilio>e circumstances were. lie had 
been promised the place of Prime-Sergeant, 
and got it for his vote, and for that alone, 
as he had no other merit.* 

Charles Kendal 
speech in Ibis debate. He said : — 

" You are called upon to give up your in- 
dependence, and to whom are you to give it 
up ? To a nation which for six hundred 
years has treated you with uniform oppres- 
sion and injustice. The Treasury Bench 
startles at the assertion — Ncm mens hie sermo 
est. If the 'Treasury Bench scold me, Mr. 
Pitt will scold them, it is his assertion in so 
many words in his speech. Ireland, says 
he, has always been treated with injustice 
and. Uliberality. Ireland, says Junius, has 
been uniformly plundered and oppress- 
ed. This is not the slander of Junius, or 
the candor of Mr. Pitt, it is history. For 
centuries has the British nation and Parlia- 
ment kept you down, shackled your com- 
merce, paralyzed your exertions, despised 
your character, and ridiculed your preten- 
sions to any privileges, commercial or con- 
stitutional. She never conceded a point to 
you which she could avoid, or granted a 
favor which was not reluctantly distilled. 
They have been all wrung from her, like 
drops of her heart's blood, and you are not 
m possession of a single blessing, except 
I hose which you derive from God, that has 
nod been either purchased or extorted by the 
virtue of your own Parliament from the il- 
liberally of England." 

Mr. Plunket also had spoken with his 
usual force against the project of Pinion, 
when Mr. St. George Daly, a very third-rate 
barrister, who had been appointed Prime- 
Sergeant on the dismissal of Mr. Fitzgerald, 
rose and began to put in practice the bully- 
ing policy which had been settled upon at 



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* This gentleman was by birth an American. 




lAi«.;^i,«s,s..^ 












HISTORY OF IEFI.AXP. 



i 




Lord Castlereagh's. " He was a gentle- 
man," says Sir Jonah Barrington, "of ex- 
cellent family, and, what was formerly high- 
esteemed in Ireland, of :i "fighting fami- 
ly.' He was proud enough for his preten- 
sions, and sufficiently conceited for his capac- 
ity, and a private gentleman he would have 
remained, had not Lord Castlereagh and the 
Union placed hira in public situations where 
ho had himself too much sense not to feel 
that he certainly was over elevated." This 
Mr. Daly ventured upon the system of per- 
sonal insolence. Barringtoo describes the 
scene : " Mr. Daly's attack on Mr. Bushe, 
was of a clever description, and had Mr 
Bushe had one vulni rable point, his assailant 
might have prevailed. He next attacked 
Mr. Plunket, who sat immediately before 
him, hut the materials of his vocabulary had 
been nearly exhausted ; however, lie was 
making some progress, when the keen visage 
of Mr. Plunket was seen to assume a curled 
sneer, which, like a legion offensive and de- 
fensive, was prepared for an enemy. No 
speech could equal his glance of contempt 
and ridicule. Mr. Daly received it like an 
arrow, it pierced him, he faltered like a 
wounded man, his vocal infirmity became 
more manifest, and after an embarrassed 
pause, he yielded, changed his ground, and 
attacked by wholesale every member of his 
own profession who had opposed an Union, 
and termed them a disaffected and danger- 
ous faction" 

But the House had nearly wearied itself 
out, and exhausted the subject, when, ab lUt 
seven o'clock in the morning, a sudden ap- 
parition broke upon the House, which can- 
ed men to hold their breath for a time. It 
was the entrance of Henry ti rattan. Since 
ln> "secession" from Parliament, more than 
two years before, along with Curran, Fitz- 
gerald and others, Grattan had been an in- 
valid, trying to recruit his shattered consti- 
tution, by change of scene and climate. He 
had spent some time in the mild air of 



a vacancy having occurred, it was tendered 
to Mr. Grattan, who would willingly have 
declined it but for the importunities of his 

fl ieuds. 

The Lord-Lieutenant ami Lord Castle- 
reagh, justly appreciating the effect his pres- 
ence might have on the first debate, had 
withheld the writ of election till the last 
moment the law allowed, and till they con- 
ceived it might be too late to return Mr. 
Grattan in time for the discussion. It was 
not until the day of the meeting of Parlia- 
ment that the writ was delivered to the re- 
turning officer. By extraordinary exertions, 
and, perhaps, by following the example of 
Government in overstraining the law, the 
election was held immediately on the arrival 
of the writ, a sufficient number of voters 
were collected to return Mr. Grattan before 
111 By one o'clock, the return was 
on its road to Dublin ; it arrived by live ; a 
party of Mr. G rattan's friends repaired to 
the private house of the proper office^ and 
making him get out of bed, compelled him 
to present the writ to Parliament before 
seven in the morning, when the House was 
in warm debate on the Union. A whisper 
ran through every party that Mr. Grattan 
was elected, and would immediately take his 
scat. The Ministerialists smiled witii incred- 
ulous derision, and the Opposition thought 
the news too good to be true. 

Mr. Egau was speaking strongly against 
the measure, when Mr. George Pousonby 
and Mr. Arthur Moore, (afterwards Judge 
of the Common Pleas,) walked out, and im- 
mediately returned, leading, or rather help- 
ing, Mr. Grattan, in a state of total feeble- 
ness and debility. The effect was electric. 
Mr. G rattan's illness and deep chagrin had 
reduced a form, never symmetrical, and a vis- 
age at all times thin, nearly to the appearance 
A a spectre. As he feebly tottered into 
the House, every member simultaneously 
rose from his seat. He moved slowly to the 
table ; his languid countenance seemed to 



the Isle of Wight, then among the moiin- revive as he took those oaths that restored 

tains of Wales, and had but lately return- him to his preeminent station ; the smile of 

ed to his house of Tinnehineh, near Dray, inward satisfaction obviously illuminated his 

when this momentous session of Parliament features, and reanimation and energy seemed 

opened. to kindle by the labor of his mind. The 

At that time. Mr Tighe returned the men.- House was silent, Mr. Egau did not resume 
bers for the close borough of Wicklow, and \ his speech, Mr. Grattan, almost breathless, 



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MVISI0X— MAJORITY I'OR GOVERNMENT. 




attempted to rise, but found himself unable 
at first to stiind, and asked permission to 
addre 9 the House from his seat. Never 
was a finer illustration of the sovereignty 
Of iniinl over matter, (irattan Bpoke two 
hoars, with all his usual vehemence and 
lire, against the Union, and in favor of the 
amendment < f Sir Lawrence Parsons. The 
Treasury Bench was at first disquieted ; 
then became avage ; and it was resolved to 
bully, or to kill Mr. (Irattan. Sir Jonah 
Barrington describes the scene : — 

•■ II.- had concluded, and the question was 
loudly culled for, when Lord Castlereagh was 
d earnestly to whisper to Mr. Corry, 
they for an instant looked round the House, 
whispered again, Mr. Corry nodded assent, 
and, amidst the cries of 'question,' began a 
. which, as far as it regarded Mr. 
(i rattan, few persons in the House could 
have prevailed upon themselves to utter. 
Lord Castlereagh was not clear what im- 
pression Mr. (i rattan's speech might have 
made upon a few hesitating members ; he 
had, in the course of the debate, moved the 
question of adjournment ; he did not like 
to meet Sir Lawrence Parsons on his mo- 
tion, and Mr. Corry commenced certainly 
an able, but, towards Mr. G rat tan, an un- 
generous ami an unfeeling personal assault." 

For that time the Castle bravo carried 
the matter with a high hand; the exhaust- 
ed invalid was too feeble to attend to him ; 
perhaps, did not even hear hint. At ten 
o'clock in the morning, a division was called 
for. Ninety-six voted for the amendment 
of Sir Lawrence Parsons ; one hundred and 
thirty-eight against it ; a majority of forty- 
two tor the Castle. This majority of forty- 
two exceeded the warmest expectations of 
Government ; and the Viceroy hoped to in- 
crease it by allowing an interval of some 
weeks to pass, before he scut to either 
House a copy of the resolutions of the Par- 
liament of Great Britain. 

The defeat of the Anti-Unionists by a 
majority of forty-two, Hushed the Minister 

with ( fidence. The members were now 

so far marshaled into their ranks, that con- 
siderable changes or conversions were not to 

t ic pec ted on either side. Some solitary 

instances of conversions did appear. A hot 
and open canvass was carried on in the 




House itself, by the friends of Government, 
wherever an uncertain or reluctant member 
was observed, or his convictions, interests, 
anil aspirations could lie discovered. What 
effect attended this canvass is seen in the 
subsequent divisions, and in the Black 
List. 

It was on the 15th of February that Lord 
Castlereagh, for the . first time, formally 
brought the project of Union before the 
House, by reading a message from Lord 
Cornwall!*, recommending that measure to 
the earnest attention of Parliament. His 
lordship then delivered a long speech, set- 
ting forth the several articles of Union, as 
agreed upon by the British Houses. He 
affirmed, without scruple, that public opin- 
ion was now favorable to Union. With re- 
gard to the multitudinously-signed petitions 
which had poured in against it, he remarked : 

"That had also been the case in the Scot- 
tish Union. • The table of the Parliament 
was day after day, for the space of three 
months, covered with such petitions ; but 
the Scottish legislators acted as, he trusted, 
the Irish Parliament would act ; they con- 
sidered only the public advantage ; and, 
steadily pursuing that object, neither misled 
by artifices nor intimidated by tumult, they 
received, in the gratitude of their country, 
that reward which amply compensated their 
arduous labors in the great work so hap- 
pily accomplished.'' * 

As to the principle of the measure — the 
competency of the Parliament of Ireland to 
extinguish itself — his lordship affirmed that 
this had been so firmly established by a 
speech, (that of Mr. Smith,) which had been 
published, "that he considered it as placed 
beyond question or doubt." He then de- 
scribed the articles in succession. He at- 
tempted to show that the contemplated 
financial arrangement, making the two coun- 
tries bear separately the charge of their re- 
spective debts, and requiring Ireland to pay 
in the proportion of one to seven and a half, 
towards the general expenses of the United 
Kingdom, for twenty years— the propor- 
tions to be afterwards modified, according to 
the respective abilities of the two countries — 

* The reader will recollect that the Scottish Union 
also was accomplished by purchasing a majority with 
money and office. 



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was an arrangement by which Ireland wonld 

sure a milium per annuvi. The proposed 
commercial regnlations also he discussed, 

most elaborately, and showed to the satis- 
faction of his friends, that in this article, 
also, Ireland would be the gainer. His 
lordship then spoke of the article to con- 
solidate the Chinch of England and Church 
of Ireland. Ju this place he took care to 
introduce the regular ministerial phrase, in- 
tended to comfort the Catholics : — 

" The cause of distrust must vanish with 
the removal of weakness : strength and con- 
fidence would produce liberality ; and the 
claims of the Catholics might be temperately 
discussed and impartially decided before an 
Imperial Parliament, divested of those local 
circumstances, which would ever produce ir- 
ritation and jealousy." 

With respect to the composition of the 
United Parliament, his lordship observed 
that, while the population of Great Britain 
exceeded ten millions, that of Ireland was 
only three million live hundred thousand or 
four millions ; * and while Ireland's share 
in the general expenses of the empire was 
to be only one, against Great Britain's 
seven and a half, she was to have a hundred 
members in the Imperial Parliament. 

Lord Castlereagh next approached the 
delicate question — what was to be done with 
the Irish Peerages? According to the ar- 
ticles of Union, Irish Peers were not to sit 
in any House of Lords by their own right ; 
yet, they were uot to be altogether degraded 
to Commoners, (which would have been re- 
publican, and savoring of "French princi- 
ples.") So the awkward compromise which 
was adopted caused his lordship some 
trouble to explain, in a plausible manner. 
They were to be represented in the Imperial 
House of Lords by four spiritual Peers, 
elected by their order, and twenty-eight 
temporal Peers, elected by theirs, and hold- 
ing their seats for life. Peers of Ireland 

* It was at least five millions. Mr. Plowden, though 
he does nut like to contradict Lord Castlereagh, says, 
•■ there are many strong reasons for believing that it 
amounted to near five millions. Si\ years Later, it was 
five million three hundred and ninety-five thousand 
loin- hundred and-fifty-six, according to the estimate 
fur that year, (1803,) given in the official Irish Direc- 
tory. But as tli.-re was then no census, Lord Castle- 
reagh felt iimself at liberty to give his own esti- 
mate. 



were to 1>e capable of holding seats in the 
House of Commons, but not for an Irish 
constituency ; only for a county or borough 
in England. 

In describing the apportionment of the re- 
presentation between counties and boroughs, 
giving sixty-four to the former and thiriy- 
six to the latter, his lordship said this would 
necessarily disfranchise many boroughs ; and 
here he took occasion formally to promise 
"compensation"' — not to the disfranchised 
electors, but to the landed proprietors who 
were the "patrons'' of those boroughs, and 
were' supposed to own the franchise of those 
electors. This intended purchase of the 
"pocket boroughs," and the immense prices 
to be paid for them, had been known be- 
fore ; but this was the first, time the stupend- 
ous bribe had been mentioned in Parlia- 
ment. Lord Castlereagh coolly said : — 

" As the disfranchisement of many bor- 
oughs would diminish the influence and 
privileges of those gentlemen whose.prop- 
eriy was connected with such places of 

election, he endeavored to obviate their t t- 

plaints by promising that, if the plan sub- 
mitted to the House should be finally ap- 
proved, he would offer some measure of 
compensation to those individuals whose pe- 
culiar interests should suffer in the arrange- 
ment. 

" Much and deep objection might be stated 
to sucU a measure ; but it surely was conso- 
nant with the privileges of private justice ; 
it was calculated to meet the feelings of the 
moderate ; and it was better to resort to 
such a measure, however objectionable, than 
adhere to the present system, and keep 
afloat, forever, the dangerous question of 
Parliamentary reform. If this were a mea- 
sure of purchase, it should be recollected 
that it would be the purchase of peace, and 
the expense of it would be redeemed hij one 
of the Union." 

Lord Castlereagh did not feel it neces- 
sary to mention any of the other classes of 
bribes which were to reward those patriots 
who would consent to enrich Ireland by 
till these gains and savings. He knew that 
the faithful Mr. Cooke was arranging 
those matters of business in the* lobbies, in 
the corriders, on the very floor of tin' House. 

Air. George Ponsonby made a violent at- 




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LABORS OF CORNWALLIS AND CASTLEREAGn. 



397 








tack npon the Minister ami liis wliole scheme. 
He treated as visionary all the proffered ad- 
vantages of Union. In the ecclesiastical 
establishment, Union would produce but one 
solid effect, which would be to translate the 
Irish into English bishops. 

He then Bummed up the effects of the 
Union in these terms: " Vonr peerage is 
to be disgraced; your Commons purchased ; 
no additional advantage in commerce; for 
twenty years a little saving in contributions, 
lint it' the Cabinet of England think that we 
contribute more than we should, why not 
correct that extravagance now '! If any- 
thing should be conceded in the way of 
trade, why is it nol conceded now? Are 
any of those benefits incompatible with our 
present state? Nol but the Minister wants 
to cany his union, and no favor, however 
trifling, can be yielded to us, unless we are 
willing- to purchase it, with the existence of 
Parliament and the liberties of the coun- 
try." 

Sir John Parnell, Mr. Dobbs, Mr. Sau- 
«rin, Mr. Peter Burrowes, all attacked the 
measure, and exposed the fallacies of Lord 
Castlereagh ; and amongst the opponents of 
the Minister, we still find the name of John 
Claudins Beresford, of the " Riding-House," 
Grand Secretary of the Orangemen. His 
time for being converted had not yet come. 

Mr. (i rattan spoke at considerable length. 
He said: "In this proposition, the Minister 
had gigantic difficulties to encounter. It 
was incumbent upon him to explain away 
the tyrannical acts of a century ; to apolo- 
gize for the lawless and oppressive proceed- 
ings of England, for a system which had 
counteracted the kindness of providence to- 
wards Ireland, and had kept her in a state 
of thraldom and misery ; to prove that 
the British Parliament had undergone a 
great change of disposition ; to disprove two 
consequences, which were portended by the 
odium ol the Union, and the increased expen- 
ses of the empire, namely, a military govern- 
ment for a considerable time, and at no very 
listanl period, an augmentation of taxes ; to 
deny or dispute the growth of the prosper- 
ity of Ireland, under the maternal wing of 
her own Parliament ; t tntrovert the suf- 
ficiency of that Legislature for imperial pur- 
poses or commercial objects, though facts 



were against him ; and to explode or recall 
his repeated declarations in its favor. In 
short, lie had to prove many points, which 
he eoidd by no means demonstrate ; and to 
disprove many, which might be forcibly 
maintained against him. It was, moreover, 
singular to behold the man, who denied the 
right of Prance to alter her government, 
maintaining the omnipotence of the Parlia- 
ment of Ireland to annul her Constitution." 

I lc then urged the very serious importance 
of the question. It was not such as had 
formerly occupied their attention ; not old 
Poynings, not peculation, nor an embargo, 
not a Catholic bill, not a Reform bill — it 
was their being — it was more, it was their 
life to come — whether they would go to the 
tomb of Charlemont and the volunteers, and 
erase his epitaph, or whether their children 
should go to their graves, saying, "A venal, 
a military court attacked the liberties of the 
Irish, and here lie the bones of the houora- 
ble men who saved their country." Such an ' 
epitaph, was a nobility which the King could 
not give to his slaves; it was a glory which 
the Crown could not give to the Kiug. 

On a division, there appeared for the 
printing of the articles, one hundred and 
fifty-eight ; against it, one hundred and fif- 
teen ; giving the Minister a majority of 
forty-three.* 

Even the staunch Unionist, Mr. Plowden, 
is honest enough to say on this occsaion : — 

" When the number of the placemen, 
pensioners, and other influenced members, 
who had voted on the late division is con- 
sidered, the Minister hail but slender grounds 
for triumphing in his majority of forty-three, 
if from them were to be collected the genu- 
ine sense of the independent part of that 
House, and of the people of Ireland, whom 
they re [i resen ted." 

And he adds in a note : — - 

" Many, it is to be feared, in both Houses, 
sacrificed their convictions. Twenty-seven 
new titles were added to the Peerage ; 
promotions, grants, concessions, arrange- 
ments, promises were lavished with a profu- 
sion never before known in that country. 
Pity for both sides, that so great and impor- 
tant a political measure should owe any part 

* For the Articles of Union at full length, see ap- 
pendix, No. I. 



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of its success, to other than the means of 
temperate reason and persuasion." 

Triumphantly Lord Castlereagh sent np 
his articles to the Lords ; where Lord Clare 
was ready for his part of the work. It was 
OD this occasion, that he made that long and 
able discourse, which has been so often re- 
printed ; and from which many extracts 
have been already given in these pages. 
Great part of it consists of a historical dis- 
quisition upon the whole career of the Eng- 
lish colony, its connection on one hand with 
the mass of i he Irish nation, anil on the other, 
with the English Crown and Parliament ; 
and whilst it contains many truths, powerful- 
ly expressed, the general effect of the whole 
is to traduce all the classes, sects, and par- 
ties of Ireland for several centuries. Grat- 
tan afterwards wrote an answer to this 
speech, charging the Chancellor witli many 
deliberate misrepresentations and falsehoods. 
" His idea," said Mr. Grattan, was to make 
the Irish history a calumny against their 
ancestors, in order to disfranchise their pos- 
terity.'' 

The measure was opposed in the House of 
Peers by the Earl of Charlemont, the Mar- 
quis of Downshire, the Earl of Bellamont, 
Lord Powerscourt, Lord Dillon, and ethers, 
supported by Lord Glentworth, Lord Glen- 
dore, and the Archbishop of Cashel. How- 
ever, on the first division there was a large 
majority for the Government — 75 for, and 
26 against. The general principles of the 
Union were thus propounded and accepted 
in both Houses of the Irish Legislature. 

In the next debate in the House of Com- 
mons, the Honorable Isaac Corry, who seemed 
to have taken special charge of replying to 
Mr. Grattan, again made a coarse personal 
attack on that gentleman. Grattan replied 
with Mich studied and contemptuous insult 
as to throw upon Mr. Corry the omits of re- 
sentment. 

The House saw the inevitable conse- 
quences. The Speaker (the House was in 
committee) sent for Mr. Grattan into his 
chamber, and iires<cd his interposition for an 
amicable adjustment, which Mr. Grattan 
positively refused, saying, he saw, and had 
been for some time aware of, a set made at 
him. to pistol hb,i off on that question ; there- 
lore, it was as well that the experiment were 



tried then as at any other time. Both par- 
ties instantly left the House upon Mr. Grat- 
tan's finishing his philippic. They met with- 
out delay in a field on the Ball's Bridge 
road ; and, after an exchange of two shots, 
Mr. Corry received a wound in the hand. 
So the affair ended. The populace, amongst 
whom the certainty of a duel was noised 
abroad, followed the parties to the ground ; 
and there was reason to fear that if Mr. 
Grattan had fallen his antagonist would have 
been sacrificed on the spot. 

On the 21st of February, Lord Castle- 
reagh took his next step. This was to move 
the adoption in the Commons of the articles, 
one by one. It is unnecessary to analyze 
the speeches made at the various debates 
which intervened before the final scene of 
the Irish Parliament. They generally dealt 
with the same facts ami the same principles ; 
but on one of these occasions there were two 
efforts to obtain at least some delay in the re- 
morseless progress of the Minister, (in die 
4 th of March, Mr. G. Ponsonby alleging 
that the Sovereign would not have persisted 
in recommending the present measure unless 
lie had firmly believed that the sentiments 
of the public on the subject had undergone 
a .great change, urged the House to remove 
so injurious a delusion by an intimation of 
the truth. A knowledge of the number of 
Anti-Union petitions would, he said, correct 
that error; and he, therefore, proposed an 
address, stating that, in conformity with the 
constitutional rights of the people, petitions 
against a Legislative Union had been pre- 
sented to the Parliament from twenty-six 
counties, ami from various cities and towns. 

The reply of Lord Castlereagh to this 
moderate proposal was highly characteristic. 
Hi contented himself with affirming that the 
public opinion had really undergone a change 
friendly to the measure, and that seventy- 
tour declarations, nineteen of which were of 
those counties, had been presented in its fa- 
vor. Even if ///is were not the case, he would 
oppose a motion which derogated from the 
deliberative power of Parliament, and tended 
to <' tci uragc a pi pular inti i i . pregnant, 
in these critical times, with danger and alarm. 

In another debate, Mr. Speaker Foster 
took occasion to point out and denounce the 
manifest, object of the Government in their 



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TORrOR AND GLOOM IN DUBLIN. 



399 





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article relating to the Irish peerage. He 
said it created a sort of mongrel peer, Half 
ord, half commoner, neither the one nor the 
other complete, and yet enough of each to 
remind yon of the motley mixture. It would 
depress the spirit and enervate the exertions 
of all the rising nobility of the land. Fur- 
ther, by a strange sort of absurdity, the 
measure, in suffering a peer, as a commoner, 
to take a British seat, and refusing to allow 
him an Irish one, admitted this monstrous 
position, that in the country where his prop- 
erty, his connections, and residence were, he 
should not be chosen a legislator, but where 
he was wholly a stranger he might. The 
certain consequence of which was, that it 
would induce a residence of the Irish nobili- 
ty in Britain, where they might be elected 
commoners and must, of course, solicit in- 
terest ; thereby increasing the number of 
Irish absentees, and gradually weaning the 
men of largest fortune from an acquaintance 
or a connection with their native country. 

Mr. Saurin and Sir John Parnell then 
si verally proposed an appeal to the people, 
by a dissolution of Parliament ; but this pro- 
ject was scouted by the triumphant Castle 
party. If that present Parliament, they ar- 
gued, had no power to do the deed — neither 
would any oilier ; besides, that very Parlia- 
ment was already bought up by the Castle ; 
and the Castle would have value for its 
money, or rather the nation's money — for 
the peculiar and exquisite villany of this 
transaction was, that the people of Ireland 
were to pay the purehase-mouey of their own 
sale to their enemies. 

While these last struggles of a perishing 
nation wen taking place within the walls of 
Parliament, there was deep gloom hanging 
over Dublin and the country. The Houses 
were now always surrounded by military ju- 
diciously posted in College Green, Dame and 
Westmoreland streets, ostensibly to keep the 
peace, but really to strike terror, and" pre- 
vent any manifestation of popular feeling by 
the tear of a sudden onslaught. Lord Cas- 
tlereagh also threatened to remove the Par- 
liament to Cork, if its proceedings were at 
all troubled by the populace. Unfortunately, 
the Anti-Unionists had no efficient organiza- 
tion, and no acknowledged leader. "Con- 
versions" to Unionism were every day taking 



place, through the earnest persuasions of 
Mr. Cooke. Some of the cheated and de- 
luded Catholic Bishops began to send ad- 
dresses to the Castle favorable to the Union, 
Bishop Lanigan, of Kilkenny, and his clergy, 
addressed Lord Cornwallis in this sense ; a 
proceeding which bitterly hurt and grieved 
the mass of the Catholic laity, although in 
the address itself occurred a ludicrous appli- 
cation of a phrase, which made the people 
laugh, as they are at all times willing to do. 
One of his excellency's eyes, by some natu- 
ral defect, appeared considerably diminished, 
and, like the pendulum of a clock, was gen- 
erally in a state of motion. The Right Rev- 
erend Bishop and clergy having never before 
seen the Marquis, unfortunately commenced 
their address with the most mat apropos ex- 
ordium of — "Your excellency has always 
kept a steady eye ou the interests of Ireland." 
The address was presented at levee. His 
excellency/ however, was graciously pleased 
not to return auy answer to that part of their . 
compliment. 

It must be admitted, injustice to the Cath- 
olic Bishops, that they were really deceived 
by the continual representations of Ministers ; 
and, indeed, we may be sure that in private 
conference with Archbishop Troy, Lord 
Cornwallis did not confine himself to the 
stereotyped formula always repeated in Par- 
liament, with regard to the claims of the 
Catholics, but plainly promised that Catho- 
lic Emancipation would be immediately nmde 
a Cabinet question.* However that may 

* Mr. Plowden, who could not think of supposing 
that British Ministers did not mean what they said, 
gjyes what h insiders a clear proof of their sinceri- 
ty ami devotion to the cause of the Catholics:— 

"That the British Ministers were sincere in their 
Mentions of bringing forward, and confident in their 
expectations of carrying, the question of Catholic 
Emancipation in an Imperial Parliamennt, is manifest 
from certain written communications made by them 
to some of the leading persons of the Catholic body, 
about the time oi their retiring from office, which 
were to the following effect:— 

" The leading part of His Majesty's Ministers find- 
ing insurmountable obstacles to the bringing forward 
mi asures of concession to the Catholic body, whilst 
Ece, have felt it impossible to continue in admin- 
istration under the inability to propose ii with the cir- 
cumstances necessary to carrying the measure with 
all Us advantages, and they have retired from His 
Uajesty'e service, considering this line of conduct as 
most likely to contribute to its ultimate success. The 
Catholic body will, therefore, see how much their fu- 
ture hopes must depend upon strengthening their 



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be, ii is certain thai tbe friends of indepen- 
dence, wUHe iIh'v were straggling against 
tlio Union in Parliament were discouraged 
on finding their efforts not only not ap- 
preciated, but actually thwarted by cer- 
tain of the Catholic prelates who exer- 
cised necessarily so large an influence in the 
country. 

Tims, all was gloom and despondency, 
while the several "articles" were sepn 
rately argued and assented to. This was 
finished on the 22d of March. 

A message was then sent to the House of 
Lords, importing that the Commons had 
agreed to the articles o( the Union; and 
on the 27th, the Peers intimated to the oth- 
er Souse, that they had adopted them with 
some alterations and additions. Two amend- 
ments had been proposed by the Earl i f 
Clair, and adopted, importing that on the 
extinction of three Irish peerages one might 
be created, till the number should be re- 
duced to one hundred, and afterwards one 
for every failure ; and that the qualifications 
of the Irish for the Imperial Parliament 
should be the same in point of property with 
those of the l!niisii members. These ainend- 

cause by good conduot in the meantime. They will 
prudently consider their prospects as arising from 
the ! i i eir interests, and 

compare them with those which they could look to 
from an] other quarter. They may with confidence 
rely on the pport of all those who i 

and of many who remain in office, when it can be 
givyn with a prospect of bu< oi bs. they ma] 
Bured that Mr. Pitt will do his utmost to establish 
their oause in the public favor, and prepare the w.o 
for their finally atl ects; andtheCath- 

will feel that, as Mr. Pitt could not concur in a 
hopeless attempt to force it bow, he must at all 
tiiiu-s repress, with the same decisiou as if he held an 
adverse opinion, any unconstitutional conduot in the 
Catholic body. 

"Under these circumstances, it oannot be doubted 
that the Catholics will take the most loyal, dutiful, 
ami patient lino of oonduct : I n II not suffer 

thems > to bo led into measures which oan, bj 
construction, givo a handle to the opposers of their 
w isb.es, either to misinterpret their principles or to 
;ument for resisting their claims ; but that 
by their prudent and exemplary demeanor they will 
afford additional .mounds to the growing number of 
their advocates to enforce their olaims on proper oo- 
easions, until their objeots oan be finally and advan- 
tageously attained. 



ments were readily approved by the Com- 
mons; and Lord Castlereagh immediately 
proposed an address to His Majesty, in which 
both Houses concurred. In ihis address 
they declared that they cordially embraced 
the principle of incorporating Great Britain 
and Ireland into one kingdom, by a corap 
and entire union of their Legislatures; that 
they considered the resolutions of tbe British 
Parliament as wisely calculated to form the 
basis of such a settlement ; that by those 
propositions they had been guided in their 
proceedings ; and that the resolutions now 
offered «ere those articles which, if approved 
!>y the Lords and Commons of Q real Britain, 
they were ready to confirm and ratify, in or- 
der that the same might be established forever 
by the mutual consent of both Parliaments. 

At this stage of the business, the matter 
rested in Ireland ; and the British Parlia- 
ment had next to ilo its part, a matter which 
might be supposed somewhat doubtful, if all 
the advantages of the proposed Union were 
to be, as Lord Castlereagh said, on the side 
of Ireland ; but we shall Bud that this <-ou- 
suh ration did not act upon the Lords and 
Commons of England. 

Sentiments ofa Sincere Friend | i. »., Warquit 
aims. 
".'It the Catholics should now proceed to violence, 
or entertain any ideas ol gaining their object by con- 
vulsive measures, or forming associations with men 
lal principles, they iim.~t. of course, lose 
the support and aid of those who hoe sacrificed their 
owu situations in their cause, but who would, at the 
Bame time, feel it to be theii i duty to 

oppose everything I confusion. 

"'On the other hand, should the Ci besensl- 

of the benefit they possess by haviu ; so i i 
oharaol pledged not to embark in the 

service of Government, except on the terms of the 
- being obtained, it is to he b t 
that, on balancing the advantages and disadvantages 
of their situation, the] would prefer a quiet 
aide demean < line of conduot of an opposite. 

ption.' 
"The originals of these two declarations \\.re 
handed, to Dr. hoy, and afterwards to lord Fingall 
on the same day. bj Marquis Cornwallis, in the pres- 
of Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales, in the begin- 
ning ol U iy. 1801, shortly before his departure from 
the Government c i before the arrival of 

Lord Hardwicke, his successor* His excellency de- 
sired they should b communicated i i 
pa and principal Catholics, but not inserted in 
the Mtospapera." 



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Tnr. union rN icnoukii paumament. 







( HAPTER XI, II 



Tl»' I'n n I nglisb Perliamenl Opposed by Lord 

Holland -Mr. Grey Bhcrldan lii-h Act for Elec- 
tor! -Distribution ol its— Ca n igh brings in 

Bill for the l nion Warm Debates— Unl le- 

nounced byPlunket,Bushe,8anrIn, Grattan Their 

Enrncsl Last Da] of the Parliament 

i ne r. i i the Lords The Protei ting 

Pei i li mpen ation Act The King I longta 

tnlates the British Parliament Lord Cornwallis 

— The I'i h i " i" date from January 1, 1*01 — 

[rial li' iii History of it. 

In the Parliament of England, there was 
no danger thai any time would be lost. 
Tin' articles of Union passed through the 
[rish Parliament as they bad been origin- 
ally framed by the British Ministry, having 
received no other alterations in their pro- 
gress than such as were dictated by the 
Court. They were now brought forward as 
terms proposed by the Lords and Commons 
df Ireland, in the form of resolutions. And 
on April 2, 1S00, the Duke of Purtland 
communicated to the House of Lordsames- 

e from the King, anil at the same time 
presented to them, as documents, a copy of 
the Irish address, with the resolutions. 

Lord Holland in vain opposed the ap- 
pointment of a committee ; he objected to 
the whole project of Union. " It was cvi- 
dently offensive to the great body of the 
Irish ; ami, if it should lie carried into ef- 
feci against the Beuse of the people, it 
would endanger the connection between the 
countries, and might produce irreparable 
mischief. He should oppose the motion for 
a committee." 

All rri -trance was useless. Ministers 

felt that their arrangements were perfect, 

anil the result sure ; they wonlil never, per- 
haps, lmlil Ireland so thoroughly in hand 
as they held her now — thanks to Lord 
Castlereagh. 

On a division, only three Peers (the Earl 
of Derby, and the Lords Holland anil 
King,) voted against, and eighty-two sup- 
ported the motion for going into a commit 
tee. The three lirst articles were then pro- 
posed t" Hi'' committee, and received the as- 
sent uf the Peers. 

The motion for a committee was made in 
the House of Commons by Mr. Pitt. On 
:.l 




the House resolving itself into a committee, 
Mr. Pitt entered at great length into the 
whole question, going in general over th< 

same well-beaten gri 1. In closing hi 

speech, this Minister, (knowing well the sys- 
tem of management uf the Irish Parliament 
— and knowing, also, thai, everybody else 
knew it,) was not ashamed to say : — 

"The ample discussion which every part 
of i his subject has met with, (so ample that 
nothing like its deliberation was ever known 
before in any legislature) has silenced clam- 
or, has rooted out prejudice, has overruled 
objections, lias answered nil arguments, has 
refuted all cavils, and caused the. plan to be 
entirely esteemed. Both branches of the Leg- 
islature, "after long discussion, mature delib- 
eration, and laborious inquiry, have expres- 
sed themselves clearly and decidedly in its 
favor. The opinion of the people, who, from 
their means of information, were most likely, 
because best 'enabled to form u correct judg- 
ment, is decidedly in its favor." 

Mr. Grey-, (afterwards Lord Grey,) still 
opposed the Union. Referring to Mr. Pitt's 
last assei't ions, he permitted himself to doubt 
their accuracy : — 

" It was said that the public voice was in 
its favor, after a fair appeal to the unbiassed 
sense of the nation. Nineteen counties were 
said to have signified a wish for its adop- 
tion ; and he believed that addresses had 
really been presented from that number of 
shires; but by wdiom they were signed he 
did not exactly know, though it had been 
understood they were procured at meetings 
not regularly convened, and promoted by 
the personal exertions of a governor, who, 
to the powerful influence of the Crown, ad- 
ded the terrors of martial law. To speak 
of the uncontrolled opinion of the commu- 
nity, in such a case, reminded him of the 
Duke of Buckingham's account to Richard 
III. of the manner in which the citizens of 
London had agreed to his claim of the 
( Irown — 

" Rome followers of mine own 
At lowest end "' Hie hall hurl'd np their raps, 
Ami some t'-n voices cried, God save King Rich- 
ard. 

An. I thus I took the 'vantage of those few 

Thanks, gentle citizens I friends, quoth I ; 

This genera) applanse unit oheerfnl bI t, 

Argues your wisiloni and your love to Hichard." 



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HISTORY OF ir.Kl.AXT. 




Mr. Grey proceeded further. He indig- 
nantly exposed n portion of the infamies 
then perpetrated in Ireland ; and in snch a 
manner as to show tliat he had fully in- 
formed himself, lie said : — 

"lie did not mean to speak disrespect- 
fully of the Irish Parliament. But the facts 
were notorious. There are three hundred 
members in all, and one hundred and twenty 
of these Strenuously opposed the measure: 
among whom were two-thirds of the county 
members, the representatives of the city of 
Dublin, and almost all the towns which it is 
proposed shall send members to the Imperial 
Parliament. One hundred and sixty-two 
\ ted in favor of the Union — of those, one 
hundred and sixteen were placemen, some 
tern were English Generals e Staff, 

V • one foot of ground in Ireland, and 

completely dependent upon Government. 
1- there anj ground, then, to presume that 
even the Parliament of Ireland thinks as 
the right honorable gentleman supposes ; or 
that, acting only from a regard. to the good 
of their country, the members would not 
have reprobated the measure as strongly 
and unanimously as the rest of the people ? 
But this is not all ; let us reflect upon the 
arts which have been used since the las: . . 
sion of the Irish Parliament, to pack a ma- 
jority in the House of Commoi - A hold- 
ing offices under government, even the most 
intimate friends of the V - . who had 
uniformly supported his administration till 
the present occasion, if they hesitated to 
vote as directed, were dismissed from office, 
ami stripped kA their employments. Even 
this step was found ineffectual, and other 
arts were had recourse to, ichich I amm4 
nam in ttispUat; all will easily conjecture. 
A bill for pros _ the purity of Parlia- 
ment was likewise abused, and UQ less than 
sixty-three sea's were vacated by their hold- 

- having received nominal offices. I will 
uot press this subject further upon the at- 
tention of the committee. I defy any man 
to lay his hand upon his heart and say, that 
he believes the Parh'amei Lwassut- 

i y in favor of the measure" Mr, Grey 
then moved an address to His Ma 
praying him to direct his Ministers to sus- 
pend all proceedings on the Union, till the 
sentiments of the people of Ireland respecting 



that measure should have been ascertained. 
Mr. Sheridan, of course, was at his post 
and supported the motion of Mr. Grey. He 
deprecated the prosecution oi a measure, 
which, if it should be carried into effect by 
corruption or violence, would become the 
fatal source of discontent and rebellion. 
That the Union had the general approbation 
and independent assent of the Irish nation, 
a number of addresses and declarations « 
mentioned as a proof ; b inert tktst 

■- • ' The addresses against it were 
easy to be found. Twenty-seven of the 
counties had openly declared against it ; and 
with these would have united Antrim and 
8 - '. if martial law had not been proclaim- 
ed, and prevented the intended meetings. If 
the measure were thus to be carried, he had 
no hesitation in saying, that it would be an 
act of tyranny and oppression, and must be- 
come the fatal source of ne.w discontents and 
future rebellions ; and the only standard 
round which the pride, the passions, aqd the 
prejud ces of Irishmen would ra i be 

that which would lead them to the recoi y 
• >f a constitution that would have been thus 
foully and oppressively wrested from them. 
\ tempi hail bt-tn m ult to deny the uotoriemt 
- \ -five seats had been vacated 
to make places for men. whose obsequi 
uess would not permit them to oppose the 

- ire ; and it was equally notorious, that 
in) art or influence which the policy oi ■ 
ruptiou and intimidation could put in i 
had been left untried to gain over partisans 
to the Union. 

1' is, indeed, singular, that in the course of 
these debates, no Minister was hardy enough 
to deny tl - - n of intimidation and 
bribery. Mr Secretary Dundas contented 
himself on this occasion with saying, "he 
would not admit " that the Irish in general dis- 
sented from the scheme. Lord Carysfbrt I 
ly propounded a strange argument : he af- 
firmed, that the Unionists in the Irish Par 
liament. had a much greater extent <.<: prop- 
erty than their adversaries, in : I - ten 
to one, and that the judging portion of the 
people approved the project Mr. Pitt, 1 
ever, indignantly scooted the idea of ap- 
_: to a community so influenced by fao 

- leaders ; he was satisfied witb the con- 
stitutional asseut of Parliament. 



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0PP0SKII IIY LORD HOLLAND MR. GRKY SHERIDAN. 



403 



In Bhort, Mr. Grey's tion to "suspend 

proceedings on the Union, till the sentiments 
of the people of Ireland should be ascer- 
tained," whs negatived bj a rote of two hnn- 
dredand thirty-six, againsi thirty. And the 
three lir-t articles were adopted by the com- 
mit tee. 

Other debates npon various parts of the 
articles, had uniformly the Bame result, 
vast mojorities Cur the minister. Two in- 
cidents only <it' the e di en rions, merit im- 
tice. 

On tlio 30th of April, h debate arose 
upon ii motion of Lord Holland, tending to 

give the Oatholics a pled >r prospect of 

the abolition of the disabilities, to which 
they were still Bubject both in Ireland and 
Great Britain. This was opposed on the 
pari of Government us "unseasonable." 
Ministers, in fact, intended that the Catholic 
Bishops nuil influential leaders, should con- 
tent themselves with the vague promises al- 
ready so often mentioned. The Government 
was practically receiving support for their 
measure, from many of those prelates and 
gentlemen, on the faith of the treacherous 
promises of Lord Cornwallis and his under- 
lings ; and had no idea of pledging the Brit- 
ish Parliament to emancipation. Lord 
Grenville "was of opinion that these ques- 
tions would be best determi I by an United 

Parliament." So the subject dropped. 

The Other incident arose from the alarm 
of the woollen-manufacturers. It will be 
remembered how this class of manufactur- 
ers, in the reign of 'William III, had 
been aide to procure express acts of the 
English Parliament for the destruction of 
that kind of industry in Ireland, and to en- 
sure to themselves I he full monopoly of Iri-h 
wool in fleece. They were now very natur- 
nlly of opinion that the Commercial " Ar- 
ticle," in the articles of Union permitting 
the tree mutual import and export between 
the two islands, was a gross infringement 
upon ihcir vested rights. They, accordingly, 
petitioned the Boose of Commons against 
the " Article." Their demand was too mon- 
strous, lint it was sustained in the Souse by 
Mr. Peel and Mr. Wilberforce. Mr. Pitt, 
however, who knew that the English nionop- 
oly of the woollen manufacture was now 
practically safe enough, maintained, that, if 



any transfer of manufacture should result 
from tin.' permission of exporting wool, it 
would he gradual and inconsiderable ; that 
any void, which it might occasion, would be 
much more than Idled up by the great in- 
crease of our trade in this article; that wc 
had no reason to apprehend a scarcity of 
the commodity, or dread the rivalry of the 
Irish in the manufacture ; and that his 
friend's proposal would lie an unnecessary 
deviation from that liberal principle of a 
free intercourse, which was the intended 
basis of the Union. Tin? article, therefore, 
was adopted as it stood, to the deep, indig- 
nation of the good people of Leeds and all 
Yorkshire. 

All the articles had been adopted before 
tin; !llh of May. A joint address was on 
that day preseuted to the King, importing 
that they were now ready to conclude an 
Union with the Irish Parliament upon the 
basis of the' articles. This address, in a 
tone which resembles a cold and solemn 
sneer, expresses the "unspeakable satisfac- 
tion "of Parliament at " the general conform- 
ity of the articles transmitted from Ireland 
with those which they had voted in the pre- 
ceding year." 

The next thing in order, was that each 
Parliament was to frame the articles into 
a bill, and so pass the Act of Union. 

As an Irish act for regulating elections 
was to be incorporated in the general bill of 
Union, Lord Castlereagh at once, in the 
[rish House of Commons, brought in 
that parliamentary measure. It passed the 
House of Commons on the 20th of May. 
This measure arranged the representation as 
it remained from the Union until the " Re- 
form act." It gave one member of Parlia- 
ment to each of the following towns : — 

Waterford, Limerick, Belfast, Drogheda, 
Carrickfergus, Xewry, Kilkenny, London- 
derry, Galway, C'lonuiell, Wexford, Armagh, 
Youghall, Bandon, Dundalk, Kinsale, Lis- 
burne, Sligo, Catherlogh, Ennis, Dungar- 
van, Down-Patrick, Coleraine, Mallow, Ath- 
lone, New-Ross, Tralee, Cashel, Dungannon, 
PortarHngtoo, and Enniskillen. One mem- 
ber for each of these towns, with four for 
Dublin and Cork, one for the University, 
and sixty-four representatives of the thirty- 
two counties. 



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HISTORY OF IREI.ANP. 



The act then made its singular provision 
to allow present Irish members of Parlia- 
ment, to sit in a Parliament they had never 
been elected t" serve in. It provided, that 
if the King should authorize the present 
lords and commons ol Great Britain to form 
a part of the first Imperial Legislature, the 
sitting members for Dublin and Cork, and 
for the thirty two counties of Ireland, should 
represent the same eities and shires in that 
Parliament ; that the written names of the 
members for the college of the Holy Trini- 
ty, for the cil es of Waterford and Limer- 
ick, and the other towns before-mentioned, 
should be put into a glass, aud successively 
drawn out by the clerk of the Crown, and 
that, of the two representatives of each of 
those places, the individual whose name 
should he first drawn, should serve for the 
same place in the fi>st Unit! :re ; 

and that, when a new Parliament should be 
convoked, writs should be sent to the Irish 
counties, to the University, and to the cities 
and boroughs above specified, for the 
tion of members in the usual mode, accord- 
ing to t'ne number then adjusted. 

aet also arranged the rotation in 
which the four Irish bishops should sit in 
the House of Peers, and also the election of 
the twenty-eight Irish Peers by their own 
order. 

On the very next day — for Ministers 
were in hot haste — Castlereagh moved for 
have to bring in his bill for the Legislative 
Union. Leave was given by a vote of 
one hundred and sixty, against one hundred. 
]'. was at once presented, read, and ordered 
to be printed. On the 25th, it was read 
The uncorrupted members of the 
House looked on with impotent indigna- 
tion. Mr. Grattan proposed a delay until 
the first August, to allow the measure 

to be more fully canvassed. He proceeded 
also to argue very warmly against the whole 
principle of it. He said it was "a breach 
of a solemn covenant, an innovation promo- 
ted by martial law, an unauthorised assump- 
tion of a competency to destroy the inde- 
pendence of the realm ; an unjustifiable at- 
tempt to injure the prosperity of the coun- 
try. The bill would be, fuoad the constitu- 
tion, equivalent to a murder, and. quoad the 



carried into effect, he foretold its want of 
permanence, and intimated his apprehensions, 
that popular discontent, perhaps dangerous 
commotions, might result from its enforce- 
ment." 

Lord Castlereagh defended the bill, and 
censured the inflammatory language of 
Mr. Grattan. "But he defied," he said, 

"their incentives to treason, aud had no doubt 
of the energy of the Government in defend- 
ing the Constitution against every atta. , " 
i was the insolent and half-menacing 
tone adopted upon system by t'ne adminis- 
tration. 

Several earnest debates followed. T'ne 
faithful representatives of the people, whom 
money, and place, aud title, could not buy, 
did their sad duty to the end. The ablest 
lawyers in the country, and some of the purest 
patriots of whom history makes mention, 
could at least protest against this parricide 
and suicide, and their solemn and well-weigh- 
ed words of warning and expostulation if 
they could not save the country, for that 
time remain on record as a protest, as a 
continual claim, and perpetual muniment of 
title, on behalf of the independence of the 
Irish nation. As several passages of these 
Anti-Union pleadings have been often eited 
by Mr. O'Connell, and others, who have 
never eeased to demand the repeal of that 
evil act, they have become class and 
must always be held an essential part of 
any history of Ireland. 

William Conyngham Phuket, afterwards 
Lord-Chancellor, said : — 

S . I, in the most express terms, deny 
e tmpetency of Parliament to do this 
aet. I warn you. do not dare to lay your 
hands upon the Constitution. I tell you, 
that if. circumstanced as you are, veil - 
this aet, it will be a mere nullity, and no 
man in Ireland will be bound to obey it. I 
make the assertion deliberately. I repeat it. 
1 eali on any man who hears me to take 
down my words. You have not been elect- 
ed for this purpose. You are appointed to 
make laws, and not legislatures. You are 
appointed to exercise the function of 1 
• and not to transfer them. 

" You are appointed to net under the 
Constitution, and not to niter it ; and if 




C 



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I -:-^ 



LAST BATS OF PARLIAMENT LAST SCENE. 



405 



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'fc^t 




government — you resolve society into its 

original elements, and nan in the land is 

bonnd to Obey yon. Sir, I state doctrines 
that are not merely founded on the immut- 
able laws of truth and reason; I state not 

merely the opinions of the ablest and wisest 
men who have written on the science of 
government ; bat 1 state the practice of 
our Constitution, as settled at the era of the 
revolution; and I state the doctrine upder 
which the House of Hanover derives its title 
to the Throne. 

" For me, I do not hesitate to declare, 
that if the madness of the revolutionists 
were to t> II me, ' You must sacrifice British 
connection,' I would adhere to that connec- 
tion in preference to the independence of my 
country. But I have as little hesitation in 
saying, that if the toanlon ambition of a Mint 
ister should assail the freedom, of Ireland, 
and compel me to the alternative, I would fling 
the connection to the winds, and clasp the im- 
dept ndence of my country to my heart." 

Mr. Bnshe, (subsequently Chief Justice 
«of Ireland,) spoke these words: — 

"I strip this formidable measure of all 
its pretensions and all its aggravations ; I 
look on it nakedly and abstractedly, and I 
see nothing in it but one question — will you 
give up the country? I forget for a mo- 
ment the unprincipled means by which it 
lias been promoted ; I pass by for a mo- 
ment the unseasonable time at which it 
has been introduced, and the contempt of 
Parliament upon which it is bottomed, and 
I look upon it .-imply as England reclaim- 
ing in a moment Of your weakness that do- 
minion which you extorted from her in a 
moment of your virtue — a dominion which 
she uniformly abused, which invariably op- 
pressed anil impoverished you. and from the 
Ci sation of which you dale all your pros- 
peril 11 

"Odious as this measure is in my eves, 
and disgusting to my feelings, if I see it is 
carried by the tree and uninfluenced sense 
of the Irish Parliament, I shall not only de- 
er and submit, but I will cheerfully obey. 

t will be the first duty of every good sub- 
ject But fraud., and oppression, and un- 
constitu , lice may, / ossibly, be a rwther 

question. If this be factious language, Lord 
Somen was factious, the founders of the 



K 



revolution were factious, Wiiliam III. was 
an usurper, and the revolution was a re- 
bellion.'' 

Mr. Saurin, (subsequently a Privy Conn- f|\~< 
cillor and an Attorney-General,) spoke these H? 
words : — 

" You make the Union binding-, as a law, 
but you cannot make it obligatory on 
conscience. It will 'be obeyed so long as 
England is strong — but resistance to it will 
be in the abstract a duty ; and the exhibi- 
tion of that resistance will be a mere ques- 
tion of prudence." 

Mr Grattan, who was afterwards deemed 
worthy of a resting-place in Westminster 
Abbev, spoke these words in the Irish 
Ibmse of Commons, in one of the debates 
ou Union : — 

" Many honorable gentlemen thought dif- 
ferently from me. I respect their opinions, 
but I keep my own ; and I think now as I 
thought then, that the treason of the. Minis- 
ter against the liberties of the people was in- 
finitely worse than the rebellion of lite people 

against the Minister 

"The cry of the connection (the Union 
measure) will not in the end avail against 
the principles of liberty. . . . 

" The cry of disaffection will not in the 
end avail against the principle of liberty. 
"Yet I do not give up the country. I 
see her in a swoon ; but she is not dead. 
Though in her tomb she lies helpless and 
motionless, still there is on her lips a spirit 
of life, and on her check a glow of beauty. 
" Thou art not conquered ; beauty's en- 
sign yet is crimson on thy lips and in thy 
cheek, and death's pale flag is not ad- 
vanced there." * 

Eloquence and constitutional law-learn- 
ing were alike vain. The bill was hurried 
to its third reading ; and when it was seen 
that the evil deed was inevitable, most of the 
they might not witness the division by v. hich 

* It is true that several of these Anti-Union ora- 
tors subsequently acted as if iliiv lot i] not been alto- 
gether sincere ia .so strongly denouncing the Union, 
pronouncing it a nullity, and proclaiming, as land 
i'limket and Mr. Saurin did, that no man would be 
bound to obey a that i-. to obey laVs enacted intlie 
Imperial Parliament IT et the speakers were inc re 
at the nine : ami even if their own personal imsitiou 
afterwards Beem inconsistent with the principles then 
laid down, yet the principles are not to Buffer, uor i 
the law less sound on that account. 



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Anti-Unionists rose and left the House, that 
it was to be carried. This was on the 7th 
of June. There was, if we are to credit 
Sir Jonah Barrington, a certain theatrical 
solemnity in some of these last scenes of 
our national life. For example : — 

" Before the third reading of the bill, 
when it was about to be reported, Mr. 
Charles Ball, member for Clogher, rose, and, 
without speaking one word, looked round 
impressively, every eye was directed to him, 
he only pointed his hand significantly to the 
bar, and immediately walked forth, casting 
a parting look behind him, and turning his 
eyes to heaven, as if to invoke vengeance 
on the enemies of his country. His example 
was contagious. Those Anti-Unionists who 
were in the House immediately followed his 
example, and never returned into that Sen- 
ate, which had been the glory, the guardian, 
and the protection of their country. There 
was but one scene more, and the curtain was 
to drop forever." 

On these last days of the Irish Parlia- 
ment there was an ostentatious display of 
military force. Troops were drawn up un- 
der the Ionic colonnades of the superb Par- 
liament House ; and the citizens of Dublin 
knew that batteries of field artillery were 
ready at convenient spots to sweep their 
streets at a moment's notice — an arrange- 
ment to which they have been long accus- 
tomed. Sir Jonah, who was present and 
saw all, and who, though not in all respects 
an estimable man, at least stood by his coun- 
try in this crisis to the last, describes the 
scene lor us : — 

"The day of extinguishing the liberties of 
Ireland had now arrived, and the sun took 
his hist view of independent Ireland ; he rose 
no more over a proud and prosperous nation. 
She was now condemned, by the British Min- 
uter, to renounce her rank amongst the 
states of Europe ; she was sentenced to can- 
cel her Constitution, to disband her Com- 
mons and disfranchise her nobility, to pro- 
claim her incapacity, and register her cor- 
ruption in the records of the empire. 

"The Commons House of Parliament, on 
the last evening, afforded the most melan- 
choly example of a line, independent people, 
betrayed, divided, sold, and, as a state, anni- 
hilated. British clerks and officers were j 




smuggled into her Parliament to vote away 
the Constitution of a country to which they 
were strangers, and in which they had nei- 
ther interest nor connection. They were em- 
ployed to cancel the royal charter of the 
Irish nation, guaranteed by the British Gov- 
ernment, sanctioned by the British Legisla- 
ture, and unequivocally confirmed by the 
words, the signature, and the great seal of 
their monarch. 

"The situation of the Speaker on that 
night was of thi most distressing nature ; a 
sincere and ardent enemy of the measure, he 
headed its opponents ; he resisted it with all 
the power of his mind, the resources of his 
experience, his influence, and his eloquence. 

" It was, however, through his voice that 
it was to be proclaimed and consummated. 
His only alternative (resignation) would 
have been unavailing, and could have added 
nothing to his character. His expressive 
countenance bespoke the inquietude of his 
feeling ; solicitude was perceptible in cvwy 
glance, and his embarrassment was obvious 
in every word he uttered. 

" The galleries were full, but the change 
was lamentable ; they were no longer crowd- 
ed with those who had been accustomed to 
witness the eloquence and to animate the 
debates of that devoted assembly. A 
monotonous and melancholy murmur ran 
through the benches ; scarcely a word was 
exchanged amongst the members ; nobody 
seemed at ease ; no cheerfulness was appa- 
rent, and the ordinary business, for a short 
time, proceeded in the usual manner. 

"At length, the expected moment arrived 
The order of the day — for the third reading of 
the bill for a 'Legislative Union between 
Great Britain and Ireland' — was moved by 
Lord Castlereagh. Unvaried, tame, cold- 
blooded, the words seemed frozen as they 
issued from his lips ; aud, as if a simple citi- 
zen of the world, he seemed to have no sen- 
sation on the subject. 

" The Speaker, Mr. Foster, who was one 
of the most vehement opponents of the Union 
from first to last, would have risen ami left 
the House with his friends, if he could. l!ut 
this would have availed nothing. With 
grave dignity he presided over ' the last 
agony of the expiring Parliament.' He 
held up the bill for a moment in sileuce, 



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then asked the usual question, to which the 
response, 'aye,' was languid, but unmistak- 
able. Another momentary pause ensued. 
Again his lips seemed to decline their office. 
At length, with an eve averted from the ob- 
ject which he hated, he proclaimed, with a 
subdued voice, "The ayes have it.' For an 
instant he stood statue-like ; then, indig- 
nantly and in disgust, flung the bill upon the 
table, and sunk iuto his chair with au ex- 
hausted spirit." * 

So far, the picturesque historian of the 
"Rise and Pall of the Irish Nation ;" and, 
doubtless, to man)- readers this closing per- 
formance will appear somewhat histrionic 
and melodramatic. Yet in sad and bitter 
earnest, that scene was deep tragedy ; and 
its catastrophe is here with ns at this day — 
in thousands upon thousands of ruined cab- 
ins, and pining prisoners, and outlawed reb- 
els, and the poverty and hunger that move 
and scandalize the world. A few details will 
fitly close up this subject. 

The bill was carried up to the Rouse of 
Peers by Lord Cfasllereagh, but the consid- 
eration of it was postponed. On its second 
reading, the Earls of Farnham and Bella- 
niont offered some clauses, which were nega- 
tived, and the bill was committed. It passed 
the committee without amendment, was re- 
ported in due form, and, after an uninterest- 
ing debate, was read a third time on the 13th 
of June. A protest was entered by the 
Duke of Leinster and the other dissenting 
Peers. This protest is given at full length 

* It is well to preserve the record of those Irish- 
men who voted against the extinction of their conn- 
by, Asfor the names of those persons, placemen, 
pensioners, and bribe-takers, who voted on the other 
aide, it « ere better to forget them. But their names 
„,,,] crime are al o a portion of history; and many 
readers may be interested to know the manner in 
which Bome great families in Ireland obtained 
their titles and laid the foundation of their fortunes. 
Candor also requires it to be stated that some few 
members did vote for the Union without either bribe 
or pension, without being influenced either by inter- 
est or intimidation; and, therefore, it is pre tunable, 
from a Bincere conviction that this measure would 
benefit the two oountries. There was published soon 
the Union a " Red List" and a "BlacS Li t," 
giving the names of those who were r..r and against 

asuro. The lists have often been reprinted. 

They maj be found in Plowden's Appendix and in 
Sir Jonah Barrington's Bisi and Fall. But as the 
latter has added rvations to many of the 

name-, eithi it from his own personal knowledge, or 
from common notorietj at the time, we adopt his 
edition ol the lists. — See Ippendix, .Vo. 11 



in the Lords' journals ; but it. will be enough 
in this place to record its last paragraph 
and summing up, with the names of the dis- 
sentient Peers. It concludes in these words • 

"Because the argument made use of in ^J 
favor of the Union, namely, that the sense 
of the people of Ireland is in its favor, we 
know to be untrue ; and as the Ministers 
have declared that they would not press the 
measure against the sense of the people, and 
as the people have pronounced decidedly, and 
under all difficulties, their judgment against 
it, we have, together with the sense of the 
country, the authority of the Minister to en- 
ter our protest against the project of Union, 
against the yoke which it imposes, the dis- 
honor which it inflicts, the disqualification 
passed upon the peerage, the stigma thereby 
branded on the realm, the disproportionate 
principle of expense it introduces, the means 
employed to effect it, the discontents it has 
excited, and must continue to excite. Against 
all these, and the fatal consequences they 
may produce, we have endeavored to inter- 
pose our votes, and failing, we transmit to 
after-times our names, in solemn protest on 
behalf of the Parliamentary Constitution of 
this realm, the liberty which it secured, the 
trade which it protected, the connection 
which it preserved, and the Constitution 
which if supplied and fortified. This we feel 
ourselves called upon to do in support of our 
characters, our honor, and whatever is left to 
us worthy to be transmitted to our posterity. 

Leinster, 

Arkan, 

Mount Cashel, 

Farnham, -\v tKA 

Belmore, by proxy, 

Massy, by proxy, 

Strang ford, 

Graxard, 

Ludlow, by proxy, 

MoiRA, by proxy, 

Rev. Waterfoud and Lismore. 

PoWERSCOURT, 

Df. Yesci, 

Charlemont, 

Kingston, by proxy, 

Riversdale, by proxy, 

Mf.ath, 

Lismore, by proxy, 

Sunderlin." 



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No part of the plan now remained for the 
Secretary to bring forward, but the scheme 
of compensation. This he plausibly ushered 
in upon a principle of justice. lie proposed 
a grant of £1,200, 0U0 for those who should 
suffer a loss of patronage, and be deprived 
of a source of wealth, by the disfranchise- 
ment of eighty-four boroughs — at the rate 
of £15,000 to each. Mr. Saurin, Mr. J. Clau- 
dius Beresford, and Mr. Dawson, maintained 
that the grant of compensation to those who 
had no right to hold such a species of prop- 
erty, would be an insult to the public and an 
infringement of the Constitution. Mr. Pren- 
dergast defended the proposition, alleging 
that, though such possessions might have 
been vicious in their origin, yet, from pre- 
scriptive usage, and from having been the 
subject of contracts and family settlements, 
they could not be confiscated without a 
breach of honor and propriety. In the 
House of Peers, this bill was chiefly opposed 
by the Earl of Farnham ; but it passed into 
law with little opposition in either House, 
the Anti-Unionists having now given up the 
question as lost.* 

Soon after the Union bill had passed 
through both Houses of the Irish Parlia- 
ment, Mr. Pitt brought a bill in the same 
form into the British House of Commons. It 
proceeded through the usual stages, without 
occasioning any important debate ; and was 
sent, on the 24th of June, to the Peers. On 
the 30th, Lord Grenville moved for its third 

* When the compensation statute had received the 
royal assent, the Viceroy appointed four commission- 
ers to carry its provisions into execution. Three 
■were members of Parliament, whose salaries of 
ft .'200 a year each (with probable advantages) were 
a tolerable consideration for their former services. 
The Honorable Mr. Annesley, Secretary Hamilton, 
and Dr. Duigenan, were the principal commissioners 
of that extraordinary distribution. Unfortunately, we 
have not full details and accounts of this scandalous 
pecuniary transaction. Sir Jonah Barringtonsays: — 

" It is t" in- lamented that the records of the pro- 
ceedings have been unaccountably disposed of. A 
voluminous copy of claims, accepted and rejected, 
was published, and partially circulated ; but the great 
and important grants, the private pensions, and oc- 
cult compensations, have never been made public, 
further than by those who received them. It is 
known that — 
" Lord Shannon received for his patronage 

in the Commons £-15,000 

" The Marquis of Ely 45,000 

" Lord Clanmorris (besides a peerage) . 23,000 
" Lord Belvidere (besides his douceur) . 15,000 
" Sir Hercules Langrishe . 15,000 " 



reading, declaring that he rose for that pur- 
pose with greater pleasure than he had ever 
felt before in making any proposition to their 
lordships. The Marquis of I)ownshire merely 
said that his opinion of the measure remained 
unaltered, and that he would, therefore, givo 
the bill his decided negative. It passed 
without a division ; and, on the 2d of July, 
it received the royal assent. 

On the 29th of July, in proroguing the 
last separate Parliament of Great Britain, 
the King felicitated his Parliament, as he 
well might : — 

" With peculiar satisfaction I congratu- 
late you on the success of the steps, which 
you have taken for effecting an entire Union 
between my kingdoms. This great measure, 
on which my wishes have been long earnest- 
ly bent, I shall ever consider as the happi- 
est event of my reign." 

The royal assent was given in Ireland to 
the Union bill on the 1st of August, the 
anniversary of the accession of the House of 
Brunswick to the thrones of these rearms. 
The next day, the Lord-Lieutenant put an 
end to the session, with an appropriate 
speech from the Throne. Lord Cornwallia 
said, amongst other fine things — speaking 
to the legislators whom he had bribed : — 

"The whole business of this important 
session being at length happily concluded, it 
is with the most sincere satisfaction that I 
communicate to you by His Majesty's ex- 
press command, his warmest acknowledg- 
ments for that ardent zeal and unshaken 
perseverance which you have so conspicu- 
ously manifested in maturing and completing 
the great measure of Legislative Union be- 
tween this kingdom and Great Britain. 

"The proofs you have given on this occa- 
sion of your uniform attachment to the real 
welfare of your country, inseparably con- 
nected with the security and prosperity of 
the empire at large, not only entitle you to 
the full approbation of your Sovereign, and 
to the applause of your fellow-subjects, but 
must afford you the surest claim to the grati- 
tude of posterity. 

"You will regret, with His Majesty, the 
reverse which His Majesty's allies have ex- 
perienced on the Continent ; but His Majes- 
ty is persuaded that the firmness and public 
spirit of his subjects will enable him to per- 






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IRISH DEDT — -niSTORY OF IT, 








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M'vcrc in the line of i Inct which will bi -t 

provide for the honor, and tlie essential in- 
terests of bis dominions, whose means and 
ri ourcea have now, by your wisdom, 
more closely and intimately combined." 

Immediately after passing the English 
Acl of Union, early in July, the British Par- 
liament was prorogued ; ami tin' " Union," 
iii so far us parchment cau make an union, 
was complete. It "as In take effect from 
the 1st df January, 1801. Pursuant to 
proclamation, a new Imperial Standard was 
on that day displayed on tin- Tower of Lon- 
don, and on the Castles of Edinburgh and 
Dublin. It was tin! same Royal Standard 
now in nse ; being "quartered, first ami 
fourth, England ; second, Scotland ; third, 
I laud " Bo, since thai day, the Harp of 
Ireland has its place in the corner of the 
great Ba r of England. 

The " Union Jack " was also ordained 
ami described by the same proclamation — 
" And it is our will and pleasure that the 
Union flag shall lie azure, the crosses, sal- 
tin - of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, quar- 
terly per saltire, connterchanged, argent and 

gules; the hitter iaihriated (if the second, 

surmounted by the Cross of St. George of 
the third, as the saltire." 

As for the Public Debt of Ireland, which 
was to remain a separate charge on the rev- 
enues of that country, that debt had bei n 
less than four millions just before the insur- 
rection. At the Union, that debt was de- 
clared to be £96,841,219, being increased 
nearly seven-fold in three years. That is to 
say, the whole of i lie expenses incurred in pro- 
voking that insurrection — then in maintain- 
ing a great army to crush it — -the cost of 
keeping English and Scotch militia regiments 
in the couutry — the pay of the Hessians — 
the bribes ami pensions to spies, informers, 
ami members of Parliament — the Compen- 
sation-fund to owners of boroughs — all was 
charged to Irish account. 

O'Connell said, "it was strange that Ire- 
land was not afterwards made to pay for the 
knife with which Lord Castlereagh, twenty- 
two years later, cnl his own throat." 

Tlii- enormous debl was to remain separ- 
ate from the English Debt, according to the 
Act of Union,* until these two conditions 

• 8ce the act in the Appendix, Xo. III. 




should occur : First. That the two debts 
should come to hear to each other the pro- 
lortion of fifteen parts for Great Britain 
to two purl I'm' Ireland, and, Second. That 
the respective circumstances of the two 
countries should admit of uniform taxation. 

After that, they were to be consolidated. 
Since that day, an English Chancellor of the 
Exchequer has "kept the books" of the 
two islands; so that while the debt of 
England went on increasing rapidly, owing 
to the war, and subsidies to all enemies of 
France, the debt of Ireland was somehow 
found to increase more than twice as fast as 
that of England — as if Ireland had a double 
interest in crushing France. 

" Woe to the land on whose judgment- 
seats a stranger sits — at whose gates a 
stranger watches ] " We may add — " whose 
books a stranger keeps ! " f 

The two debts were consolidated in 1817. 
According to Lord Castlereagh's report to 
Parliament, the military force in Ireland at 
the time of the Union amounted to one 
hundred and twenty six thousand five hutt- 
dred men — viz., forty-five thousand eight 
hundred and thirty-nine regulars, twenty- 
seven thousand one hundred and four militia, 
and fifty-three thousand i\\i: hundred and 
fifty-seven yeomanry. 

t Mr. O'Neill Daunt, in his excellent paper en- 
titled, "Financial Grievances of Ireland," extracts 
from Parliamentary Paper j\"o. 3.">, of 1810, this 
table : — 



T 



yeah. 


BRITISH 
DEBT. 


AN. 

CH.UIGE. 


IBISH DEBT. „„ A '• 

CHARGE. 


6th Jan. 

1801. 


£ 

450,504,984 


£ 

17,718.851 


£ 
28,545,134 


£ 
1.244,463 


5th Jan 
1817. 


734,522,104 


28,238,410 


112,704,773 


4,104,514 



The difference between the statement of the Irish 
Debt given in this table, and that given in the text, 
(from another Parliamentary paperof the same year,) 
is made Dp by adding a small amount of unfunded 
debl 

Thus, while the Imperial Government less than 
doubled the British Debt, they quadrupled the Irish 
Debt By this management the Irish Debt, which in 
lsnl had linn tn tlii- British as one to sixteen and a 
half, was forced up to bear to the British Debt the 
ratio of one to seven and a half This was the pro- 
portioD required by the Act of Union, as a condition 
of subjecting Ireland to indiscriminate taxation with 
Great Britain Ireland was to bo loaded with inoidi- 
ikiii .],m ; and then this debt was to be made the 
pretext for raising her taxation to the high British 
standard, and thereby rendering her liable to the pre- 
union debt of Great Britain ! 



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HISTOnT OF IRELAND. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

1800—1803. 

The Catholics Doped— Resignation of Pitt— Mystery 
of tlii- Resignation— First Measure of Unite. 1 Par- 
liament Suspension of Habeas Corpus — Report 
- n't Committee— Fats of Lord Clare — Lord 
Hardwlcke Viceroy — Peace of Amiens — Treaty 
Violated by England— Malta— War again Declared 
by England Mr. l'itt resumes Office — Coalition 
against France 

The Union had scarcely been accomplish- 
ed, when those [rish Catholics who had sup- 
ported the measure found they had been 
cheated, sis usual, by the British Govern- 
ment. They had been told that Catholic 
Emancipation would at once be made a 
Ministerial measure : and in so far as the 
distinct pledges of Mr. l'itt and of Lord 
Cornwallis could avail them, they were as- 
sured of their liberties. 

The first United Parliament met on the 
83d i'( January. It immediately began to 
be rumored that Mr. Pitt and his Ministry 
were about to resign. The reason falsely 
alleged for the resignation was that Kimr 
t. irge 111. would not tolerate the idea of 
Catholic Emancipation, which he imagined 
to be contrary to his Coronation oath ; and 
us Mr. l'itt pretended to he pledged to that 
measure, he made this difference the pretext 
i'.'i- a temporary resignation, which he found 
. -nt at this time for other reasons. 

Mr. l'itt had been the all-powerful Min- 
ister who had governed England for seven- 
teen years. It was he who had recalled 
Lord Fitzwilliam from the Irish Vice-royalty, 
because that nobleman favored Catholic 
Emancipation. It was he who had sent 
over Lord Camden with express instruc- 
tions to prevent such emancipation by the 
Irish Parliament : and in desiring Lord 
i nwallis and Lord Castlereagh to prom- 
ise Catholic relief after the Union, he in- 
tended to delude the Catholics into a sup- 
port of his measure, and to deceive them 
afterwards. He knew the Kind's opinion 
upon that question — if anything that passed 
in the mind of George III can be called 
an opinion — and that the obstinate ami 
stupid old man would ucrtr suffer any pro- 
ject of Catholic Emancipation to be made 
a Ministerial measure. 



No human being acquainted with public 
affairs ever believed that Mr. Pitt resigned 
office at that time on account of the Catho- 
lic question, or any other Irish question 
whatever. The truth was, simply, that Mr. 
Pitt's continental policy had failed, ami that 
the English people, devoured by taxes, and 
wearied out with the still nufulrilled predic- 
tions of the total ruin of their French enemy, 
were crying aloud for peace. Mr. l'itt saw 
that peace must be made, at least for a 
little while ; but his sullen pride could not 
submit to negotiate that peace himself. Mr. 
Plow 'ten * says : — 

•'The only transaction which furnished 
him with a plausible or popular ground for 
resignation, was the CcUhatic question, which 
that crafty Minister and his followers have 
so frequently used as a most powerful engine 
for the worst of political purposes. With- 
in very few days after the meeting of Par- 
liament, he made no secret of his resigna- 
tion. Great were the surprise and conster- 
nation which attended the report. Few, 
indeed, gave credit to the alleged cause of 
resignation — namely, his inability to t 
the Catholic question, which was imperiously 
necessary for the safety of the state. lie 
was too fond of power, his influence in the 
country was too imposing, Ireland was too 
insignificant to have caused such an im- 
portant change in all the departments of the 
state. Abstracting from the merits and 
justice of the question, and from the expe- 
diency or necessity of its being then pro- 
pounded and carried, neither Mr. Pitt's 
friends nor opponents could bring their 
minds to believe that an administration, 
which had established itself in spite of tiie 
House of Commons ; which had baffled, and 
at last subdued, a most formidable opp si- 
tion ; which had maintained itself upon new 
courtly principles for seventeen years, ami 
still commanded a decided majority in the 
Cabinet and Senate, should have been thus 
broken up from the Premier's inability to 
carry so simple and just a measure as that 

• Worthy Mr. Plowden, who had rather supported 
the Union, as many other leading Catholics had done, 
when ho wrote, ten years later, the second series of 
his Historical C cl'.eclions. says, in its first page : 
" They (the Catholics) now Beheld the baleful mea- 
sure of Union m its full deformity." But they beheld 
it too late 






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K1CSIGNATI0N OF ME. PITT. 



411 



of an equal participation of Constitutional 
rights amongst all the King's Bnbjects." 

" Simple ami just, a measure " as this 
naturally appeared to the Catholic histo 
rian, it was steadily refused and resisted, 
both liy Mr. Pitt aud l>y his whole party 
for twenty-sine years longer, and then only 
carried on account of the imminent danger 
of cavil war, as its Ministerial supporters 
alleged. 

There was an air of mystery about the 
retirement of Ministers at this crisis. No- 
body gave credit to the ostensible motives 
of it ; and several distinct reasons were 
alleged and discussed. In fact, every con- 
ceivable reason, except the true one, was 
assigned by the friends of Mr. Pitt. One 
was a serious difference which had sprung 
up between the Minister and the Duke of 
York,* partly with re pect to military ar- 
rangements and operations ; partly, because 
eeii am "unconstitutional influence in a 
high quarter counteracted and embarrassed 
the important duties of His Majesty's offi- 
cial and responsible advisers;" ami partly, it 
was also aliened, because the Duke of York, 
as the special patron of the Orange Society, 
was resolutely opposed to the project of 
Catholic Emancipation. His Royal High- 
ness might have 1 spared his uneasiness. No 
Grand Master of Orangemen was ever more 
violently opposed to all claims and rights of 
Catholics than Mr. Pitt himself. 

innocent Catholics had been expecting 
that the King's speech, on opening this ses- 
sion, would have recommended a measure 

* Prom the year 1TH7 the Orange Societies were so 
tenderly cherished and zealously promoted by the 
Duke of York, thatr almost even regiment, even of 
militia in Ireland, received from the office of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, encouragement, authority, or orders 

for establishing Or bodges in their respective 

regiments. The person delegated for this mission 
».e generally the Sergeant Major, or some other 
non-commissioned officer, Bignalized for his zeal 

against the Catholics, in some instai 3, the institu- 

1 inge Lodges, under this high and official 
sanction has produced ferment and dissension, which 

> pelted the commanding otlierr to investigate and 

pnnlsh both those nrbo L r a\<' rise to, and those who 
pi rpetrated, the consequent outrages Wlien often, 
to the astonishment Oi tin: corp*. and in d'dianeo hi' 
ipline and subordination, the conduct of 
it,,' Sergeant has been justified by the production of 

the official document 01 warrant, >t irregularly 

■npera ding that immediate authority, upon which 
atom- the subordination and union of a regiment de- 
pend. 



for their emancipation. The subject was 
not once alluded to. The address was 
moved in the House of Commons by Sir 
Wat kin William Wynne, (commander of 
the Ancient Britons). Mr. Grey moved an 
amendment, and made some pointed ob- 
servations upon Ireland and the Union. " If 
any good effect," he said, "could result from 
a measure so brought forward, and so sup- 
ported, he hoped it would be the extension 
of the British Constitution to the Catholics 
of Ireland, and their restoration to all the 
rights <>f British subjects. This they had 
been taught to expect, aud this was the least 
they were entitled to in return for that 
measure having been forced upon litem by 
England." Mr. Pitt, in replying to Mr. 
(Jrey, studiously avoided even remote refer- 
ence to Ireland. Ireland had served his 
turn ; she was now safe under British law 
and government ; and he desired to hear of 
her no more: But he had much to say in 
denunciation of "Jacobinism," which was 
the name then given to any assertion of any 
kind of right or liberty, concluding his 
speech with a warm appeal to the majority 
of the House, whether all the public calam- 
ities of this, and all the nations of the Con- 
tinent, were not occasioned by those princi- 
ples, which the gentleman opposite to him 
had uniformly supported, and which he and 
the gentlemen on his side of the House 
had as uniformly combated. 

Before quitting the subject of Mr. Pitt's 
deliberate deception upon the Irish Catho- 
lics, it must be mentioned that the paper 
which had been delivered by Lord Cornwal- 
lis to Doctor Troy, Catholic Archbishop of 
Dublin, and Lord Fillgal, soon became pub- 
lic ; although Lord Cornwallis had prudent- 
ly stipulated that it should be " discreetly 
communicated to the Bishops, and should 
not find its way into the newspapers,"! 
When Mr. Crey, on the 25th of March, 
moved the House of Commons to resolve it- 
self into a Committee of the Whole House to 
take into consideration the slate of the na- 
tion, he referred to these written pledges, 
and roundly charged them with having been 
given without sincerity and without author- 
ity. " If Catholic freedom were offered to 



f This is the document which is printed in a cote 



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HISTORY OF mEL-CCD. 



the Irish as the price of their support of the Pitt for abandoning office in order to tlirow 



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Union, if the faith of the Government were 
pledged on that occasion, it forms the high- 
est species of criminality in Ministers, be- 
cause I am confident, said he, if such were 
the case, it w;is so pledged « itb rat the author- 
ity of the Kiug ; for I know llis Majesty is 
superior to the idea of swerviug in the slight- 
est degree from the observance of his word. 
This, tben, was a crime of the highest de- 
nomination in Ministers, and calls for iuqui- 
ry. I ask, if such promise were made, was 
Lord Clare and the Protestant Ascendancy 
Party made acquainted with it ? If so, they 
were a party to the delusion that was iu- 
led to be practiced ou the unhappy 
Catholic." 

Mr. Pitt, though no longer in office, sat 
ou the Ministerial side of the House — in 
fact, he was virtually Prime Minister all 



upon other men the business of making the 
peace of Amiens.* 

Tims within sis weeks after carrying the 
Union, Mr. Pitt, Lord Grenville, Mr. P/un- 
. is, Lord Melville,) Lord Cornwall^, and 
Lord Castlereagh, all went out of office. 
M .-. Aidiugtou, Speaker of the House of 
Commons, was the new Prime Minister ; 
and Lord Hardwicke was sent over as Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland. Mr. Pitt and his 
colleagues resigned, pledging themselves to 
support tbeir successors, (who declined to 
accept office without that support,) in 
an administration avowedly placed on im- 
placable hostility to that identical measure, 
which he scrupled not to de •• utial to 

the safety of the empire. 

The first measure which the Imperial Par- 
liament bestowed upon Ireland, was not au 




the while; — he replied to Mr. Grey, and I act of emancipation, bnt an act for snspend- 

touched as lightly as possible upon that part in_' the writ of Habeas Corpus and estab- 



of his speech which referred to Ireland. 
Concerning the famous written pledge, he 



lishing martial law. Lord Castlereagb had 

• ue time been preparing the materials 



said, " he had no part in the u _ that for the fabrication of a report of a s 

It was drawn up by Lord Castle- ', committee, to prove (contrary to the fact,) 

that rebellion still existed in Ireland, and, 
therefore, that there was a necessity for re- 
newing the act for suspending the Habeat 



paper. 

reagh. To the sentiments it contained, 
v/ien pro/trig interpreted, he, however, sub- 
scribed — farther, he would neither avow 
nor explain." He added : " As to the 



Corpus, which was about to expire on the 



particular expressions in the paper, he knew 2.nii of March. Accordingly, he had fixed 
nothing of them, haviug never seen it bo. 
it was published. He denied that any 
pledge had been given to the Catholics, 
either by himself, Lord Cornwaliis, or the 
IXuble Lord near him (Castlereagh). The 
Cart ... -»t very naturally have con- 

caved a hope, aud he himself had always 
thought, that in time that measure would be 
a consequence of the Union, because the dif- 
ficulties would be fewer than before." 

Mr. Pio.vden wrote to Lord Cornwaliis 
upon the subject : and his lordship, in his 
reply, stated that the paper (which has been 
■i the pledge to tue Catholics,) •' was 
hastilv siveu by him to Dr. Troy to be cir- 
culated amongst his friends with the view of 
preventing any immediate disturbances, or 
other bad effects." 

In short, the Catholics very soon per- 
eeived tuat they had been deluded, and un- 
derstood very well that their cause had been 
turned into a convenient pretext by Mr. 



the 20th of February for moving for a bill 
to enable the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland I i 
put martial law iu c force in such parts of 
Ireland as he should think proper. 

Tiie first act for this purpose was 
in the beginning of April, and was to expire 
in three months. Shortly after its pas.- ig 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by com- 
mand of His Majesty, laid before the II 

miaous copies aud extracts of papers, 

containing secret information received by 

His Majesty's government, relative to the 

Ireland, and proceedings of certain 

disaffected persons in both parts of the 

* It has always been considered by English s: 
men a small and easy matter to cheat the Irish. 
More than two hundred years before. Sir Francis 
Bacon, (afterwards Lord Bacon.) in his " Considera- 
tions Touching the Queen's Service in Ireland,' 1 
said : " Nothing cau be more lit than a treaty, or a 
shadow of a treaty, of a peace with Spain, which, 

:iks. should be in our p 
rumore terms, to the deluding of as wise a people as 
the Irish,'' 



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United Kingdom, which, upon his motion, 
were referred to a committee. This was a 
preconcerted plan for representing Ireland, 
unci collaterally the whole United Kingdom, 
us overrun with the spirit of Jacobinism. 
On no occasion was -Mr. 1'itt more vehement 
in his declamation against Jacobinism, appa- 
rently with a view of drawing off the public 
attention from the real authors of the na- 
tional disasters, by directing its indignation 
against the Jacobins, whose cause they es- 
sentially tended to strengthen. "It was," 
said he, "the inherent spirit of Jacobinism 
to ally itself with every disaster, to press 
into iis service every evil of the state, to 
wed itself to every misfortune of the country 
it inhabits, and to make them forerunners of 
its ruin." 

The report of this secret committee was 
well got up to effect Mr. Pitt's favorite pol- 
icy — that of " excitiDg alarm." It repre- 
sented the three kingdoms as infested with 
the spirit of rebellion, French principles, or 
"Jacobinism." It recited with great em- 
-phasis certain songs and toasts, which were 
alleged to be favorites with the seditious 
rabble. 

It reported the formation of new societies 
of Millenarians, New Jerusalem! tes, Spenson- 
ians, and other fanatics, whom it traced 
from London into Yorkshire, Lancashire, 
Nottingham, Scotland, and other neighbor- 
ing places ; but it extended them not to 
Ireland. Vet Ireland was not to be wholly 
omitted, where the report was incidentally, 
at least, calculated to justify the coercive 
measures intended for that part of the 
United Kingdom ; and the committee add- 
ed to their own surmises of the workings of 
these fanatics, that they borrowed their ideas 
from the Irish rebellion. " They saw in Ire- 
I the example of such a rebellion as they 
wished topromote here." They further pro- 
duced a printed address, signed Hybernicus, 
directed to Britons and fellow-citizens. The 
committee said, "they had thus detailed the 
proce dings of the disaffected, carried on in 
the metropolis, and as directed principally to 
its disturbance, but these would afford a 
very inadequate representation of the extent 
of the confederacy, yet in proceeding to ad- 
vert to the stale of the other parts of the 
country, and even of Ireland, they omitted to 



notice the concert which in some measure 
pervaded the whole." In other parts of the 
report, they lay stress upon the exaggerated 
Statements of some men, of the number ol 
the confederates, all trained to military exer- 
cise, which, including Ireland, amounted to 
one hundred and fifty thousand. They added 
that, the principal of these emissaries were 
represented as delegated from London, York, 
Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, and other 
considerable towns, as well as from Ireland 

The Committee added, that a new revolu- 
tionary association had been formed in Ire- 
land ; that a "Committee of Rebellion," 
composed of certain Irishmen, existed in 
Paris, and was negotiating with the French 
Government on the best mode of abolishing 
the British Constitution. 

This astounding report was received by 
Parliament as ample proof of all that it 
affirmed. 

When Lord Hobart, as Secretary of 
State for Ireland, introduced to the Lords 
the bill for continuing martial law in Ire- 
land, he observed, that he had not attempted 
to use any arguments to prove the necessity 
for passing the bill, because, " the report 
ou the face of it proved the necessity, and 
he thought their lordships would be more 
impressed with the arguments contained in 
the report than by any he could add." All 
the restrictive and coercive bills touching 
Ireland were passed under the still prevail- 
ing influence of Mr. Pitt and Lord Gren- 
ville ; the opposition to them was numeri- 
cally insignificant. During the first session 
of the Imperial Parliament, no question re- 
specting Ireland caused any difference be- 
tween the seceders and their successors. 
They both equally deprecated the very men- 
tion of Catholic Emancipation, and emulated 
each other in zeal for curbing and coercing 
the Irish people. 

The bill passed both Houses by immense 
majorities ; and the British Constitution 
was suspended, so far as respected Ireland. 
The Lord-Lieutenant was empowered to 
proclaim any pail, or the whole, of the 
island under martial law ; the act professed 

to I nly temporary, as these coercion laws 

for Ireland are always said to lie ; but they 
are almost always renewed before they ex- 
pire ; and thus, under one name or another, 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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" Insurrection Act," " Crime and Outrage 
Act," and the like, this coercive code has 
been substantially the law of Ireland from 
that day to the present. 

Another Irish measure, passed about the 
game time, was an act to regulate the office 
of Master of the Rolls in Ireland. Before 
the Union, this office was a mere sinecure, 
holden at the pleasure of the Crown by two 
Peers, (Lords Glandore and Carysfort, ) 
with considerable salaries. These had been 
promised a large compensation for the loss 
of their places, in case the Union should be 
carried. Henceforward it was to be an ef- 
ficient legal office, to be holden for life, with 
a suitable salary, in order to give the Irish 
Chancellor an opportunity of attending his 
Legislative duties in the House of Peers. 
It v/as warmly contended that, as the Com- 
missioners tor t he Rolls were removable at 
pleasure from the sinecures, they were en- 
titled to no compensation, as the Chancel- 
lor of the Exchequer and Prime-Sergeant 
had been. Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh 
justified the compensation ; because it had 
been promised by the Irish Parliament, and 
they were bounden in honor to make it 
good. 

" In fact," as Mr. Plowden bitterly ob- 
serves, " none but the Catholic supporters 
of the Union had to complain of Ministerial 
infidelity in the observance of previous stipu- 
lations and promises." 

There was one other who thought he had 
reason to complain. This was Lord Clare. 
The Irish Chancellor had for many years 
made himself the instrument — and a most 
able and thorough-going instrument of Mr. 
Piti's policy in Ireland. Scarcely had Lord 
Castlereagh himself beeu more efficient in 
accomplishing the Union ; and his lordship, 
who was naturally arrogant and presumptu- 
ous, evidently imagined that he was only 
promoting himself from a narrow provincial 
stage to the wide imperial theatre, where 
his audacity and powerful will would soon 
enable him to predominate in London, as he 
had done in Dublin. In the discussion of 
this bill to complete the great job of the 
Rolls Court, Mr. Pitt said, " it was highly 
desirable that the House of Lords should 
enjoy the benefit of that great luminary of 
the law, who had rendered such eminent sef- 



viees to his country." Mr. Grey replied, 
that much had been said that night in praise 
of the Irish Chancellor. " ne only knew 
his politics ; and those he highly disapprov- 
ed of. It had been already shown that 
night, that the noble lord vindicated the 
use of torture to extort confessions." Lord 
Clare, from his first arrival in England, put 
himself at the head of the opponents of the 
Catholic claims. Foreseeing that the new 
administration was to consist of men as- 
suming the arrogant appellation of the 
lung's friends, he attempted, by decrying 
his own country in the Imperial Parliament, 
to secure, as one of the King's friends, an 
influence in the councils of Great Britain. 

He failed in this unworthy ambition. He 
was reminded, in the House of Lords, that 
he was not now predominating over an as- 
sembly of Irish Peers. He was not at all 
consulted in the arrangements for the new 
Addington Administration. He returned 
to Ireland, consumed by disappointment, 
and did not scruple to express his bitter 
regret at the part he had taken in car- 
rying the Union. If he did regret that 
act, it was for his own sake alone, not for 
the sake of his country. 

He remained some time in London, in or- 
der to negotiate for some more efficient in- 
fluence in the British Cabinet than the 
Great Seal of Ireland was ever likely to 
give him. Mr. Pitt, who well knew that 
nobleman's insatiable .ambition, cautioned 
Mr. Addington against admitting him to a 
situation, in which, in case of resumption, 
(of which Mr. Pitt never lost sight,) he 
might meet a rival in the colleague. Lord 
Clare, foiled in his projects of British ambi- 
tion, his pride wounded by the speeches of the 
late Duke of Bedford, and some other of the 
Whig Lords in Parliament, who freely re- 
minded him, that Union had not transferred 
his dictatorial powers to the Imperial Par- 
liament, had, in disgust, formed the resolu- 
tion of withdrawing from scenes which he 
neither directed nor controlled. He had 
determined to return to his official situation 
in Ireland ; but, by the Union, the Irish 
Seal had been shorn of its lustre, and all 
political consequence. 

Lord Clare soon fell into bad health ; 
and he died within the year and day after 



/ 






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<•-/ 



LORD DAEDW1CKE YICEKOY PEACE OF AMIENS, 



that Act of Union which was to have 
crowned him with triumph. He died in 
January, 1802. His remains were interred 
with great pomp, in St. Peter's Church- 
yard, in Dublin. Some of the populace at- 
tempted ai the funeral to express their horror 
of the deceased by offering indignities to 
his corpse. 

It is singular that the only two eminent 
nun who were within the present century, 
borne to their graves amidst the hootings 

of the i pie, were the Karl of Clare and 

the Marquis of Londonderry, (Castlereagh,) 
the two able tools of British policy in ruin- 
ing the independence of their country. 

The Earl of Hardwicke arrived in Dub- 
lin, to assume his government, on the 25th 
of May. Lord Cornwallis proceeded to 
England in June ; and we next hear of him 
as the negotiator of the Peace of Amiens. 

The English and French people both 
eagerly desired peace. The First Consul, 
Buonaparte, was also sincerely desirous of 
giving repose to his countrymen, after so 
many years of bloody warfare. As Mr. 
Pitt and his high Anti-Jacobin friends were 
notoriously the party of war, it was believed 
in France that the change of Ministry be- 
tokened a disposition towards peace in the 
Councils of England. The First Consul 
was not aware that Mr. Pitt still continued 
really to govern the country ; and that he 
had made this new arrangement because he 
desired that other men than himself should 
make that treaty, and afterwards violate it. 
It is manifest that Napoleon Buonaparte 
did not at that time fully know how incom- 
patible, how mutually destructive were a 
French Government, the product of the re- 
volution — and an English oligarchy. He 
not only truly desired peace, but could see 
no reason why it might not be attained ; 
while Mr. Pitt and the Court were fully re- 
solved that, while England had a ship afloat, 
and a guinea to hire allies, the struggle 
inust go on. The momentary Peace of 
Amiens was intended to delude the French ; 
and Mr. Pitt ceased for a while to be the 
ostensible Minister, adroitly availing him- 
self of his pretended zeal fa- the Cath- 
olic question, by which he had deluded the 
Irish. 

The preliminaries of peace were signed at 




London, the 1st of October, in this year, 
1801. The treaty itself was signed at the 
city of Amiens, the 27th of March, 1802, 
between Fiance, Great Britain, Spain, and 
the BataTian Republic. France and Eng- 
land were represented by Joseph Buona- 
parte and Lord Cornwallis. England was 
to preserve, of her maritime conquests, the 
two islands of Ceylon, and Trinidad. France 
was to re-possess all her colouies. The Re- 
public of the Seven Islands was to be recog- 
nized. Malta was to be restored to the 
Order of the Knights. Spain, and the Ba- 
tavian Republic were to have back all their 
colonies, except Ceylon and Trinidad ; and 
the French were to evacuate Rome, Naples, 
and the Isle of Elba. A cessation of hos- 
tilities, by land and sea, had been already 
proclaimed ; and on the signature of the 
treaty, the people really began to taste the 
luxury of peace. 

The popular outcry for peace was now 
satisfied ; but as it had been resolved upon 
from the first that this repose should be of 
very short duration, pretexts began to be 
immediately sought for breaking the treaty. 
The French Government was making active 
naval preparations in the port of Brest, in- 
tended, ostensibly, for St. Domingo ; but it 
was assumed that the armament was really 
for Ireland. 

Similar naval preparations and military 
movements were on foot in England in the 
winter of 1802. In the spring of 1803, 
volunteering in England and the raising of 
yeomany corps in Ireland, were matters of 
public notoriety. 

In fact, the English Government was re- 
solved uever to give up the island of St. 
Malta ; and as this was a vital article of 
the treaty in the eyes of Buonaparte, it was 
evident that war must again break out. 
Lord Whitworth was sent over as Minister to 
France ; and from his dispatches to Lon- 
don, and those of Lord Hawkesbury in reply, 
it is easy to discover what were the true ob- 
stacles to the real establishment of peace. 

Buonaparte, hi a conference with Lord 
Whitworth, communicated to the British 
Government, 21st February, 1803, reiter- 
ated his complaints agiinst the British Gov 
eminent in reference to the retention of 
Malta, in direct violation of the terms of 



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history or n.i 



the treaty. He said: "Of the two, he 
would rather see us (the English) in pos- 
session of the Faubourg St. Antoine lhan of 
Malta." ... llo coinplaiued of the 
protection given in England to the assassin 
Georges, handsomely pensioned, and of his 
plans being permitted to be carried into ef- 
lect in France, and of two of his fellow-agents 
being sent into France by the migris to as- 
sassinate him (Buonaparte) and being then 
in custody. The two men, be referred to. 
were subsequently tried, and convicted of 
the crime they were charged with on their 
own confessions. 

In regard to the abuse launched on Buo- 
naparte in the English papers and French 
emigrant journals, published in Loudon, he 
(the First Consul) said to Lord Whit- 
worth : " The irritation he felt against 
England increased daily, because 
wind which blow from England brought 
nothing but enmity and hatred against him." 
1 ord Hawkesbury, in reply to Lord Whit- 
worth's communication, 18th February, 
ISO;:, made the following admission, for the 
Brst time explicitly and plainly expressed : 
•• \Yiih regard to that article o( the treaty 
which relates to Malta, the stipulations con- 
tained in it, owing to circumstances which 
it was not iu the power of His Majesty to 
control, had not boon found capable of 
execution.*' 

In Lord Whitworth*s communication (dat- 
ed February 91, ISOS,) to Lord Hawkesbury, 
an account is given >.>( an interview with 
Be ipai ■ when the latter, in reference to 
the proofs he had given o( a desire to main- 
tain peace, said ho wished to know what he 
had to gain by going to war with Eng- 
land. A descent was the only nn .. • 
fence he had. and if determined to attempt 
one, it must be made by putting himself at 
the head ^( an expedition. But how could 
it be supposed that, after having gained 
the height on which lie stood, he would 
• sk his life and reputation in si: 
ardous attempt, unless forced to it by 
necessity, when the chances were, that he 
and th< 

K t He talked much 

on the subject, but never affected to dt- 

ihe danger. He acknowledged there 



but still he was determined to attempt it, if 
war should be the consequence of the 
present discussion ; and, such was the dis- 
position of the troops, that army after 
army would be round for the enterprise. He 
concluded by stating, that France, with an 
army of four hundred and eighty thousand 
men, to be immediately completed, was 
ready for the most desperate enterprise ; 
that England, with her Beet, was mistress of 
the seas, which he did not think he should 
be able to equal in ten ;,.i;\ Two such 
countries, by a proper understanding, might 
::i the world, but by their strifes might 
overturn it 

On the 9th of March, ISO:., a me 
from the King was delivered to the Parlia- 
ment, wherein II is Majesty " thinks it 
necessary to acquaint the House o( Com- 
mons that, as very considerable military 
preparations were carrying on in the ports of 
France and Holland, he had judged it expe- 
dient to adopt additional measun • 
caution for the security o( his dominion?." 

Lord Whitworth, in March, by tl 
structions o\ his Government, demanded an 
explanation of the motives and objects ot 
the warlike preparations in the French 
ports, and the reply (not official) o( M. 
Talleyrand, was said to have been short and 
not satisfactory j " It was the will of the 
First Consul." Buonaparte, on the other 
hand, on the 11th of March, at a lew. 
the Tuillerics, attended by the different am- 
atdors and a great number of distin- 
guished persons, on entering the grand sa- 
loon seemed violently agitated, and appeared 
to be conversing with his attendants, or 
rather thinking aloud, for the following 
words, pronounced iu a very audible voice, 
were heard by all the persons iu the audi- 
ence chamber: '■Vengeance will fall on 
that power which will be the cause of the 
war " He approached the British An; - 
l ird Whitworth, and said : " 5*ou 
know my lord, that a I storm has 

arisen between England and France" 1 
Whitworth said it was to be hoped 
storm would be dissipated without any seri- 
snci s. Buouaparte replied : " It 
will be dissipated when England shall have 
evacuated Malta ; if not the cloud would 



were a hundred chances I - him ;| burst and the bolt must fall. The King of 



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FIRST YEAR OF THE UNION. 




England bad promised by treaty to evacuate 
thai place- and who wbb to violate the faith 
of treaties ? " 

All this while, Mr. Pitt w:is out of office ; 
and it was given oul that his health was so 
shattered as to render him quite incapable 
di the cares and labors of public busine ; 
yet, in reality, while the London I 'hronidt 
officially announcing his great suffer- 
ings, Mr. Pitt had never been so intensely 
and indefutignbly occupied with state affairs 
us he wa al the verj time of these negotia- 
tion! * There can be no reasonable doubt 
that he directi d and governed them from 
point to point, 

On the loth of May, the Court of London 
presented certain new projects plainly inad- 
n ible ; making further demands on 
France, and Baying nothing of the surrender 
of Malta. The new conditions being re- 
jected, Lord Whitworth demanded his pass- 
> , iii order to quil the country. 

On the 15th of May, 1803, His Britannic 
Majesty sent a message to Parliament, an- 
nouncing the recall of the British Ambas- 
sador from Paris, and the departure of the 

French Ambassador fi Loudon. The 

declaration of hostilities with France was 
pnbli hedin Tht Ga ette.ot 18th May, 1803. 

Mr. Pitt's health was immediately re- 
stored. On the 23d of May, there was an 
animated debate in the House on an address 
to the King, pledging the House to support 
him in the vigorous prosecution of the war. 
On that night, the night of the debate of the 
23d of May, Mr.Pitl was found in his place 
in Parliament, and it is hardly necessary to 
add, that his " voice was still for war." 
Perhaps, greater vigor of mind or body was 
never exhibited by him than on thai occa 
Mun. The ex-Minister was himself again — 
war was about to be let loose on the world, 
and all the principles of evil eemed concen- 
trated iii the unholy exultation with which 

the prospect Of war was hailed on that, 
occasion. In the heat of lhs passion, he 
reviled Buonaparte in the most vehement 
terms of invective ; he spoke of the First 
Consul as " a sea of liquid fire, which 
destroyed everything which was unfortu- 

• Doctor Maddea ( TT. 1 Third Series, n. .110,) 
makes this statement on the authority ol Lady He* 
ter Sunliopc , Mr. Pitt's niece and private secretary. 

63 ' 




nute enough to come in contact with 
it." It then only remained for honor- 
able members to express a hope that" the 
only man in the empire qualified to conduct 
the war to a successful issue" should be re- 
called to the Councils of his Sovereign. 

Mr. Pitl resumed in May, 1804, the su- 
preme direction of public affairs as Prime 
Minister He made no' stipulation with the 
King concerning the Catholic claims ; nor 
did he ever again offend his Sovereign's ear 
upon this subject, nor urge bim to "violate 
his coronation oath " by emancipating lour 
millions of his subjects. 

Mr. Pitt's first greal task now was to 
form that gigantic coalition of European 
Powers against France ; and occupied by 
these mighty projects he thought no more of 
In land unless when she seemed to need 
more cdercion. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

1802— 1803. 

First Year of the Union— Distress in Ireland— Biot la 
Dublin ln-li Exiles in Franco Renewed Hopes of 
French Aid -The two Emracte, MacNevcn and 
O'Connor in France— Apprehensions of Invasion in 
England— Robert Emmet comi i from France to 
Ireland— 'His Associates— His Plans Miles Byrne — 
Despard's Conspiracy in England I. t' Prepa- 
rations—Explosion in Patrick Street — The 23d of 

July — Failure — HI ly Biot Murder of Lord Kil- 

warden — Emmet Bends Miles Byrne to France- 
Retires to Wicklow Returns to Dublin -Arrested 
Tried — Convicted--Hanged— Fate of Russell. 

The first year of the Union was, for lie- 
land, a year of severe distress. The crops 
of 1801, had in great measure failed ; and 
as the people then depended or subsistance 
chiefly upon agriculture, as they do still, the 
usual results ensued. Hunger and hardship 
produced discontent, and in some places dis- 
order also. The fair promises of immediate 
prosperity which was to have followed the 
Union, were not realized. Even trade and 
commerce were languishing. Mr. Foster, 
late Speaker, stated, in bis place in the Im- 
perial Parliament, that in 1801, the decrea e 
of exported linen was five million yards. 
The taxes were increasing, as the means of 
paying them diminished ; for Ireland had 
now to provide for the charges ol that im- 
mense debt which had been contracted for 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



slaughtering her people and purchasing her 
Parliament. Mr. Foster, in the same speech 
mentioned — that, although it had beer, 
acknowledged that the expenses of the 
current year would be considerably less 
than they had been in the preceding year, 
yet a million more was borrowed for the 
present than for the last year. The infer- 
ence to be drawn from that measure, (for 
various Union purposes,) was too obvious to 
mention. The revenue was then collected at 
a much lighter rate of expense, than it had 
been in 11S2, when it was at £11 12s. 4d. 
per cent. The revenues of the Post Office 
were, at the time he was speaking, collected 
at the enormous expenditure of £224 per 
cent, In !>00, the amount of grants, 
pensions, &c, on that score, was £34,000 ; 
in 1802, £51,000 ; and this is what he 
called "a falling year." Then the Catholics, 
whose eyes were at length opened to the 
gross deception of which they had been 
victims, felt sore and disappointed ; es- 
pecially as the persecuting Orange Societies 
were now greatly multiplied, aud became 
each day, by direct encouragement of the 
Government and of a Royal Duke, more 
insolent aud aggressive. A serious riot 
took place in Dublin. The anniversary com- 
memoration of the battle of Aughnm, on 
the 12th of July, was in 1802 solemnized 
with more than ordinary pomp. The statue 
of King William, in College Green, was most 
superbly decorated with orange colors, aud 
several corps of yeomanry paraded round it 
in the course of the day. Ju the evening, 
the conduct of the yeomanry, and the spirit 
of this ill-judged and mischievous commemo- 
ration, so worked on the popular feelings, 
that the most serious consequences were ap- 
prehended. Mr. Alderman Stamer, failed 
in his endeavors to prevent outrages ; some 
yeomeu were beaten to the ground. Major 
Swan was knocked down aud severely wound- 
ed : nor was the mob dispersed, until 
Alderman Darley arrived with a large party 
of the Castle guard. Some of the populace 
were taken and severely punished. At- 
tempts were made to raise this expression of 
popular soreness into a general spirit of dis- 
affection, and a renovation of rebellion. 
Nothing, however, could be certainly traced 
beyond the temporary and local outrage 




upon the popular feeling, from this senseless 
annual ovation of the Ascendancy, lately 
rendered more poignantly provoking by the 
ferocity and growing power of the Orange 
societies. 

On the whole, therefore, when the insidi- 
ous negotiations of the English Govern- 
ment, preparatory to the violation of the 
treaty of Amiens, were going forward in 
London and Paris, the mass of the Irish 
people was still thoroughly disaffected ; and 
persons connected with the Government were 
of opinion that, immediately on the fresh 
outbreak of war with France, a new French 
expedition, and on a larger scale than that 
of Hoche, would be dispatched to Ireland ; 
in which case there was no doubt of a gen- 
eral rising in the island. 

The two Emmets, O'Connor, and many 
other Irish exiles, were then on the Conti- 
nent ; aud were in communication with the 
First Consul, provisionally, with a view to 
future operations in case of the renews! of 
the war, which theu seemed highly probable. 
Robert Emmet was then about twenty-four 
years of age. lie had seen the atrocities of 
'98, the frauds and villauies by which the 
Union was accomplished : he saw his un- 
happy country stiil groaning under martial 
law — the great majority of his compatriots 
shut out from the Constitution, and by 
means of packed juries and Orange mag- 
istrates effectually deprived of the protectiou 
of law. His ardent spirit burned to re- 
dress these wrongs, and to do at least what 
one man might, to rouse the people for one 
more manly effort The purity and elevation 
of his motives have never been questioned, 
even by his enemies. What he desired and 
longed for with all the intensity of his pas- 
sionate nature, was simply to see his people 
invested with the ordiuary civil right of 
human beings, leading peaceful and honor- 
able lives uuder the protecting shelter of a 
native Legislature, aud having a law over 
them which they might revereuce aud obey, 
not curse aud abhor.* 

* Lord Castlereagh, a young man like Robert 
Emmet, but more " prudent," thus describes Emmet 
and his insurrection, after the danger was over, in a 
speech in Parliament: "In place of a formidable con- 
spiracy fraught with danger to the existiug Govern- 
ment, it was only the wild and contemptible project 
of Mr. Emmet, a young man, of a heated and enthu- 



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Robert Emmet passed several months of 
the years 1800 and lhOl on the Continent 
and Peninsula, the greater part of that time 
on the tour in which he visited the south of 
France, Switzerland, and some parts of 
Spain. On his return from this tour, he 
visited Amsterdam and Brussels, where his 
brother, T. A. Emmet, had been sojourning 
since his liberation from Fort George, and 
banishment, in June, 1S02. 

li was impossible for Irishmen to be in 
France or Belgium in that year without 
perceiving the evident symptoms of a new 
and formidable struggle approaching. The 
English Minister had already refused to give 
up Malta ; and formidable military and 
naval preparations were rapidly advancing 
both in France and in England. Equally 
impossible was it for the exiled United Irish- 
men not to turn with anxious hope to this 
new conjuncture of affairs. Doctor Mac- 
Neven was then in France, as well as Tone's 
friend Thomas Russell. With whom the idea 
originated of entering upon a negotiation 
with the French Government does not seem 
clear ; but certain it, is that Robert Emmet, 
iu the summer of 1802, had interviews both 
with Buonaparte aud Talleyrand. 

His desigu was, then, based on the ex- 
pi ctation of a speedy rupture of the amica- 
ble relations between Great Britain ami 
France, on a knowledge of extensive naval 
preparations iu the northern seaports of 
France, and the impression left on his mind, 
by his interview with Buonaparte, and his 
frequent communications with Talleyrand, 
that those preparations were for an invasion 
of England, which was likely to be at- 
tempted iu August, 1803 ; on the knowledge, 
communicated to him by Dowdall, of a move- 
ment being determined on by the Secret 
Society of England, with which Colonel 

Biastic imagination, who inheriting a property of 
; '"»> from his fattier, which was entirely at his own 
disposal, though he could not dispose of it to more 
advantage, than in an attempt to overturn the Gov- 
ernment <»f his country." 

What a contrast between these two Irishmen ! 
Castlereagh certainly was not of ■■ a heated and en- 
thusiastic imagination " lie did not invest his patri- 
nionj in pikes. The "in- sold his country to her 
enemies, and was laden Willi riches and honors. 
The other, who spent all he possessed, in an effort to 
redeem that coontry, perished on a gibbet, and the 
tog* oi Thomas street lapped his blood. 



Pespard was connected ; on the assurance 
of support and pecuniary assistance from 
very influential persons in Ireland ; and, 
lastly, on the concurrence of several of the 
Irish leaders in Paris. |H? 

The late Lord Cloncurry iuformed Doctor 
Madden that he dined in company with 
Robert Emmet and Surgeon Lawless, the 
day before the departure of the former for 
•Ireland. " Emmet spoke of his plans with 
extreme enthusiasm ; his features glowed 
with excitement, the perspiration burst 
through the pores, and ran down his fore- 
head." Lawless was thoroughly acquainted 
with his intentions, and thought favorably 
of them ; but Lord Cloncurry considered the 
plans impracticable, and was opposed to 
them. Poctor MacNcven, Hugh Wilson, 
Russell, Byrne, William aud Thomas Corbett, 
Hamilton, and Sweeney, were intimate and 
confidential friend of Robert Emmet, as 
well as of his brother — several of them, 
there is positive proof, concurred in the at- 
tempt. All of them, it may be supposed, 
were cognizant of it. All their surviving 
friends are agreed on one point, that the 
project did not .originate with Robert 
Emmet. 

The letters of T. A. Emmet, at this period, 
establish the fact that, iu the autumn and 
wiuter of 1802, the leading United Irish- 
men then on the Contiueut, in the event of 
a rupture between France and England, 
were bent on renewing their efforts, and that 
they looked upon the struggle iu Ireland as 
suspended, but not relinquished. q^% 

That this also was the opinion of the 
English Government, is equally certain. 
After the declaration of war, a number of 
intercepted letters, found on board the East (/_ «-\ ' 

Indiaman, Admiral Aplin, captured by the 
French, and published in the Moniteur, by 
the Government, afford abundant proof of 
the panic which prevailed iu England, and 
of the expectation of invasion that was 
general at that period. Very serious ap- 
prehensions were expressed in these letters 
of the results of an invasion in Ireland. It 
was stated, in a letter of Lord Charles Ben- 
tinck to his brother, Lord William Beutinck, 
Governor of Madras: "If Ireland be not 
attended to, it will be lost ; these rascals, 
(an endearing, familiar, gentlemanlike-way 







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of describing the people of Ireland,) " are as 
ripe as ever for rebellion." 

Iu an extract of a letter to General Clin- 
ton, of the 2d of June, we find the follow- 
ing passage : " I have learned from them, 
(Irish people in England,) with regret, that 
the lower classes of the men in Ireland were 
more disaffected than ever, even more than 
during the last rebellion, and that if the 
French could escape from our fleet, and 
land their troops in the north of Ireland, 
they would be received with satisfaction, 
and joined by a great number." 

In a letter of Lord Grenville to the Mar- 
quis of Wellesley, dated the 12th of July, 
1S03, we find the following passage : "I 
am not certain whether the event of the 
war, which our wise Ministers have at last 
declared, may not have induced them to beg 
vou to continue your slay in India some time 
longer. I hope nothing, however, will pre- 
vent me from having the pleasure of seeing 
you next year, supposing at that period that 
you hare slilt a country to revisit." 

Letter from Mr. Finers to General Lake, 
July 14th : "The invasion, which has been 
so long the favorite project of the First Con- 
sul, will certainly take place." 

Letter from one of the Directors of the 
East India Company, Thomas Faulder, to 
Mr. J. Ferguson Smith, Calcutta, August 
3d : "I have heard from the first authority, 
that if the French can land in Ireland with 
some troops, they will be immediately joined 
by one hundred thousand Irish." * 

Robert Emmet set out for Ireland in the 
beginning of October, 1S0'2, and arrived in 
Dublin in the course of the same mouth. 
His brother, Thomas Addis, was then in 
Brussels. His father, the worthy Doctor 
Emmet, and his mother were then residing 
at Casino, near Milltown ; and here Robert 
remained some weeks in seclusion. Gradu- 
ally and cautiously he put himself in com- 
munication with those whom he knew to be 
favorable to his enterprise — especially the old 
United Irishmen of '9S. The principal per- 
sons concerned with him were — Thomas Rus- 
sell, formerly Lieutenant of the Sixty fourth 
Regiment of foot; John Allen, of the firm 
of Allen & Hickson, woolen-drapers, Dame 

• The above extracts are given by Dr. Madden. — 
XT. 1. Third Series, p. 315. 




street, Dublin ; Philip Long, a general mer- 
chant, residing at No. i Crow street ; Heury 
William Hamilton, (married to Russell's 
niece,) of Enniskillen, barrister-at-law ; Wil- 
liam Dowdall, of Mullingar, (natural son 
of Hussey Burgh, (formerly Secretary to the 
Dublin Whig Club ;) Miles Byrne, of Wex- 
ford ; Colonel Lamm, of the County Kil- 

dare ; Carthy, a gentleman farmer, 

of Kildare ; Malachy Delany, the son of a 
landed proprietor, County Wicklow ; the 
Messrs. Perrot, farmers, County Kildare ; 
Thomas Wylde, cotton manufacturer, Cork 
street; Thomas Lenahan, a farmer, of Crew 
Hill, County Kildare ; John Hevey, a tobac- 
conist, of Thomas street ; Denis Lambert 

Redmond, a coal factor, of Dublin ; 

Brauagan, of Irishtown, timber merchant ; 
Joseph Aliburn, of Kilmacmi, Windy Har- 
bor, a small landholder ; Thomas Frayne, 
a farmer, of Boven, County of Kildare ; 
Nicholas Gray, of Wexford. f 

Some other persons of more humble * - ank, 
tradesmen, whose services would be required 
in the preparations, are enumerated by Doctor 
Madden : James Hope, of County Antrim ; 
Michael Quigley, a master bricklayer, of 
Rathcoffy, in the County Kildare; Henry 
Howley, a master carpenter, who had been 
engaged in the former rebellion ; Felix 
Rourke, of Rathcoole, a clerk in a brewery 
in Dublin, who had been engaged in the 
former rebellion ; Nicholas Stafford, a baker, 
of James street ; Bernard Duggan, a work- 
ing cotton manufacturer, of the County 
Tyrone, who had been engaged in the for- 
mer rebellion ; Michael Dwyer, the well- 
known Wicklow insurgent, who, along with 
Holt and Miles Byrne, had kept up their 
resistance amidst the glens and mountains 
of Wicklow. 

The plau of Robert Emmet's insurrection 
was, while agents were quietly organizing 
both the city and county, to make secret 
preparations in the city of Dublin itself; — 
tlu-n, when all was ready, to make one 
spring at the Castle, to seize upon the 
authorities, and give the signal for a gem ral 
insurrection from Dublin Castle. There is 
'good military authority for approving this 

t Pr M.ulden adds the names of Lord Wycombe 
au.l John Keogh, as favorable to the enterprise, not 
actually concerned in it. 



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ROBERT EMMET COMES FROM FRANCE TO IRELAND. 



plan of a rising in Ireland ; and it certainly 
might well 'nave succeeded, but for one fatal 
accident. The gallant Miles Byrne, after 
many a campaign, as a French officer, in 
every quarter of Enrope, deliberately, in his 
latter days, avowed his preference for Em- 
met's -wheme to every other that could be 
devised in the circumstances of Ireland. 
He says, in closing his own narrative of that 
part of his career : — 

" I shall ever feel proud of the part I 
took with the lamented Robert Emmet. I 
have often asked myself, how could I have 
acted otherwise, Beeing all his views and 
plans for the independence of my country 
so much superior to anything ever imagined 
before on the subject? They were only 
frustrated by accident, and the explosion of 
a depot, and, as I have always said, when- 
ever Irishmen think of obtaining freedom, 
Robert Emmet's plans will be their best 
guide. First, to take the capital, and then 
the provinces will burst out and raise the 
some .standard immediately." * 
1 Miles Byrne himself, after being much 
sought after by the Government, on accouut 
of his part in the Wexford insurrection, and 
after many escapes, was, in 1*02, under a 
feigned name, employing himself as a mea- 
surer of timber, in the timber-yard of his 
step-brother, Kennedy ; but still keeping up 
his connections with the remnant of Wex- 
ford rebels, and hoping for better times. 
Here, while he was one day measuring logs, 
news came of the Peace of Amiens. "I 
felt," he says, "unnerved and disappointed 
at the news of the peace. I had been liv- 
ing in hopes that ere the war terminated, 
something good would be done for poor 
Ireland." 

Soon after the arrival of Robert Emmet, 
we find him in close communication with 
Air. Byrne. 

In reporting their first conversation, Mr. 
Byrne gives Iris unimpeachable testimony 
wilh regard to the real views of Emmet, 
ou d his motives for engaging in the eutcr- 
prise, niei his anxious care to avoid French 

domination as well as to abolish that of 
England, The Memoir says :— 

" Mr Emmet soou told me his plans ; he 



said he wished to be acquainted with all 
those who had escaped in the war of '98, and 
who continued still to enjoy the confidence 
of the people ; that he had been inquiring 
since his return, and even at Paris ; he 
was pleased to add that he had heard my 
name mentioned amongst them, &c. He 
entered into many details of what Ireland 
had to expect from France, in the way of 
assistance, now that that country was so 
energetically governed by the First Consul, 
Buonaparte, who feared (he, Buonaparte,) 
that the Irish people might be changed, and 
careless about their independence, in conse- 
quence of the union with England. It be- 
•ame obvious, therefore, that this impression 
;hould be removed as soou as possible. Ro- 
bert Emmet told me the station his brother 
held in Paris, and that the different mem- 
bers of the Government there frequently 
consulted him ; all of them were of opinion 
that a demonstration should be made by the 
Irish patriots to prove that they were as 
ready as ever to shake off the English yoke. 
To which Mr. Thomas Addis Emmet re- 
plied, it would be cruel to commit the poor 
Irish people again, and to drive them into 
another rebellion before they received assist- 
ance from France, but at the same time, he 
could assure the French Government, that a 
secret organization was then going on 
throughout Ireland, but more particularly 
in the city of Dublin, where large depots 
of arms, and of every kind of ammunition 
were preparing with the greatest secrecy, 
as none but the tried meu of 179S were 
intrusted with the management of those 
stores and depots. 

" After giving me this explanation, Mr. 
Robert Emmet added, 'if the brave and 
unfortunate Lord Edward Fitzgerald ami 
his associates felt themselves justified in 
seeking to redress Ireland's grievances by 
taking the field, what must not be our just- 
ification, now that not a vestige of self. 
government exists, in consequence of the 
accursed Union ; that until this most bar- 
barous, fraudulent transaction took place, 
from time to time, in spite of corruption, use- 
ful local laws were enacted for Ireland. 
Now, seven-eighths of the population have 
no right to send a member of their body to 
represent them, even in a foreign parlia- 






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HISTORY OF IRELAND 



ruent, and the other eighth part of the popu- 
lation are the tools and task-masters, acting 
for the cruel English Government and its 
Irish Ascendancy ; — a monster still worse, if 
possible, than foreign tyranny.' 

" Mr. Emmet mentioned again the prom- 
ises obtained from the chief of the French 
Government, given to himself, his brother, 
and other leaders, that, in the event of a 
French army landing in Ireland, it should 
be considered as an auxiliary one, and re- 
ceived on the same principle ax General llo- 
chambeau and his army were received by 
the American people, when fighting for their 
independence. He added : ' that though 
uo one could abhor more than he did the 
means by which the First Consul came to 
lie at the bead of the French nation, still he 
was convinced, that this great military chief 
would find it his interest to deal fairly by the 
Irish nation, as the best and surest way to 
obtain his ends with England ; he, therefore, 
thought the country should be organized 
and prepared for those great events, which 
were now inevitable. That, as for himself, 
he was resolved to risk his life, and to stake 
the little fortune he possessed, for the accom- 
plishment of those preparations so necessary 
for the redemption of our unfortunate couu- 
try from the hands ot a cruel enemy.' " 

It was while Mr. Emmet was making his 
preparations in Dublin, that an English rev- 
olutionary conspiracy was detected and 
broken up in London. A certain Colonel 
Despard and thirty other persons were ar- 
rested, on a charge of high treason, at a 
public house in Lambeth, the loth of No- 
vember, 1802. By some of the witnesses, it 
appeared that Government was cognizant of 
the treasonable proceedings of Despard and 
his associates six mouths previous to their 
arrest ; that spies were set on them, and 
Suggested acts in some cases to them which 
were adopted ; that they had printed pages 
to the following effect: "Constitution, the 
independence of Great Britain and Ireland ; 
an equalization of civil, political, and reli- 
gious rights ; an ample provision for the 
families of the heroes who shall fall in the 
contest ; a libera] reward for distinguished 
merit. These are the objects for which we 
contend. We swear to be united in the 
aw ful presence of God." 




February 7, 1803, Colonel Despard was 
tried at the Surrey Assizes, before Lord 
Ellenborough, on a charge of high treason, 
conspiring to assassinate the King, &c. Of 
this last charge there was no evidence, but 
it plainly appeared that Despard, as well as 
Robert Emmet, had been encouraged to 
make his attempt by the French Govern- 
ment ; which very naturally desired to cre- 
ate for the English Government as much 
embarrassment as possible at home. Des- 
pard was convicted and hung. 

In the meantime, Emmet was quietly 
collecting anus and forming depots of them 
at several points in Dublin. In January, 
1803, his good father, Doctor Robert Em- 
met, died, and was buried in the churchyard 
of St. Peter's, Auugier street. Robert 
could not even attend his father's funeral ; 
because his presence in Dublin was intend- 
ed to be a secret ; and he knew there 
was a warrant for his apprehension in the 
hands of .Major Sirr, since early in the jjear 
1800.* He was proceeding actively with 
his preparations. Miles Byrne and others 
were busy in getting pikes, pistols, and 
blunderbusses, manufactured and ammuni- 
tion hud in. Emmet invented a species of 
explosive machines, consisting of beams of 
wood bored by a pump augur, and filled 
with powder and small stones, intended to 
be exploded in the face of advancing troops 
at the moment of action. Large quantities 
of pikes were forged and mounted, and 
carried from their places of manufacture to 
the depots in hollow logs prepared for their 
reception, and which were drawn through 
the streets like ordinary lumber. 

It is not a little strange that the Irish Go* 
eminent, usually so vigilant and suspicious, 
seems to have had no knowledge of these for- 
midable arrangement. This was not for want 
of warnings, and reports of spies; but the 
Government did not believe them. And it is 
no wonder that the executive was so incredu- 
lous, because there had not, probably, been 
one week, tor the past half century when the 
Government had not received some alarming 
intelligence of this nature. Plainly, also, the 
information was not so precise as to indicate 
persons and places ; so that uo interruption 

* Madden discovers this fact hi " Sirr's Papers," 
deposited ia Truuty College Library. 



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EXPLOSION IN PATRICK STREET. 



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was given to the arrangements ; and the 
33d of July, 1803, was fixed for the Out- 
break. 

Before thai day arrived a circumstance 
occurred which threatened to ruin all : — 

On 'he Saturday night week previous to 
t!ic turnout, an explosion of some combusti- 
bles took place in tlie depot of Patrick 
street, which gave some alarm in the neigh- 
borhood. .Major Sirr came to examine the 
house — previous to his coming, some one 
removed the remaining powder; arms, kc, 
and all matters which were movable in the 
place, notwithstanding some obstruction 
given by the watchman. Other arms were 
secreted on the premises, and were not dis- 
covered until .some time afterwards. It was 
concluded that the affair was only some 
chemical process, which had accidently 
caused tl xplosion. 

The accident does not seem to have placed 
any serious obstacle in the way of the enter- 
prise. Miles Byrne says : — 

"Now the final plan to be executed, con- 
-isi. d principally in taking the Castle, whilst 
the Pigeon House, Island Bridge, the Royal 
Barracks, and the old Custom House Bar- 
racks were to be attacked, and if not sur- 
prised and taken, they were to be blockaded, 
and intrenchments thrown up before them. 
Obstacles of every kind to be created 
through the streets, to prevent the English 
cavalry from charging. The Castle once 
taken, undaunted men, materials, implements 
of every description, would be easily found in 
all the streets in the city, not only to impede 
the cavalry, but to prevent infantry from 
passing through them. 

" As I was to be one of these persons de- 
signed to cooperate with Robert Emmet in 
taking the Castle of Dublin, I shall here re- 
late precisely, the part which was allotted to 
me in this daring enterprise : I was to 
have assembled early in the evening of Satur- 
day, the 23d of duly, 1803, at the house of 
Denis Lambi it Redmond, on the Coal Quay, 
the Wexford and Wicklow men, to whom I 
was to distribute pikes, anus and ammunition, 
and then a little before dusk, I was to send 
one of the men, well known to Mr. Emmet, 
to tell lino that we were at our post, 
armed and ready to follow him ; men were 
placed in the house in Ship street, ready to 



seize on the entrance to the Castle on that 
side, at the same moment the principal gate 
WOnld be taken. 

"Mr. Emmet was to leave the depot at 
Thomas street at dusk, with six hackney 
coaches, in each of which, six men were to 
be placed, armed with jointed pikes and 
blunderbusses, concealed under their coats. 
The moment the last- of these coaches had 
passed Redmond's house where we were to be 
assembled, we were to sally forth and follow 
them quickly into the Castle courtyard, 
and there to seize and disarm all t he sentries, 
and to replace them instantly with our own 
men, &<•. 

Emmet, after the explosion in Patrick 
street, took up his abode in the depot in 
Marshalsea lane. There he lay at, night on 
a mattrass, surrounded by all the implements 
of death, devising plans, turning over in his 
mind all the fearful chances of the intended 
struggle, well knowing that his life was at 
the mercy of upwards of forty individuals, 
who had been, or still were employed in the 
depots ; yet confident of success, exaggerat- 
ing its prospects, extenuating the difficulties 
which beset him, judging of others by him- 
self, thinking associates honest wdio seemed 
to be so, confiding in their promises, and 
animated, or rather inflamed by a burning 
sense of the wrongs of his country, and au 
enthusiasm in his devotion to what he con- 
sidered its rightful cause 

The morning of the 23d of July, found 
Emmet and the leaders in whom he confided 
not of one mind ; there was division in their 
councils, confusion in the depots, consterna- 
tion among the citizens who were cognizant 
of what was going on, and treachery track- 
ing Robert Emmet's footsteps, dogging hira 
from place to place, unseen, unsuspected, 
but perfidy nevertheless, embodied in the 
form of patriotism, employed in deluding its 
victim, making the most of its foul means of 
betraying its unwary victims, and couuting 
already on the ultimate rewards of its 
treachery. Portion after portion of each 
plan of Robert Emmet was defeated, as he 
imagined, by accident, or ignorance, or neg- 
lect, on the part of his agents. "But it 
never occurred to him," says Madden, "that 
he was betrayed, that every design of his 
was frustrated, every project neutralized, as 



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effectually as if an enemy had stolen into 
the camp.' " 

There is, however, no satisfactory evi- 
dence of treason, on the part of any of those 
whom he trusted. The rest of this sad tale 
is soon told : — 

Various consultations were held on the 
23d, at the depot, in Thomas street, at Mr. 
Long's, in Crow steeet, and Mr. Allen's, in 
College Green, and great diversity of opinion 
prevailed with respect to the propriety of an 
immediate rising, or a postponement of the 
attempt. Emmet and Alien were iu favor 
of the former, and, indeed, in the posture of 
their affairs, no other course was left, except 
the total abandonment of their project, 
which it is only surprising had not been 
determined on. The Wicklow men, under 
Dwyer, on whom great dependence was 
placed, had not arrived ; the man who bore 
the order to him from Emmet neglected his 
duty, and remained at Rathfarnham. The 
Kildare men came in, and were informed, 
evidently by a traitor, that Emmet had 
postponed his attempt, and they went back 
at live o'clock in the afternoon. The Wex- 
ford men came in, and, to the number of two 
hundred or three hundred, remained in town 
the early part of the night to take the part 
assigned to them, but they received no orders. 
A large body of men were assembled at the 
Broadstone, ready to act when the rocket 
signal agreed upon should be given, but no 
such signal was made. 

It was evident that Emmet, to the last, 
counted on large bodies of men at his dis- 
posal, and that he was deceived. At eight 
o'clock in the evening, he had eighty men 
nominally under his command, collected in 
the depot iu Marshalsea lane. 

A man rushed in to announce that 
troops were at that moment marching upon 
them, which was not true; yet it seems to 
have been believed by Emmet and the rest. 
It was then he resolved to sally out, with 
such poor following as he had, march upon 
the Castle, and, if necessary, meet death by 
the way. Even this happiuess — of dying 
with arms in his hands — was not reserved 
for the unfortunate gentleman. 

The motley assembly of armed men, some 
of them intoxicated, marched along Thomas 
street, with their unhappy leader at their 



<* 



head, who was endeavoring to maintain 
some order, with the assistance of Stafford, 
a man who remained close by him through* 
out this scene, and faithful to the last. It 
was now about half-past nine, and quite 
dark. The sequel is painful to tell ; yet it 
must be told. Doctor Madden says :— 

" The stragglers in the rear soon com- 
menced acts of pillage and assassination. 
The first murderous attack committed in 
Thomas street was not that made on Lord 
Kil warden, as we find by the following ac- 
count in a newspaper of the day : — 

" ' A Mr. Leech, of the Custom House, 
was passing through Thomas street in a 
hackney coach, when he was stopped by the 
rabble ; they dragged him out of the coach, 
without any inquiry, it seemed enough that 
he was a respectable man ; he fell on his 
knees, implored their mercy, but all in vain ; 
they began the work of blood, and gave 
him a frightful pike wound in the groin. 
Their attention was then diverted from their 
humbler victim by the approach of Lord 
Kilwarden's coach. Mr. Leech then sue 
ceeded in creeping to Yicar street watch 
house, where he lay a considerable time ap- 
parently dead from loss of blood, but hap- 
pily recovered from his wound.'" 

Now, of all the judges, and other high 
official persons in Ireland, in those days, not 
one was so estimable, so good, and humane, 
as Lord Kilwarden, Chief Justice of the 
King's Bench. He had often stood between 
an innocent prisoner and the death to which 
his enemies had already doomed him. Most 
unfortunately, just as the mad mob of riot- 
ers had got beyond the control of their 
leader, and had already dipped their hands 
in blood, a private carriage was seen moving 1/* € 

along that part of Thomas street which 
leads to Vicar street. It was stopped and 
attacked ; Lord Kilwarden, who was inside * 
with his daughter and his nephew, the Rev. 
Richard Wolfe, cried out : " It is I, Kit- 
warden, Chief Justice of the King's Bench." 
A man, whose name is said to have been 
Shannon, rushed forward, plunged his pike 
into his lordship, crying out : " You are the 
man I want." A portmanteau was then 
taken out of the carriage, broken open, and 
rifled of its contents ; then his lordship, 
mortally wounded, was dragged out of the 




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carriage, and several additional wounds in- 
flicted on him. His nephew endeavored to 
make his escape, but was taken, and put to 
death. The unfortunate young lady re- 
mained in the carriage, till one of the lead- 
ers rushed forward, took her from the car- 
riage, and led her through the rabble to an 
adjoining house ; and it is worthy of observ- 
ation, that in the midst of this scene of 
sanguinary tumult, no injury or insult was 
offered to her, or attempted to be offered to 
her, by the infuriated rabble. Mr. Fitzger- 
ald states that the person who rescued her 
from her dreadful situation was Robert 
Emmet. 

Miss Wolfe, after remaining some time in 
the place of refuge she was placed in, pro- 
ceeded on foot to the Castle, and entered 
the Secretary's office, in a distracted state, 
and is said to have been the first bearer of 
the intelligence of her father's murder. 
Lord Kilwarden was found lying on the 
pavement, dreadfully and mortally wounded. 
When the street was cleared of the insur- 
gents he was carried almost lifeless to the 
watch-house in Vicar street. 

This foul murder was an atrocity really 
horrible. Reasons have been assigned or 
suggested for it ; as that the man who first 
attacked him had had a relative sentenced 
to death by him ; that he was mistaken for 
Lord Carleton, a very different kind of judge, '■ 
&c. ; but the odious deed stands out in all 
its bloody horror ; no better — but also no 
worse — than many of the outrages done upon 
the people in '98, by Orange yeomanry and 
Ascendancy magistrates. 

Doctor Madden thus narrates the close 
of this dreadful affair : — 

" Emmet halted his party at the market 
house, with the view of restoring order, 
but tumult and insubordination prevailed. 
During his ineffectual efforts, word was 
brought that Lord Kilwarden was murder- 
ed ; he retraced his steps, proceeded to- 
wards the scene of the barbarous outrage, 
and in the course of a few minutes returned 
to his party ; from that moment he gave up 
all hope of effecting any national object. 
He saw that his attempt had merged into a 
work of pillage and murder. He and a 
few of the leaders who were about him 
abandoned their project and their followers. 



A detachment of the military made its ap- 
pearance at the corner of Cutpurse row, 
and commenced firing on the insurgents, 
who immediately fled in all directions. The 
rout was general in less than an hour from 
the time they sallied forth from the depot. 
The only place where anything like resist- 
ance was made was on the Coombe, where 
Colonel Brown was killed, and two members 
of the Liberty Rangers, Messrs. Edmon- 
ston and Parker. The guard-house of the 
Coombe had been unsuccessfully attacked, 
though with great determination ; a great 
many dead bodies were found there." 

The whole affair was now over, and all 
was lost ; yet during this night, Miles 
Byrne, with his two hundred picked Wex- 
ford men, was in the house on Coal Quay, 
anxiously awaiting the orders that had been 
agreed upon. Dwyer was ready with anoth- 
er party ; and the Kildare men were ex- 
pecting to be summoned by a messenger. 
They were all left without orders. 

The next day was, of course, a time of 
arrests, discoveries, and domiciliary visits 
in Dublin. The several depots were exam- 
ined, and quantities of uniforms, fire-arms, 
and several thousand pikes were found ; to- 
gether with eight thousand copies of two 
proclamations intended for distribution 
on the day of the rising. These docu- 
ments declare that the object of the 
movement is an Irish Republic, separation 
from England, and freedom and justice 
for all. (See Appendix, No. IV.) Em- 
met went out to a private house at Rath- 
farnham. Within a week before his sad 
failure, he had sent Russell and James 
Hope to the North, upon whose people he 
placed great reliauce, and he requested 
Miles Byrne to go to France with dis- 
patches for his brother, Thomas Addis 
Emmet, which Byrne, after many adven- 
tures, accomplished. Emmet himself pro- 
ceeded from Rathfaruham to the Wicklow 
mountains, where he found the Wicklow 
insurgents bent on prosecuting their plans, 
and making an immediate attack on some of 
the principal towns in that county. Emmet, 
to his credit, being then convinced of the 
hopelessness of the struggle, had deter- 
mined to withhold his sanction from any 
further effort ; convinced, as he then was, 



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426 



HISTORY OF IKELA>T>. 



that it could only lead to the effusion of 
blood, but to no successful issue. His 
friends pressed him to take immediate mea- 
sures For effecting his escape, but unfortu- 
nately he resisted their solicitations ; he 
had resolved on seeing one person before 
he could make up his mind to leave the 
country, and that person was dearer to him 
than life — Sarah Curran, the youngest 
daughter of the celebrated advocate, John 
Philpot Curran. With the hope of obtaining 
an interview with her, if possible, before his 
intended departure — of corresponding with 
her — and of seeiug her pass by Harold's 
i iss, which was the road from her fath- 
er's country-house, near Rathfarnham, to 
Dublin, he returned to his old lodgings 
at Mrs. Palmer's, Harold's Cross. Here. 
on the 35th of August, he was arrested, at 
about seveu o'clock in the evening, by Major 
Sirr, who, according to the newspaper ac- 
counts, " did not know his person till he 
was brought to the Castle, where h<- 
identified by a gentleman of tke I 

On Monday, September 19, 1803, at a 
special commission, before Lord Norbnry, 
Mr. Baron George, and Mr. Baron Daly, 
R ibert Emmet was put on his trial, on a 
charge of high treason, under 25th E I ward 
III. The counsel assigned him were Messrs. 
Ball, Burrowes, and M'Xaily. 

The counsel for the prosecution wer M 
Staudish O'Grady, Attorney-General, and 
William Conyngham Plunket, King's Coun- 
sel. There is nothing specially worthy of 
remark on the trial, except the very bit- 
ter and superfluous speech of Mr. Plunket. 
Mr. Plunket had been the friend of Emmet's 
father. It was the political doctrine so 
loudly announced by Mr. Plunket in his 
Anti-Union speeches — that the Union would 
leave Ireland without any i a or 

law which men would be bound to obey — it 
was this, and other eloquent denunciations, 
which had so deeply sunk into Emmet's 
mind, that heat length resolved to put those 
doctrines iu practice, at the risk of his life. 
This could only be done by expelling the 
British authorities from his country. 

It is true that Mr. Plunket, if he prac- 
ticed his profession at all, was bound to 

* Madden says ;!iis was Doctor Elrington, Provost 
of ihe Colle •<;. 




take the brief for the Crown ; but he was 
not bound to display a furious and vindictive 
zeal in prosecuting his friend's son, especial- 
ly as the prisoner made no defence. When 
the witnesses for the prosecution had all 
been examined, Mr. M'Nally said, as Mr. 
Emmet did not intend to call any witness, 
or to take up the time of the Court by his 
counsel stating any case or making any ob- 
servations on the evidence, he presumed the 
trial was now closed on both sides. 

Mr. Plunket declined following the exam- 
ple of the prisoner's counsel, and launched 
into a most violent and needless philippic, 
ending with this passionate imprecation : — 

" They imbrue their hands iu the most 
sacred blood of the country, and yet they 
call upon God to prosper their cause as it 
is just ! But as it is atrocious, wicked, and 
abominable, I must devoutly invoke that 
God to coufound and overwhelm it.'' 

How nobly Emmet asserted himself and 
his cause, in his last speech, is knowrMo all 
who read our language. There exist at least 
ten editions of that speech, some of them 
varying materially from others. The latest 
and probably most correct version of it, is 
that contained in Doctor Madden's "Me- 
moir of Emmet," in the Third Series of his 
collections. Thomas M i >r •. in his diary, 
February 15, 1831, mentions Burrow es 
having remarked to him, on the subject of 
Plunket's conduct in Emmet's case, -: Plun- 
ket could not have refused the brief of Gov- 
ernment, though he might hare avoided, per- 
■ speaking to evidence. It was no: true, 
I think he said, tnat Plunket had been ac- 
quainted with young Emmet. The passage 
iu a printed speech of Emmet, where he is 
made to call Plunket ' that viper,' &c, 
was never spoken by Emmet " 

On the 20th of September, he was exe- 
cuted. The same morning the death of his 
mother was announced to him in his prison. 
Early in the afternoon he was removed, at- 
tended by a strong guard, both of cavalry 
aud infantry, to Thomas street, where a 
scaffold and gibbet had been erected. He 
died with the utmost calumess and forti- 
tude. 

It is said that Robert Emmet had been 
made acquainted with a desigu that was in 
contemplation to effect his escape at the time 



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and place appointed for execution. Of that 
design, Government appears to have had in- 
formation, and had taken precautionary mea- 
sures, which had probably led to its being 
abandoned. The avowed object of Thomas 
Russell's going to Dublin, after his failure iu 
the North, was to adopt plans for this pur- 
pose. 

Russell, the close friend and associate 
both of Tone and Emmet, was himself 
soon after arrested, and executed at Down- 
patrick ; and this was the end of the United 
Irishmen, at least for that generation. Rus- 
sell's burial slab is to be seen in a church- 
yard of Downpatrick, with no word on it 
but the simple name "Thomas Russell." 
Robert Emmet's tomb is still uninscribed. 



CHAPTER XLY. 

1303—1804. 

Reason to Believe that Government was all the time 
aware of the Conspiracy— " Striking Terror"— 
Martial Law— Catholic Address— Arrests— Inform- 
ers —Vigorous Measures— In Cork— In Belfast— 
Hundreds of Men Imprisoned without Charge— 
Brutal Treatment of Prisoners— Special Commis- 
sion—Eighteen Persons Hung- Debate in Parlia- 
ments-Irish Exiles in France— First Consul Plans a 
New Expedition to Ireland— Formation of the 
•• Irish Legion "—Irish Legion in Bretagne— Official 
Reply of the First Consul to T. A. Emmet— Designs 
of the French Government— Buonaparte's Mistake 

French Fleet again ordered Elsewhere— The 

Legion goes to the Rhine, and to Walcheren— End of 
the Aldington Ministry— Mr. Pitt Returns to Office- 
Condition of Ireland— Decay of Dublin— Decline 
of Trade— Increase of Debt— Ruinous Effects of the 
Union— Presbyterian Clergy Pensioned, and the 
Reason. 

A lakge number of the bravest and 
purest men whom Ireland ever produced, 
having now within three or four years 
been either hung or banished, it was 
hoped that the Protestant Ascendancy and 
British connection, the Tithes, the Oligar- 
chical Government, the packed juries, in 
short our Constitution in church and state, 
were at last secure against "Jacobins," and 
all manner of French principles. 

Although the government of Lord Hard- 
wicke had seemed to shut its eyes and see 
nothing of the preparations for Emmet's 
insurrection, there is reason to believe that 
most of its details were well kuowu at the 
Castle. 



In the collection of papers of Major Sirr, 
in the volume for 1S03, and a succeeding 
volume containing miscellaneous letters, of 
dates from 1798 to 1803, are found various 
letters of spies and informers, of the old 
battalion of testimony of 1798, giving infor- 
mation to the Major of treasonable proceed- 
ings, meetings, preparing pikes, &c, being in 
existence iu the three mouths preceding the 
outbreak of the insurrection of the July 23, 
1803. In the latter volume are many 
similar letters from a Roman Catholic 
gentleman iu Monastereven, suggesting ar- 
rests to the Major, and, amongst others, 
the arrest of a gentleman of some standing 
in society, a Brigadier-Major Fitzgerald. 

It is also plain that Government knew of 
Emmet's having come from France to Dub- 
lin, aud knew his errand, and at hast some 
of his movements ; for in October, 1802, 
Robert Emmet dined at Mr. John Keogh's, 
of Mount Jerome, shortly after his arrival 
in Dublin, in the company of John Philpot 
Curran. The conversation turned on the 
political state of the country — on the dispo- 
sition of the people with respect to a renewal 
of the struggle. Robert Emmet spoke with 
great vehemence and energy in favor of the 
probability of success, in the event of 
another effort being made. John Keogh 
asked, in case it were, how many counties 
did he thiuk would rise ? The question was 
one of facts aud figures. Robert Emmet 
replied that nineteen counties could be relied 
on. This dinner party was immediately 
known to Government ; aud, next day, a 
well-known magistrate, with two attendants, 
waited on Mr. Keogh, demanded aud carried 
off his papers.* 

Mr. Plowdeu does not hesitate to speak 
of the Government on this occasion as hav- 
ing "made the full experiment of their 
favorite tactic of not urging Ike rebels tu 
•postpone their attempts by any appearance of 
too much precaution and preparation of invit- 
ing rebellion, in order to ascertain its extent, 
aud of forcing premature explosion for the 
purpose of radical cure." 

After the danger was past, however, and 
after it was known how very wretched and 
impotent the whole attempt had turned out, 

* Madden. Memoir of Emmet, 'fldrd Series. 




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superabundant precautions were taken with 
the usual objects of "creating alarm," and 
striking terror. A Privy Council sat for 
s iveral hours, ami a proclamation was 
prepared and issued immediately, order- 
ing the army to disperse all assemblies 
of armed rebels, and to do military execu- 
tion upon all such found in arms. Barriers 
were erected in Dublin, and strong detach- 
ments stationed with cannon upon the 
bridges, and in the most frequented avenues 
and passes in the city. 

On the 28th of July, the Kins: sent a 
message to both Houses of Parliament, 
asking for additional powers in Ireland — 
that is, a renewed suspension of the writ of 
Habeas Corpus. The act was passed at 
once. In Ireland, the judges went circuit 
that summer with - rts of troops. 

We now again find the Catholics of rank 
and title coming forward to profess their 
loyalty ; and, indeed, the brutal murder of 
the excellent Kilwarden, and others, on 
ill-omened night, appeared but too well to 
justify L r oo,l citizens in treating the whole 
movement as a mere riot for pillage and as- 
sassination. On the 4th of August, an ad- 
dress by the most respectable Roman 
Catholics in and about Dublin, was present- 
ed to the Lord-Lieutenant, by a deputation 
consisting of the Earl of Fingal and Lord 
Viscount Gormaustown, and the Catholic 
Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin. It 
expressed their utmost horror and detestation 
of the late atrocious proceedings, their at- 
tachment to the King, and admiration of 
the Constitution. It contained a S] 
di claration, that, however ardent their wish 
might be U' participate in the full enjoyment 
of its benefits, they never should be brought 
to seek for such participation through any 
r medium than that of the free, unbias- 
sed determination of the Legislature. 

In Lord Hardwieke's reply he made not 
the slightest allusion to the wish those 
gentlemen had expressed, that they might 
be admitted within the pale of that Consti- 
tution they so much admired. 

A sj stem of suspicious repression was 
now once more enforced. Even before 
the suspension of the Habeas C. . s act. 
Many persons, who had been obnoxious 
to Government, or to the agents or fa- 



vorites of the Castle, were apprehended, 
without any charge or ostensible cause of 
detention.* And, as it usually happens, 
when strong measures are resorted to by a t-* 
weak government, the subalterns, who advis- |V 
ed against reason, executed these measures 
without discretion. On this occasion, in -t 
ise who, upon the Secretary's warrants, 
were thrown into jail, under color of the 
suspension of the JBa - C pws, were treat- 
ed with a rigorous inhumanity, which the 
law neither inteuded nor warranted. The 
system of espionage was extended, and the 
wages of information raised. 

\ only rewards of .11,000 were offered 
for the information of any of the murderers 
of Lord Kilwarden, or his nephew, Mr. 
W< .-, and for the apprehension of Mr. 
Russell, but a reward of £50 for each of 
the first one hundred rebels, who might be 
rered, that were of the number who 
appeared under arms iu Thomas street, on 
Saturday night, the 23d of July. « 

The whole of the yeomanry of Ireland 
was put upon permanent duty, at the en- 
ormous expense of £100,000 per month. 
In Cork, too, precautionary measures were 
adopted, viz., that no one should quit the 
county without a passport, and that every 
householder should affix a list of the fam- 
ily and inmates on their doors, by order 
of Genera] Myers, who commanded in that 
district. The Sovereign of Belfast issued 
an order, for the inhabitants to remain with- 
in their houses after eight o'clock in the 
evening, and for several other regulati - 
of strict observance. In Dublin, the magis- 
trates convened a meeting, at the suggestion 
of Government, at which they determined 
that the city should be divided into forty- 
eight sections, each section to be divided 
by a fheviur de /rise, to prevent a surprise 
from the pikemen, which would not at the 
same time prevent the tire of the musketry 
of the troops and yeomanry. 

From the moment of the passage of mar- 
tial law, the arrests became much more nu- 
merous ; and any one pointed out as su • 
tows, generally by a personal enemy, was at 

- ime of these were William Todd Jones, at Cork, 
who Iras arrested on the '2,'th of July, and after him 
Hessts. Preunan, Donovan, and others ; Mr. Ross 
Me ami. Bernard Coile, Mr. Janies Tandy, and others, \ \' 

at Dublin. 






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once thrown into a dungeon. The horrors 
of these Irish dungeons came out, years 
afterwards, on an inquiry before Parliament. 
Mr. Plowden cautiously and timidly alludes 
to them in this manner * : — ■ 

" Sensible, that general charge and invec- 
tive come not within the province of the 
historian, the author felt it his duty to in- 
form the reader, that at this time commenc- 
ed a new system of gradual inquisitorial tor- 
ture in prison. Suffice it here to observe, that 
there are many surviving victims of these 
inhuman and unwarrantable confinements, 
who, without having been charged with any 
crime, or tried for any offence, have from 
this period, undergone years of confinement, 
and incredible afflictions and sufferings, un- 
der the full conviction that they were in- 
flicted from motives of personal resentment, 
and for the purpose of depriving them of 
life." 

In fact, although only eighty men had 
turned out with Robert Emmet, and very 
few of these were ever found, the jails were, 
-in the autumn of this year, crowded with 
many humdreds of persons ; and all the hor- 
rors of the Prevot prison were repeated 
upon their unfortunate victims. This was 
the more unaccountable as Emmet never al- 
lowed any of his followers to be sworn in; 
there was no pretext— as in '98— for charg- 
ing suspected persons with having taken 
" unlawful oaths," nor for torturing men in 
order to wring out information of such an 
offence having been committed. The sys- 
tem of Government, then, has no assignable 
motive, save one — to strike terror and wreak 
vengeance. Every house in the city and 
neighborhood of Dublin was searched for 
arms ; and the names of the inmates of 
each house were once more required to be 
posted on the outer door. 

Thus the entire system of Irish coercion, 
to which our country is so well accustomed, 
was in full operation within a few days 
after Emmet's attempt. 

On the 11th of August, the day before 
Parliament was prorogued, Mr. Hutchinson 
made one effort to draw attention to these 
atrocities. He moved an address to the 
King, praying to have papers laid before 
the House preparatory to an inquiry into 

* Plowden. History of Ireland since the Union. 




HUNDREDS OF PERSONS IMPRISONED WITHOUT CHARGE 



the state of Ireland. The moticn was op- 
posed by Ministers on the ground, that it 
was more than useless to demand informa- 
tion from Government upon the state of Ire- 
land, without having proposed any specific 
measure to be based upon such informa- 
tion when received, and that on the very 
eve of a prorogation. They roundly as- 
serted that the Irish Government had not 
been surprised on the 2-3d of July, and that 
the prevention of what did happen would have 
taught wisdom and given strength to the 
rebel cause. The motion was negatived 
without a division. 

At the "special commission " which tried 
Emmet, twenty persons were tried for their 
lives. Of these, one was acquitted and one 
respited ; the rest were hung. 

Parliament met again on the 22d of 
November. Charles James Fox originated 
a short debate on the state of Ireland. He 
charged the Government with want of can- 
dor, in eudeavoring to convey an idea that 
it was the intention of the rebels in Ireland 
to put that country into the hands of 
France, when such a design had been so 
strongly disavowed by their leaders. "It 
was not," he added, "to he hoped or ex- 
pected, that as long as grievances existed, 
Ireland could become loyal, and he sincerely 
hoped that the House would not, by confid- 
ing in words, leave her exposed to a repe- 
tition of those scenes that had lately oc- 
curred. 

Mr. Addington insisted that some leaders 
of the United Irishmen "were really dispos- 
ed to subserve the purposes of France. 
From the close intercourse now carried on 
between the two countries, he concluded 
that the people of Ireland would be led to 
compare the different principles of the two 
governments, by which they would learn to 
appreciate the blessings of their own Consti- 
tution, and to foresee the miseries which 
any change would bring upon them." Fur- 
ther, Mr. Addington and .Mr. Yorke vehe- 
mently urged the House to give them credit 
in assuring them, that though the leaders 
of the late insurrection were not immediately 
connected with the French Government, 
they were yet connected with Irish traitors 
abroad, who held immediate intercourse 
with that Government. 



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430 




HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



This last statement was true at any rate 
■ — omitting the word " traitors." Thomas 
Addis Emmet, Doctor MacNeven, and Ar- 
thur O'Connor, were then in close communi- 
cation with the French Government, and 
eagerly awaiting the determinations of Buo- 
naparte with regard to a descent upon Ire- 
land. Miles Byrne had safely arrived at 
Paris, and communicated with Thomas Ad- 
dis Emmet ; but almost immediately news 
came of Robert's capture, of the certainty of 
his execution, and of the total prostration of 
Ireland under the iron heel of military pow- 
er. There was then in France a large 
number of Irish exiles ; and Mr. Emmet in- 
formed the First Consul that they were 
ready to go as volunteers in any expedition 
which had for its object the emancipation 
of their country. It was in the mouth of 
November, 1S03, that the decree was issued 
for the formation of the Irish Legion. 

Miles Byrne, who was himself afterwards 
a distinguished officer of the Legion, gives 
this account of its origin : " The First Con- 
sul eagerly entered into all the details re- 
lated in the report on the state of Ireland, 
given to him by Mr. Thomas Addis Emmet, 
on the arrival at Paris of the confidential 
agent sent from Dublin in August, 1803 ; 
and, in consequence, it was stipulated that a 
French army should be sent to assist the 
Irish to get rid of the English yoke ; the 
First Consul understanding from Mr. Em- 
met that Augereau was a favorite with the 
Irish nation, had him appointed General-in- 
Chief to command the expedition ; and im- 
mediately ordered the formation of an Irish 
Legion in the service of France. He gave 
to all those, who volunteered to enter the 
Irish Legion, commission as French offi- 
cers, so that in the event of their fall- 
ing into the hands of the English they should 
be protected ; or, should any violence be 
offered them, he should have the right to re- 
taliate on the English prisoners in France. 

"The decree of the First Consul for the 
formation of this Irish Legion was dated 
November, 1803; by it, the officers were 
all to be Irishmen, or Irishmen's sons born 
iu France. T.:e pay was to be the same as 
that given to officers and soldiers of the 
line of the French army. No rank was 
to be giveu higher than captain till 



should laud with the expedition in Ireland." 
" It was, however, stipulated that on leav- 
Brest, a certain number of captains were to 
get the rank of colonel, and also a certain 
number of lieuteuants that of lieutenant- 
colonel ; which rank was to be continued 
to them even in the event of the expedi- 
tion failing, and their getting back to 
France. Iu naming these captains and 
lieutenants, the preference was to be given 
to those who had been obliged to expatriate 
themselves for their exertions in Ireland to 
effect its independence." 

Adjutant-General MaeSheehy, an Irish- 
man by birth, but in the French service, was 
charged with the organization of the legion, 
and for that purpose was commanded to re- 
pair to Morlaix where the Irish exiles were 
assembled. 

Adjutant-General MaeSheehy, received 
unlimited powers at Morlaix to propose 
officers for advancement up to the rank of 
captain ; all he named were confirmed by 
the Minister of War, General Berthier. 

The greatest exertions were made to have 
the officers splendidly equipped and ready 
for sailing. They received the same outfit 
given to French officers entering ou cam- 
paign ; no expense being spared by the 
French Government. 

Three months later, General Augereau 
was at Brest ; having attached to his staff 
Arthur O'Connor, then made a General of 
Division in the service of France. 

Morlaix is a seaport town iu Bretagne, 
not far from Brest, but more to the north, 
and looking straight over towards Cork and 
Waterford harbors. It was here that a 
large number of gallant and generous young 
Irishmen, many of them of good position in 
society and great accomplishments, were 
flocking together in those days, full of spirit 
and hardihood, and eagerly gazing over the 
blue water, as if they could already see the 
crests of the Cummeragh mountains. 
Amongst these meu we find many names of 
officers who afterwards distinguished them- 
selves in Germany, in Holland, and in Spain. 
O'Reilly, Allen, Corbet, Burgess, O'Morin, 
O'Mara, Ware, Barker, Fitzheury, Master- 
son, St. Leger, Murray, and MacMahon. 
' We were happy aud uuited," says Miles 



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DESIGNS OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT 



" The Legion assembled at Morlaix was 
marched to Quimper in March, 1804, where 
all those oflicers who had been proposed for 
advancement by Adjutant-General Mac- 
sheehy received their brevets. From Quim- 
per the Legion was ordered to Carhaix, in 
Finistere, a small town (the native place of 
Latonr d' Anvergue, premier grenadier do 
France), which from being more inland and 
less frequented, was better suited for manoeu- 
vring, and where the best results were ob- 
tained. Two officers, Captain Tennant and 
Captain William Corbet, were deputed from 
thence by the Legion to go to Paris, to be 
present at the coronation of the Emperor, 
(May, 1804,) who on that occasion present- 
ed it, as well as the French regiments, with 
colors and an eagle.- On one side of the 
colors was written 'Napoleon I, Empereur 
des Frangois, a la legion Irlandaise ;' on the 
reverse was, a harp (without a crown), with 
the inscription : ' L'independance d'Irlande.' 

The Irish Legion was the only foreign 
corps in the French service to whom Napo- 
leon ever intrusted an eagle. 

Rejoicings took place at Carhaix, as in the 
other towns of France, in honor of the 
coronation, by order of the authorities. 

It was while the Legion was yet at Mor- 
laix, that Thomas Addis Emmet, who had 
remained in Paris, obtained from the First 
Consul, what seemed a definitive and posi- 
tive assurance, both as to the certainty of 
the expedition parting for Ireland, and as to 
the fair terms to be observed with that 
country in leaving to it its cherished inde- 
pendence. In this document, Buonaparte, 
(not yet Emperor,) assures the Irish Envoy, 
that his intention is to assure the independ- 
ence of Ireland, and to give sufficient pro- 
tection to such as may join the French 
army ; that in case of being joined by a 
considerable corps of Irish, he will never 
make a peace with England without stipulat- 
ing for Ireland's independence ; that Ireland 
shall be treated in all respects as America 
was in the last war ; that every one embark- 
ing with the French army, shall be considered 
a French soldier ; and if any of these be ar- 
rested and not treated as a prisoner of war, 
retaliation shall follow ; that every corps of 
United Irishmen shall be considered a part 
of the French army ; and that in case of the 




expedition being unsuccessful, France will 
keep on foot, a number of Irish Brigades, 
on the same footing as French troops. The 
First Consul sugesgts the formation of a 
committee, to frame proclamations and to 
prepare narratives of English oppressions in 
Ireland, to be published in the Moniteur* 
This official paper, not only proves what ex- 
cellent foundation then existed for the sangu- 
ine hope of the exiles that something effec- 
tual was at last to be done for Ireland, but 
proves also how carefully those exiles stipu- 
lated, always that the interposition of a 

* Here is the original, which was instantly comma 
nicatcd by Emmet to MacNeven,then at Morlaix : — 

"cort of the first consul's answer to my me- 

moire of 13th nivose, delivered to ile 27th ni- 

vose : — 

" Le Premier Consul a lu avec la plus grande at- 
tention, la memoire qui lui a ete addressee par M. 
Emmet le 13 Nivose. 

" II desire que les Irlandais Unis soyent bien con- 
vaincusque sqn intention estd'assnrer ['independence 
de l'lrlande, et de donner protection entiere et efli- 
cace a tous ceux d'entre eux, qui prendront part a 
l'expedition, ou qui se joindront aux armees Fran- 
chises. 

" Le Gouvernement Francais ne pent faire anrune 
proclamation avant d'avoir touche le territoire Irland- 
ais. Mais Le general quicommandera ^expedition sera 
muni de lettres scellees, par lesquelles le Premier Con- 
sul declarera qu'il nc fera point la paix avec l'Angle- 
terre, sans stipuler pour l'independance de l'lrlande, 
dans le cas, cependant, ou l'armee aurait ete jointe 
par un corps considerable d'Irlandais Unis. 

" L'lrlande sera en. tout traitee, comme l'a ete 
l'Amerique, dans la guerre passee. 

" Tout iudividu qui s'embarquera avec l'armee 
Francaise destinee pour l'expedition, sera comniis- 
sione comme Francais : s'il etait arrete, et qu'il ne 
fut pas traite comme prisounier de guerre la repre* 
Bailie s'exercera sur les prisonniers Anglais. 

" Tout corps forme an nom des Irlandais Unis sera 
considere comme faisant partiede l'armee Francaise 
Entin, si l'expedition ne reussissait pas et que les 
Irlandais fussent obliges de revenir en France, la 
France entretiendra un certain nombre de brigades 
Irlandaises, et fera des pensions, a tout individu qui 
aurait fait partie du gouvernement ou des autorites 
du pays. 

"Les pensions pourraient ete assimilees a celles 
qui sont accordees en France aux titulaires de grade 
ou d'emploi correspondant, qui ne sont pas en ac- 
tivate. 

" Le Premier Consul desire qu'il se forme un com- 
ite d'Irlandais Unis. 11 ne voit pas d'inconvenant, a 
ce que les membres de ce comile fassent des procla- 
mations, ct instruissent leurs compatriotcs de l'etat 
de choses. 

" Ces proclamations seront inserees dans V Argus 
et dans les differens jouruaux de l'Europe, a fin 
d'eclairer les Irlandais, sur la parti qu'ils ont a suivre, 
et sur les esperances qu'ils doivent coneevoir. Si la 
coniite veut faire une relation des actes de tyrannie 
exercees contre l'lrlande par la Gouvernement Ang- 
lais, ou l'inserera dans Le Muntieur." 






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I ■ ; • I the footing 

of Rochambeau in 

America. It i- a safik er to ihose 

a made in England, that 

country under the domiuion of France. 

And it must be said, once for all, in the nego- 

3 for French aid, wh 

• or Emmet, there was no 

- a to donbt that the single object of the 

.;-h Governme:. aid 

Ir iand, in good faith, to win a real inde- 

— not, perhaps, so mnch from a 
and - r Ireland, as from a c 

. England, whose intrigues and 
i - -P the whole : 

" • he min of France. 
Y " after all, those entbu- 
men of the Legion, were not destined : 
I -/.and. Other urgent nee— 
and most of the fleet at Brest was with- 
drawn for diff 

grer. : Buonaparte ever m 

and the noblest opportunity lo?:. The 
Legion was ordered to the Rhiue, and from 
U i'and where they had at least 
the satisfaction of : 

W- . a of 

that imposing armament of England. T'r. 
Ad.'. ■ despairing of effecting any- 

thing through French agency, emigrated at 
-i. where he too rank 

¥ork, and lived long hon- 
ored and beloved. 

imbecile admi: 
Mr. Add gton came to an end. Mr. Pitt 
had put him iuto office to serve a temporary 
purpose, and was uow ready to resume the 
reins hin - 

ant': .at on returning to power 

treacher as M - : oa in 

:n itself a 
sufficient proof that his former resjg 
ostens ^ad been made 

In the new adm'iL ■ 
tion (gazetted May 14. 1>04.) he was Chan- 
quer and Firs: Lord of 
the Treu- The £ : was 

Lord Camden — a name associated in Ireland 
with 

President of the Board of Control, was 
Lor . stlereag K to G rernment more 
hostLe to Ireland laree 



K - -. Ihe Ki-j's mental malady had 
.rming about the time of Mr. 
m ; and his advisers could by no 
means think of troubling the conscience of 
the invalid by any • _ ■ - a teudic: 
emancipation of CathoL. - reach of 

.-^nation o..~ 
Ireland had now had more than three 
- experience of I _ and 

already began to experience the wa- ■ 
and draining effects of that odious and fatal 
•action. Trade was declining, debt and 
taxes increasing ; but the debt much : i 
than the produce of The absen- 

j of prop: is had been expe ■- 

and indeed iutended, occasioned ye.r 

• - riter and greater depletion of we i 
The fioe couu:: wealthy propri- 

were generally deserted, and their esl 
were managed by agents. Dublin, which in 
.rsof independence (even such 
partial independence as .: : - 
I to the rank of a fine metropolitan city, had 
been adorned by many sumptuous ; 

and enriched by the ex 
peoditure of a lux i now 

. into a provincial town. re of 

_al interest, of intellectual activity and 
^aionable life, had been transferred to 
London. The fine mansions of Irish F- - 
and wealthy Commoners, after . g g va- 
" turneii to other uses.* 
:me that Ireland might well afford to 
thont the? great] - ..id feudal pro* 
ne : but the d 
ence is. that in Ireli .raw 

I :e produce of the land ; they 
-ind to be 
zed in Eusrland : they are 
fora. I by sacking up all 1 juices ol our 
:, and which then float ofl^ " to rain 
down in London or dissipate at Cnelten- 
ham." Thus it was fou:. 
Cuion, that the exports of I: 
increased; be: I oris of com, 

i raw material for mac . 
top:.; u tee rent ; while our ira: 

were : mauufactared articies and 

colonial produce, from England — England 

- - - ■ - • _ 

Poweiseoort H 

I & TiT - The m-jnei^n - 

- 

■ I AMboroagh Hoase is x turrici. ic. 









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RUINOUS EFFECTS OF THE UNION. 



433 



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thus deriving the profit both from our 
exports and from our imports. Then there 
was the enormous cost of the war in Europe, 
to put down French principles, to which ex- 
pense Ireland was made to contribute in a 
much greater ratio than England. Mr. 
Foster, in a speech in Parliament, on the 
Irish budget, immediately after Pitt's return 
to office, said he lamented to find the predic- 
tions, which he had ventured to urge on the 
probable state of Ireland, during the dis- 
cussions upon the Union, but too forcibly 
verified by the then deplorable state of her 
finances, as compared with her public debt 
and expenditure. Within the last ten years, 
the public debt of Ireland had made an 
alarming progress. It stood in 1793, at 
£2,400,000, in 1800, at £25,400,000. On 
January 5, 1804, at £43,000,000, and in 
that year there had then added to it no less 
a sum than £9,500,000. This formed a quota 
far exceeding the ratio established by the 
Union compact to be paid by Ireland. This 
ruinous race, in which Ireland was so far ex- 
ceeding her means by her expenditure, 
would shortly equalize her debt in proportion 
to that of England, and entitle England to 
call for a Parliamentary decision, and con- 
solidation of accounts and equalization of 
taxes. He then stated to the House the 
corresponding produce of the Irish revenue. 
In the year 1800, which immediately preced- 
ed the Union, the net produce of the reve- 
nue was £2,800,000, when she owed £25,- 
000,000, in the last year it was only £2,- 
789,000, whilst the debt amounted to £53,- 
000,000. There was every reason to believe, 
that for the running year, the produce of the 
Irish revenue would not yield one shilling 
towards Ireland's quota in the common ex- 
penditure of the empire. Snch was the 
situation of Ireland in the summer of 1804, 
as depicted by Mr. Foster, with an enor- 
mous and growing increase of debt, a rapid 
falling off of revenue, and a decay in com- 
merce and manufactures. 

It rnay^of course, be alleged, that as the 
Act of Union places, or purports to place, 
the two countries on a footing of perfect 
equality a-nd reciprocity, in respect to trade 
and commerce, there has been nothing to 
prevent Ireland, if its inhabitants had energy 
and enterprize, like Englishmen, to manufac- 



ture for themselves and so keep at home a 
great portion of the wealth which is annually 
drained from them. The fallacy of this sag 
gestion is now well understood ; it is true, 
the laws regulating trade are the same in 
the two islands ; Ireland may export even 
woollen cloth to England; she may import, 
in her own ships, tea from China, and sugar 
from Barbadoes ; the laws which made those 
acts penal offences no longer exist, they are 
no longer needed ; England is fully in pos- 
session ; and by the operation of those old 
laws Ireland was utterly ruined. England 
has the commercial marine — Ireland has it 
to create. England has the manufacturing 
machinery and skill, of which Ireland was 
deprived, by express laws for that purpose. 
England has the current of trade establish- 
ed, setting strongly in her own channel ; 
while Ireland is left dry. To create or re- 
cover at this day these great industrial and 
commercial resources, and that in the face 
of wealthy rivals already in full possession, 
is manifestly impossible, without one or 
other of these two conditions — either im- 
mense command of capital, or effectual pro- 
tective duties. But by the Union our capi- 
tal is drained away to England ; and by 
the Union we are deprived of the power of 
imposing protective duties. It was to this 
very end that the Union was forced upon 
Ireland, through " intolerance of Irish pros- 
perity." " Do not unite with us, sir," said 
Samuel Johnson ; " we shall rob you." 

It was in the year l-<03, that the British 
Government bethought itself of making the 
Presbyterians of Ulster more " loyal," and 
weaning them the better from "French prin- 
ciples," by largely increasing the scanty means 
of the Dissenting clergy. The Ministers had 
been previously aided, in a very grudging 
and shabby manner, by a sort of bribe, the 
Regiwn Donum, or royal gift, first granted 
in 1672, by Charles II, who gave £600 of 
" Secret Service money " to be distributed 
in equal portions among them annually. 
The grant was discontinued towards the 
close of his reign, and during that of James 
II, but wns renewed by William III, who 
augmented it to £1,200 a year. In 1784, 
the amount was increased to £2,200 ; in 
1792, to £5,000. Still this was a most 
paltry pittance for so large a body of clergy- 



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434 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



men, and rather degraded than enriched 
those who received it ; while the Anglican 
Church, with a smaller proportion of the 
population, was so munificently endowed 
with hinds and tithes. 

The Government took alarm on finding 
that the Presbyterians of Ulster, both clergy 
and laity, had been generally Republicans 
and United Irishmen in 1798. Overtures 
were soon after made to them through their 
most influential pastors, especially Doctor 
Black, of Londonderry, giving them a pros- 
pect of great increase to their grant, if they 
would not oppose the Union. This Doctor 
Black had been a delegate to the Dungan- 
non Convention, in 17 7:2, and had appeared 
amongst the other delegates in his uniform, 
as a voluuteer officer. 

Tiiese overtures had the desired success ; 
and, therefore, in 1S03, the Regium Demon 
was quintupled. The total yearly grant 
to non-conforming Ministers in Ireland 
amounted, in 1852, to £38,561. {Thorn's 
Official Directory.) 

Doctor Black had a good place ; he was 
agent and distributor of this disgraceful 
Dnnum, and some years afterwards he very 
naturally, (like Castlcreagh,) committed sui- 
cide, by throwing himself off the bridge of 
Derry into the River Foyle. 



CHAPTER XLTI. 

1804—1505. 

Mr. Pitt in Office— Royal Speech— No Mention of Ire- 
land — Alarm about Invasion — Martello Towers — 
Reliance of the Irish Catholics on Mr. Pitt — Treat- 
ment of the Prisoners — Mr. James Tandy— Mr 
Pitt Raises a Storm against the Catholics— Catholic 
Meeting in Dublin — Habeas Corpus Act again Sus- 
pended — Ireland " Loyal " — Duplicity of Lord 
Hardvvicke — Catholic Deputies go to Mr. Pitt — A 
"Sincere Friend "—Mr Pitt Refuses to Present 
Catholic Petition— Declares he will Resist Emanci- 
pation — Lord Greuville and Mr. Fox Present it — 
Debate in the Lords — In the Commons — Speeches 
of Fox. Doctor Duigenan, Grattan — Perceval, Pitt, 
Sir John Newport — Emancipation Refused, both by 
Lords and Commons — Great Majorities. 

When Mr. Pitt returned to office in 1804, 
lie did not find himself so omnipotent in the 
country, as he had been during his former 
administration, or even during that of his 
heam-k nens. Although Mr. Addingtou 
had affected uot to control the late elections 



by any treasury influence, he now exerted 
his personal influence upon all the members, 
who owed their seats to his patronage or fa- 
vor, to join him in opposing Mr. Pitt. 
Though he could brook the injury of being 
displaced, in order to readmit Mr. Pitt to 
power, he could neither forgive nor forget 
the insult of being expelled for incapacity 
and weakness. Mr. Pitt expected to regain 
more of his lost power by negotiation during 
the recess, than by his oratory in the Senate ; 
but was reluctantly constrained to prolong 
the session to the 31st of July. Under the 
combination of great external and internal 
difficulties, it beeaiue an object of peculiar 
anxiety with the Minister to give the nation 
some open and unequivocal proof of the 
complete recovery of His Majesty's health. 
When the King went to prorogue the Par- 
liament, the House of Peers was attended 
by an unusual crowd, and particularly by 
the few foreign Ministers then resident in 
London. In no part of the speech yas 
there even an indirect reference to Ireland. 

Ireland, indeed, was completely removed 
into the buck-ground by the Union ; and 
while the Government felt it had her safe 
under the coercion of a great army, and the 
exhaustion and terrorism, which now formed 
the single British policy for that island. 
Ministers evidently thought the less said 
about Ireland the better. 

The apparent alarm about invasion was 
carefully kept up during the whole summer. 
The Government prints sedulously warned 
the public against the machinations of the 
French party, which then prevailed through- 
out the country. Upon this assumption 
they inveighed against French tyranny and in- 
justice, and decried the loyalty of the native 
Irish. Thus they justified the expense of 
their public measures of defence, and affec- 
ted to sanction the necessity of internal 
coercion. The encampment of fifteen thousand 
men near the Curragh of Kildare, consisted 
of regular militia, artillery, British horse 
artillery, and a vast commissariat and 
drivel's corps. Even thing bore the appear 
ance of active service. The Martello Towers 
and other defensive works on the coast, were 
forwarded with unusual energy. Many ad- 
ditional persons were taken into custody under 
the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and tl»e 



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ALARM ABOUT INVASION. 




rigorous treatment of the state prisoners, 
who had been for several months in confine- 
ment, was sharpened without any visible or 
known cause.* 

The Catholics, whom Pitt had insidiously 
deluded by prospects of emancipation, were 
now so simple as to anticipate on his return 
to place, some efficient steps for carrying that 
object, for which he professed to have aban- 
doned his official situation. They now 
publicly rejoiced in the benefit of having so 
many characters of eminence pledged twt to 
embark in the service of Government, except on 
the terms of Catholic privileges being ob- 
tained." Frequent Catholic meetings were 
holden in Dublin, in which the general 
sense of the body to petition Parliament for 
their total emancipation, was unanimously 
resolved. Mr. Pitt dreaded nothing so 
much, as to have the sincerity of his pledges 
brought under discussion. As Lord Fingal 
from his rank iu life, and more from the 
amiable qualities of his mind, was known 
to possess the confidence of many of his 
Catholic countrymen, Sir Evan Nepean was 
directed to attempt through his lordship 

* Mr. James Tandy, and thirteen other of the prin- 
cipal state prisoners of the first class, as they were 
stiled at the Castle, petitioned the Lord-Lieutenant 
July 11, 1804 ; and after having specified many of the 
acts of barbarous cruelty inflicted upon them, as 
sworn to in the King's Bench, they concluded in 
these words : In short we experience a treatment 
rather calculated for untamed beasts, than men. 
They assured his excellency, that to the pressing 
and repeated remonstrances, which they bad present- 
ed to Doctor Trevor, (the inspector of the prisons,) 
against the harshness of their treatment, they had re- 
ceived a formal answer ; that it had not only the 
sanction, but its origin in the express directions of 
Lord Hardwicke's government. The first petition 
having not been attended to, was followed by a 
second on August 12th, which again complained, that 
Doctor Trevor executed his office in a manner at 
once mean and malicious: and pleaded orders from 
Oovernmcnt for their rigorous treatment. They com- 
plained, that they were so reduced by their sufferings 
(not merited by them, nor necessary for safe custo- 
dy,) that their lives were become of no value and 
literally a burden to them, and that there was not 
one of the petitioners, who from many concurring 
circumstances, could not on oath declare a firm 
belief of an intention to deprive them of life by un- 
derhand means. 

These appeals recived not the smallest attention, 
and great numbers of the prisoners, without a 
charge against them, were kept in various prisons 
for years. Mr. J. Tandy, indeed, was liberated before 
the end of the year; having first promised not to 
flog Mr. Secretary Marsden, as he says he had 
threatened to do. 



every means to hold back the petition. He 
was invited to dinner, frequently closeted at 
the Castle, and more sedulously courted, 
than on any former occasion. However, his 
lordship may have been personally disposed 
to hold back, few or none of the body could 
be induced to postpone their petition. 

In proportion to the failure of the Minis- 
ter's Continental plans, did the Catholic 
body of Ireland feel their own weight in the 
Imperial scale. The aggrandizement of 
Napoleon had been the unvarying result of 
Mr. Pitt's vehement exertions to crush him. 
He was quietly and solemnly crowned Em- 
peror of the French at Paris by Pope Pius 
the VII ; a circumstance, which Mr. Pitt 
with his usual craft attempted to convert 
into an engine of obloquy on the Catholic 
body, and an opportune and plausible ob- 
jection to their petition, which in spite of 
his secret manoeuvres, through Sir Evan 
Nepean, he bow forsaw would be brought 
forward. The Government papers industri- 
ously published, and severely commented 
upon a memorial, said to have been written 
by MacNeven at Paris, addressed to the 
Irish officers of the several Continental 
Powers, particularly to those in the Austrian 
service, encouraging them to join iu the then 
intended attempts to liberate Ireland from 
the thraldom of England ; and promising 
to give them timely notice of the sailing of 
the expedition. 

These Ministerial journals vied also with 
one another iu republishing and commenting 
on the Papal allocution, addressed by His 
Holiness to a secret consistory at Rome, on 
October 28, 1804, immediately before his de- 
parture for Paris to perform the ceremony 
of the Imperial coronation. It referred to 
the gratitude due to Napoleon for having re- 
established the Catholic religion iu France 
by the concordat; since which he had put 
forth all his authority to cause it to be freely 
professed and publicly exercised throughout 
that renowned nation, and had again re- 
cently shown himself most anxious for the 
prosperity of that religion. It also con- 
tained confident assurance that a personal 
interview with the Emperor, would be for 
the good of the Catholic Church, which 
is the only ark of salvaiian. 

Here was a dreadful thing ! they ex- 



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cgd^ 11 










436 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




claimed; as it' all the world had Dot known 
before that Catholics believed their Church 
to be the only ark of salvation. Editors, 
preachers, and pamphleteers, shrieked out in 
all the tones of alarm and horror, that this 
meant banting heretics. Here was ex- 
treme danger, thej insisted, to a " Protestant 
state ;" — in this ominous reconciliation of the 
Emperor with the Church ; as it would give 
him greater influence in Ireland when he 
nld land there to overthrow Church and 
Mate, throne and altar. These topics were 
enlarged on with so much apparent sincerity 
of terror, that an enlightened public really 
began to fancy the dungeons of the Inqui- 
sition were already yawning before them. 
Those scribes, indeed, did not mention the 
fact, that along with the Catholic Church, 
Emperor had also reestablished the 
Protestant Church in France. They forgot 
to state, that in Prance, the Protestants had 
long been emancipated ; and stood, then and 
thenceforth, on a footing of perfect equality 
with their Catholic neighbors. 

The Irish Catholics did not yet know the 
meaning of this new outbreak of foaming 
rage against them and their religion ; and 
at any rate thought Mr. Pitt must be above 
all the storm of stupid malice which they 
saw ragatg : as. in fact, lie was, but he was 
not above exciting it and directing it to his 
own ei 

The hading part of the Irish Catholics, 
most of whom hail supported the Union in 
plenary confidence of the professions made by 
Mr. Pitt and Lord Cornwallis that emanci- 
pation would immediately follow it, held 
frequent meetings in Dublin, in order to 
e ocert tie most efficient means of render- 
ing available Mr. Pitt's disposition to favor 
their cause, which they fondly assumed had 
returned with him into power. The general 
| cipitancyof the body to briug the Minis- 
terial sincerity to the test, was with difficulty 
repressed by those, who were considered to be 
most directly under the influence of the Castle. 
An adjournment was carried from December 
3 ist to February 16th, 

Parliament met again January 15, - 
and 

not one word in reference to Ireland. 
It mentioned the prompt and decisive steps 
which he had been oblisred to take in order 



to guard against the effects of hostility from 
Spain.* The speech also denounced the 
'■violence and outrage" of the French 
Government, and spoke vaguely of the 
European coalition against France which 
.Mr. Pitt was engaged in negotiating. 

Several interesting debates passed in the 
Commons upon Sir Evan Xepeaii's motion 
for suspending the Habeas Corpus act in 
Ireland, which he proposed to extend to six 
weeks after the commeucemeut of the next 
a of Parliament. He and Mr. Pitt 
urged as the grounds for that harsh mea- 
sure, that there were then at Paris com- 
mittees of United Irishmen, who communi- 
cated with traitors in Ireland upon the most 
efficient means of effecting the invasion of 
that country; and when the House con- 
sidered the humane and just character of 
I., ,/ Bardwickf, they would with plenil 
of confidence deposit that extraordinary 
power in his hands. Mr. Fox, on the other 
hand, warmly replied, that the character of 
the Lord-Lieutenant was immaterial. The 
Coustitutiou taught him to be jealous of 
granting extraordinary powers to any man ; 
and if there were a possibility of their being 
abused, the mild character of the man, in 
whom they were to be vested was the worst 
of arguments. If the powers were not 
necessary, they ought not to be granted ; 
and if necessary, and the Lord-Lieu tenant 
were not lit to be entrusted with them, he 
ought to be removed. Mr. Fox added 
that it was universally admitted that Ire- 
land was at that moment as tranquil as 
any county in England; why not as well, 
then, propose to suspend the Coustitutiou in 
England? But the bill passed — out of 
two hundred and thirteen members, only 
fifty-four voted against it. 

A : lie Catholic writer} 1 speaking 

of this debate says, " Ireland in the mean- 
time was loyal and tranquil, in spite of the 
aspersions and calumnies of the hired writers, 
and the unsupported charges of some of the 
Ministerialists in Parliament." Now Ire- 



* This meant the sadden attack upon a Spanish 

Beet in harbor, previous to a declaration of war ; 

:i His Majesty's speech contained ..lie .1- nf arms (like the seizure of the 

Danish licet under similar circumstances.) by which 
Great Bl - ii was enabled to boast that she 

" rated the seas. 1 

+ Plowdcu's l'ost-Union History. 



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land was, indeed, " tranquil " at that moment, 
but not "loyal," if loyalty means attach- 
ment to the King of England. Irish Catho- 
lics of that day who could be loyal, must have 
been something more, or a good deal less, 
than men. Tranquil they were ; but had 
never been better disposed to rise around 
the standards of a French army ; and, 
indeed, the English Government knew then, 
as they know now, that tranquillity is a bad 
omen for loyalty ; and that the Irish people 
are never so eager to shake off the British 
yoke, as when sheriffs present judges with 
white gloves. 

On the 16th of February, pursuant to 
adjournment, a numerous meeting of Catho- 
lic noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants, was 
held in Dublin, at which they unanimously 
entered into the following resolutions : First. 
That the Earl of Fingal, the Honorable 
Sir Thomas (now Lord) French, Sir Ed- 
ward Bellew, Counselor Denys Scully, and 
Mr. Ryan, should be appointed as a deputa- 
tion, to carry into effect the under-mentioned 
-instructions ; and that the other Roman 
Catholic Peers, (of whom Lords Gormans- 
town and Southwell were then present,) 
should be requested to accede to the depu- 
tation. Second. That the petition prepared 
by the Catholic committee, and reported by 
Lord Fingal to that meeting, should be 
then signed by Lord Fingal and the other 
Catholic gentlemen, and that the above- 
mentioned deputies should present it to Mr. 
Pitt, with a request, that he would bring it 
into Parliament. 

Now was seen the excessive duplicity of 
Lord Hardwicke. He had been selected 
from the mass of peerage, as the best quali- 
fied to resist the emancipation of Ireland, 
under the insidious mission of reconciling 
her to thraldom. The ordinary manoeuvres 
of the Castle upon Lord Fingal, and other 
leading men of the Catholic body, to induce 
them to hold back their petition had failed. 
His lordship could not consistently with his 
duty to his employers back, countenance, or 
recommend their petition, however just the 
claims, however worthy the claimants. But 
dow, under the British Minister's assurance 
of a decided majority against the question, the 
Irish Viceroy affected to favor the Catho- 
lics' application by discountenancing couuter- 



petitions, as encroaching upon the freedom 
of Parliamentary debate. He even did one 
act, which was intended as a proof of his 
sincerity : he dismissed the notorious Mr. 
John Giffurd from a lucrative post for having 
proposed and carried, in the Dublin corpora- 
tion, some violent resolutions against Catho- 
lic Emancipation. He thought the sacrifice 
of one man was a trifle ; and so punished 
Giffard for opposing a measure which he 
himself was doubly pledged to resist. 

The Catholic Deputies proceeded to Lon- 
don, and had their conference with Mr. Pitt, 
on the 12th of March. Eight deputies 
attended the conference, viz., the Earl of 
Shrewsbury, (Waterford and Wexford in 
Ireland,) Earl of Fingal, Viscount Gor- 
manstown, Lord Southwell, Lord Trimbles- 
town, Sir Edward Bellew, Counselor Denys 
Scully, and Mr. Ryan. They told Mr. Pitt 
they regarded him as their " sincere friend ;" 
that they hoped everything from his liberality 
and justice, and so urged him to present 
their petition to Parliament. 

Mr. Pitt declared " that the confidence 
of so very respectable a body as the Catho- 
lics of Ireland was highly gratifying to him ;" 
but he added that the time had not come ; 
there were obstacles ; that, in short, he would 
not present their petition at all. After many 
arguments and much urgency, they at hist 
entreated him only to lay it on the table of 
the House of Commons, they would autho- 
rize him to state to the House, that they did 
iwl press the immediate adoption of the mea- 
sure prayed for. 

Mr. Plowden, who had the best means of 
knowing what passed at this conference, says, 
with asperity, that Mr. Pitt " drily repeated 
his negative ;" and then adds : "He neither 
threw out a suggestion for their applying to 
any other channel, nor gave any ground for 
presuming, that the introduction of the 
petition through any Ministerial member 
would be likely to soften his opposition. 
For he very explicitly declared, that he 
should fed ii 'his duly to resist it. The only 
advice he condescended to offer, was to 
withdraw their petition altogether, or at all 
events to postpone it." * 



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* Mr Pitt might on this occasion have candidly 
acknowledged what Lord Hawkesbury publicly and 
officially declared in the House of Lords, March 26, 




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The " leading Catholics" found themselves 
now completely in the position of dupes : 
and they richly deserved it. for having as- 
sented to the destruction of their country's 
national independence, seduced by the pro- 
fessions of mi English Minister. At all 
events, the time was not yet come : nor the 
man. But a more vigorous race of Catho- 
lics was growing up; and in especial one 
bold, blue-eyed young man, who was then 
carrying his bag in the hall of the Four 
Courts — destined one day to hold the great 
leading brief in the mighty cause of six 
millions of his countrymen. O'Connell was 
not vet a leading Catholic; but was fast 
becoming well known in his own profession : 
and an Orange judge, in a party ease, pre- 
ferred to see any other advocate pleadtug 
before him. 

The Catholic Delegates next applied to 
Mr. l-'ox and Lord Grenville, who agreed 
to present the petition — one in the 1 
the other in the Commons, This was none 
on the 25th of March. 'When Lord Gran- 
ville moved in the House of Lords, that it 
should lie on the table. Lord Auckland rose 
with precipitancy, and observed with some 
warmth, that as far as his ears could catch 
the tenor of it, it went to overthrow the 
whole system of Church and State : and if 
the prayer of it were to be granted, he 
should soon see a Protestant Church without 
a Protestant congregation, and a Protestant 
King with a P.p.-: 1 gislature. He ex- 
prosed great anxiety, that the question 
should be calmly ami fully discussed, sum- 
moned the Reverend Bench to arm them- 
selves for the combat. Ac The venen 
Lord E :. objected even to the formal 
: the petitiou should be printed. 
After .Mr. Fox presented it in the House of 
Commons, the matter stood over for early 
day- in May, in both Houses of Parliament. 
Petitions against it were presented from 
the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
from the cities of London and Dub. in. the 
County Fermanagh, and other corporations 
public bodi - 



ISO", in debating the grounds of the • 
ministration's retiring from office; that, although Mr. 
rut had in 1801 gone out of office on thai question, 
yet ou iiis retui 



Lord Fitzwilliam, who was still a friend 
to the Catholics, and well remembered how 
Mr. Pitt had cheated Mm also upon that 
question, conceived the idea of bringing Mr. 
li rattan into the debate ; and, accordingly, 
induced the Honorable C. L. Pandas to va- 
cate his seat for the borough o( Malton, 
and Mr. Grattan was .returned for it. 

On the appointed day, the discussion in 
the Lords arose, on motion to commit 
the bill. After some other Peers had been 
heard, 11- Royal Highness the Duke of 
Cumberland, (an Orangeman,) gave his de- 
cided opposition to the motion before the 
Bouse, ami urged every resistance in his 
power to a "measure subversive of all the 
principles which placed the House of Brans- 
wick upon the throne of these realms." 

1 i Camden found full reason 
posing the motion in the grounds upon which 
the Irish Parliament had negatived the 
n, whilst he had the honor of being 
placed at the head of the Irish Govern- 
ment. 

Bishop of Durham, the wealthiest 
in Europe, and who naturally valued 
that Constitution in Church and State which 
had made him so, urged that the motion could 
not be acceded to without danger to the 
Church and State. It would be a direct 
surrender of the security of the best consti- 
tution in the world. 

Lord Redesdale made a very violent s(>eeeli 
against the motion. He said, "to pass 
such a measure would be to take the t. - 
and lauds from the Protestant hierarchy, 
and give them to the Catholic Bishops." 
He said, further, "If the Catholic hier- 
archy were abolished, something might W 
done to conciliate the Catholic body ; and 
to the generality o( that body, he was eon- 
lident, the aboliti in of the hierarchy would 
grateful." 

an Irish judge, ran over all 
the usual Protestant phrases, about the faith- 
lessness and cruelty of Catholics. He laid 
much stress upon certain " maps of the 
feited estates." which, he said, had been 
prepared, in order to guide the proceedings 
.. ...*■ Lord Carleton added a 

* Hi- lords - I ■ D»p of Ireland, 

prep&n antiquary, Mr. Charles OXtanor, 

of Baku • ; the situation of the tribe-land] 

of the ancient clans before the reign of Elizabeth. 






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singular legal opinion : " That the spiritua 
supremacy of tlic Church was by the law 
of this country vested in the Crown ; and 
surely it was a piece of the highest contu- 
macy in a sect of His Majesty's subjects to 
deny that supremacy, and to vest the control 
in a foreign potentate." 

Lord Buckinghamshire, like all other op- 
posers of the motion, spoke much of his 
own disposition to liberality and concilia- 
tion ; denied that any such pledge for eman- 
cipation, as had been alluded to, was or 
could have been given, and deemed it most 
in (I a minatory to allege, that the Catholics 
would be sore or irritated at the refusal of 
the prayer of the petition. 

After an astonishing mass of benighted 
spite and bigotry had been vented all night, 
at six in the morning a division was had. 
The motion to commit was rejected by a 
majority of one hundred and twenty-nine ; 
and so ended Emancipation in the Lords for 
that time. 

In the Commons, Mr. Fox introduced the 
same subject in a long and able speech. He 
gave a history of the Penal Code, and of 
its successive relaxations ; pointed out how 
useless and, at the same time, how irritating 
were the remaining links in t lie chain, which 
it was then proposed to strike off ; proved 
that the Catholics had received assurances, 
on the part of Mr. Pitt, which induced 
them, as a body, to remain passive at the 
time of the Union ; and that now those 
pledges ought to be redeemed. Mr. Fox 
concluded an excellent address, by saying : 
"He relied on the affection and loyalty of 
the Roman Catholics of Ireland ; but lie 
would not press them too far ; he would not 
draw the cord too tight. It was surely too 
much to expect, that they would always 
light, for a constitution, in the benefits of 
which they were assured, they never should 
participate equally with their fellow-subjects. 
Whatever was to be the fate of the peti- 
tion, he rejoiced at having had an opportun- 
ity of bringing it under their consideration, 
and moved to refer it to a committee of 
the whole House." 

The famous Doctor Duigenan had the 
courage to reply to Mr. Fox ; although he 
saw Grattan opposite, who already threat- 
ened him with his eye. He opposed the mo- 



tion in a long speech, which lasted above 
three hours ; the general spirit and sub- 
stance of which was to prove, that by the 
ancient councils of the Catholic Church, 
and her invariable doctrine, no Catholic 
could take an oath, from the obligations of 
which he could not at the will of the priest 
be released ; that the Catholics maintained 
no faith was to be kept with heretics, and 
such they considered every denomination 
of Christians but themselves ; and that it 
was impossible for a Catholic to be truly 
loyal to a Protestant King. He contended 
that the ninety-one persons who had signed 
the Catholic petition, did not by any means 
represent the body of the Irish Catholics ; 
he assumed, that none of the clergy had 
signed, because they still maintained the 
obnoxious doctrines which the best in- 
formed of the laity wished to renounce. 

He contended that the oath of supremacy 
(swearing that the King is head of the 
Church, ) was a mere simple oath of allegiance, 
and that it imported neither exclusion nor 
restriction to any but traitors. He com- 
mented largely upon the oath of canoni- 
cal obedience to the Pope taken by the 
Catholic Bishops ; inveighed fiercely against 
Doctor Hnssey, the lad' Catholic Bishop of 
Waterford, for forbidding his Hock to send 
their children to Protestant schools for educa- 
tion, and he drew the conclusion from Doctor 
Hussey's remark — that the loss or abandon- 
ment of his religion by the Catholic soldier 
might be felt in the day of battle, that in 
plain English, the Romish soldier might then 
turn upon and assassinate his officer or desert 
to the enemy. This measure would let in an uni- 
versal deluge of atheism, infidelity, and anar- 
chy. It would admit the Pope's supremacy 
over the Church of these realms ; it would 
violate the conditions of both Unions, with 
Scotland and with Ireland ; and to tender to 
His Majesty a bill of that import for his royal 
signature, would be to insult him, by supposing 
him capable of violating his Coronation oath. 

Mr. Grattan rose, and his rising was 
greeted with breathless attention. He had 
never appeared in that House before ; ami 
his fame as a noble orator, and incorruptible 
patriot, impressed the English legislators 
more than they would have liked to own to 
themselves. 



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Mr. Grattau said he rose to defend the 
Catholics from Doctor Duigenan/s attack, 
ami the Protestants from his defence. The 

question for their consideration, was not, as 
the learned member had stated, whether 
they should now qualify or still keep dis- 
qualified some few Roman Catholic gentle- 
men for seats in Parliament, or certain 
officers in the state; bnl whether, they 
would impart to a fifth portion of the popu- 
lation of their European empire a commu- 
nity in that, which was their vital prim 
and strength, ami thus confirm the integrity, 
and augment the power of the empire. 
That learned member had emphatically said. 
that the people of Ireland to be good 
Catholics must be had subjects ; thai the 
Irish Catholic is not, never was, and never 
can be, a faithful subject to a Protestant 
English King. Thus has he pronounced 
against his countrymen three curses — eternal 
war with each other ; eternal war with Eng- 
land; eternal peace with France. He fully an- 
swered the doctrinal parts of Doctor Duige- 
nan's speech, and concluded, that as the 
Catholic religion was professed by above 
two-thirds of all Christendom, it would 
follow, that Christianity was in general a 
curse ; but of his own countrymen lie had 
added, that they were depraved by religion, 
and rendered perverse by nativity ; that is 
to say. according to him, blasted by their 
Creator, and damned by their Redeemer, 
Mr ti rat tan closed an animated detail of the 
evils of the prescriptive system with observ- 
ing, that if they wished to strip rebellion of 
its hopes, and France of her expectations, 
they should reform their policy ; they would 
gain a conquest over their enemies when 
they had gamed a victory over themselves. 
The Speaker entered into long detail, of 
all the dealings of the Irish Government 
■with the Catholics on this question ; but it 
would be in \niu with our limits to attempt 
even a full abstract of this remarkable 
Speech. When the Parliament of Ireland 
(he said) rejected the Catholic petition, 
and assented to the calumnies uttered against 
the Catholic body. On that day she voted the 
Union ; and should they adopt a similar 
conduct, on that day they would vote the 
separation. He was surprised to see them 




search of old prejudices, preferring to buy 
foreign allies by subsidies, rather than to 
subsidize fellow-subjects by privileges. He 
figured them then drawn up, sixteen against 
thirty-six millions, and paralyzing one-fifth 
of their own numbers, by excluding them 
from some of the principal benefits of their 

constitution, at the very time they said, all 
their numbers were inadequate, unless in- 
spired by those very privileges. Such a 
system could not last ; if the two islands re- 
nounced all national prejudices, they would 
form a strong empire in the west to check, 
and ultimately to confound the ambition of 
the enemy. 

Mr. Pereev.il, a pious man, and one of 
tin' first of the race of "saints," (he was 
then Attorney-General.') opposed the motion, 
for the sort of reasons, and in the precise 
style of Borne conventicle preacher. "But," 
he said, "he remarked the indisposition of 
the House to listen to him; which he was 
not surprised at ; for he was conscious that, 
after the bla/.e vi Mr. tirattau's eloquence, 
everything that fell from him must appear 
vapid and uninteresting. Had he been in 
the Irish Parliament, he never would have 
Consented to grant the elective franchise, 
nor the establishment of Maynooth for edu- 
cating the Catholic." 

Mr. Perceval knew that he could safely 
pay a tribute to Mr. Grattan's eloquence, 
ami disparage himself with all the humility 
o( a "saint." He felt that the grand cause 
■ if Ascendancy was safe in that House, and 
that though Crattan spoke with the tongue 
of men and angels, he could not prevent or 
reverse the inevitable decision. 

The motion was supported by some lib- 
eral Englishmen, (for there is always a small 
minority of liberal Englishmen,) and warmly 
it -d by George Ponsonby ; when the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Pitt, 
arose. Hi- speech was highly characteris- 
tic. He said : — 

" He was favorably disposed to the gener- 
al principle ot the question, bul differing in 
many points from those who had introduced 
or supported the motion, he thought tit !o 
observe, that he hail never considered the 
ion, as involving any claim o( right 
Right was totally independent of circun* 



running about like growu-»:p children in | stances; crpeilLiu-y included the consider* 






ENC ...-yjt.i.^ 









tion of circumstances, and was wholly depend- 
ent upon them. Upon the principle of ex- 
pediency he felt that, entertaining as he did, 
a wish for the repeal of the whole penal 
code, and a regret that it had not been 
abolished, he felt, that in no possible case 
before the Union, could those privileges 
have been granted to the Catholics with 
safely to the existing Protestant establish- 
ment in Church and State. After that 
measure, he saw the matter in a different 
light ; though certainly no pledge was ever 
given to the Catholics that their claims 
should be granted ; [nobody had ever said 
such a pledge had been given ; the pledge 
he had given was, that he, Mr. Pitt, would 
support the measure, and would never hold 
office without making it a Ministerial ques- 
tion.] But he said there were irresistible 
obstacles [which he had taken care to raise 
up,] and should the question not be carried, 
and he saw no probability that it would, the 
only effect of agitating it would be to excite 
hopes that would never be gratified, and to 
give rise to expectations which were sure to 
terminate in disappointment." 

He next took another line of argument. 
They were anxious to conciliate the Cath- 
olics ; but let them not, iu so doing, irritate 
a much larger portion of their fellow-sub- 
jects. Whilst they drew together the bonds 
which united one class of the population, 
let them not give offence to another part of 
it, whose loyalty and attachment [to their 
own interests] had long been undoubted. 
He should disguise the truth, if he did not 
say the prevailing opinion against the peti- 
tion was strong and rooted. He should, 
therefore, act contrary to all sense of his 
duty, and inconsistently with the original 
line he had marked for his conduct, were 
he to countenance that petition in any 
shape, or to withhold giving his negative to 
the proposition for going into the committee." 
Sir John Newport, of Waterford, rose 
with the special object of rebutting the as- 
sertions contained in the petition from the 
ignorant Orange Corporation of Dublin. 
The corporators had asserted, (in utter ig- 
norance,) "that the Irish Catholics were 
placed on a footing of political power, not 
enjoyed by any other dissenters from an es- 
tablished Church iu Europe. Sir John New- 



port said he would give one instance to the 
contrary — he might have given many : — 

"The States of Hungary," he said, " re- 
sembled our Constitution more closely than 
any other Continental establishment. They 
formed a population of above seven millions, 
and had for centuries suffered all the evils 
of being divided by religion, distracted by 
the difference of their ■ tenets, and restric- 
tions on account of them. At length, in 
1101, at the most violent crisis of disturb- 
ance, a Diet was convened, at which a de- 
cree was passed, by which full freedom of 
religions faith, worship, and education, was 
secured to every sect, without exception. 
The tests and oaths were rendered unobjec- 
tionable to any native Hungarian, be his 
religion what it would ; and then came the 
clause which gave them precisely what these 
petitioners have in contemplation That 
' the public offices and honors, whether high 
or low, great or small, should be given to 
natural-bom Hungarians, who had deserved 
well of their country, and possessed the 
other requisite qualifications, without any re- 
spect to their religion.' The Diet consisted 
of nearly four hundred members, with a 
splendid civil establishment for the Roman 
Catholic religion. The measure was adopt- 
ed in a most critical moment, and it had suc- 
cessfully passed an ordeal of fourteen revo- 
lutionary years, equal, in fact, to the trial 
of a century less disturbed and agitated." 

Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald supported the 
motion, and solemnly declared, that when 
he voted for Union in the Irish Parlia- 
ment, it was in view aud contemplation of 
that measure, for no man could deny, that 
the impression then made on the Catholic 
mind was, that Ministers, as well as oppo- 
sition, were in favor of their claims. They 
expected, of course, that much more attention 
would be paid to them now. 

Colouel Archdall (a North of Ireland 
Orangeman,) asserted, that the bulk of the 
Roman Catholics were not anxious about 
the result of the question ; if the cause 
were a good oue, it had been very ill-cou- 
ducted ; and he gave the motion his decided 
negative. 

Sir John Cox Hippesley supported the 
motion to commit the bill ; and in order, as 
he said, to obviate the objections of those 



fa 



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who apprehended the supremacy of the Pope 
over Irish Catholics, he suggested that the 
Catholic Charch in Ireland, should be pnt 
upon the footing of the Gallican Chnrch ; in 
other word<. that the Crown should have a 
rcto upon the appointment of Bishops by the 
Pope. This was the first distinct meution 
of the veto in Parliament ; a qaestiou which 
afterwards led to much grave dissension in 
Ireland.* 

Honorable H. Augustus Dillon denied, 
that the question involved a party measure. 
It affected the safety of Ireland, and the 
vitality of the empire. The hearts of the 
Irish people had been alienated by martial 
law, and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
act, and by other severities and oppressions. 
W re that measure allowed to pass, such 
expedients would cease to be necessary, and 
the mass of brave and grateful people would 
present a firm, an iron bulwark for the pro- 
tection of the country against the designs of 
the enemy. 

On the whole, it was apparent in this 
famous debate, that all the lofty intellect, 

* Bat this was not the origin of the veto. It had 
been a favorite scheme of Mr. Pitt'- l< ■. in 

that year, an insidious proposal had been made to 
give a state endowment to Catholic Bishops in Ire- 
land, on certain conditions, amounting in principle to 
the Deto. Mr. Plowden relates that the prelates did 
not then fnlly appreciate the object of this proposal : 
which was no less than to buy them up, and make 
them a species of ecclesiastical police. Plowden 
tells us : — 

" It was admitted by a large number of the pre- 
lates, then convened in Dublin, that it ought to by 
thankfully accepted. 

'• They went a step further, and signed the following 
resolution : * That in the appointment of the prelates 
of the Roman Catholic religion, to vacant sees within 
the kingdom, such interference by the Government, as 
may enable it to be satisfied with the loyalty of the 
person appointed, is just, and ought to be agreed to.* 
And for the purpose of giving it effect, they further 
resolved, ' that after the usual canonical election, the 
president should transmit the name of the elected to 
Government, which in one month after snch transmiss- 
ion, should return the name of the elected, (if unob- 
nable,) that he might be confirmed by the Holy 
See. If he should be objected to by Government, the 
president on such communication, should, after the 
month, convene the electors, in order to choose some 
other candidate ' Mr Pitt never lost sight of this 
insidious negotiation, into which he had seduced a 
certain number of the unsuspecting prelates. This 
was the foundation-stone of that deep-laid plan of 
Mr. Pitt and his ass - - to seduce or force the 
Irish Catholics into the same state of schism from the 
Church of Rome, as that which took place in 
land in the reign of Henry VIII. This was the 
of that vital question of teto ."' 



and all the honest principles in the British 
Parliament were in favor of the measure of 
Catholic Emancipation. But that was a 
contemptible minority. The question, upon 
the motion of Mr. Fox, was negatived 
— ayes, 124; nays, 336; majority, 318. 

So Catholic Emancipation was set at rest 
in both Houses of the British Parliament ; 
and the " Protestant Interest," and the 
Constitution in Chnrch and State, were 
saved, it was hoped, forever. 



CHAPTER XLTII. 

1804—1806. 

Prosecution of Judge Fox — His Offence. Enforcing 
Law on Orangemen — Prosecution of Judge John- 
son — His Offence, Censuring the Irish Government 
— Decline of Pitfs Power— Castlereagh Defeated 
in Down County — Successes of Buonaparte— Cry 
for Peace— Death of Mr. Pitt— Wnig Ministry— Mr. 
Fox — His Opinion of the Union — First Whispv of 
■■Repeal" — Release of State Prisoners — Dismissal 
of Lord Redesdale as Chancellor — Duke of Bedford 
—The Catholics Cheated Again — Equivo- 
cation of the Viceroy — Ponsonby — Curran"s Pro- 
motion — The Armagh Orangemen — Mr. Wilson the 
'.rate. 

Some very extraordinary proceedings took 
place in this and subsequent sessions of 
Parliament, w ith respect to two of the most 
irreproachable of the Irish judges — .Mr. 
Justice Fox and Mr. Justice Johnson. 

In the summer of 1S03, Judge Fox had 
gone the Northwest Circuit, a region 
which was then predominated over by a 
few great Orange magnates, and magistrates 
who were their very humble servants, and 
the savage tyrants of the poor country 
people, who were principally Catholics. As 
senior judge it was Judge Fox's duty to 
charge the Grand Jaries ; and in Longford, 
at Enniskillen, and Lifford, he made them 
very paternal and loyal addresses ; intended, 
as usual, for the whole of the people of 
those counties. Endeavoring to awaken 
them to a high sense of the dangers, which 
hovered over them from external and inter- 
nal foes, be called upon the exertion of their 
best energies. He reminded them of the 
recent horrors of the 23d of July, and 
warned them of the dangers of the leaders 
of that rebellion still remaining at large. 



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PROSECUTION OF JUDGE FOX HIS OFFENCE. 



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He strongly commented on the nature and 
extent of that insurrection, and on the 
origin and motives of the persons engaged 
in it. He exhorted them to union amongst 
themselves — to forget their religious animosi- 
ties, by iv/tic/i the country had been so long 
weakened and divided, and to join in present- 
ing a dutiful and loyal address to the throne, 
praying His Majesty to strengthen the exe- 
cutive government of the country, &c. 

Now, if Judge Fox had done nothing 
more than utter in the ears of an Orange 
Grand Jury the words above printed in 
italics, he could never have been forgiven. 
But he did worse. When he came to Ennis- 
killeu, and proceeded as his duty was to 
deliver the jail there, the names of two 
prisoners were returned to him by the jailer, 
who had been committed by the Earl of 
Enniskillen, as a magistrate ; but without 
any offence being charged against them. 
Their names were Breslin and Maguire. 
The committals were called for and pro- 
duced — they specified no offence ; but in 
one of them was an order to keep poor 
Breslin in solitary confinement. The judge, 
thereupon, ordered the prisoners to be 
brought to the bar, in order to inquire of 
them, the facts alleged against them. The 
jailer then informed the judge, that those 
two prisoners were taken out of his custody 
on the 18th of August, (that is during the 
assizes,) by a military guard sent for the 
purpose.* The judge felt this to be a high 
indignity offered to His Majesty's commis- 
sion ; and inquired, if Lord Enniskillen 
were in town. On learning that he was at 
his country seat, (Florence Court,) he de- 
sired a friend of his lordship's to go over 
to him with full instructions to relate the 
whole faithfully, make his compliments, and 
entreat his lordship's attendance in court on 
the next day, which was the last day of the 
assizes. The judge having waited in court 
to as late an hour as he could, for the ap- 
pearance of Lord Enniskillen ; and having 

* Maguire never was heard of more. Breslin was 
[jiitri.-rl off by soldiers to a military prison, where he 
n-as kept a longtime; then tried by court-martial on 
the charge of trying to seduce a soldier to desert, 
convicted, and sentenced to be hung. He cut his 
throat to avoid the execution of the sentence, but 
the wound was not mortal ; and he was hung near 
Enniskillen, with the rope forced into the bleeding 
gash. 



repeatedly inquired for him, he found it his 
duty upon his lordship's non-appearance to 
fine him in each of those cases £100 — - 
£200 in all. But the audacity of the judge 
in looking into the doings of Orange magis- 
trates did not stop here. In the same 
county, Fermanagh, Mr. Stewart was fined 
£50 for committing one Neale Ford to the 
jail of Etmiskilleu without any charge on 
oath having been made against him, aud 
releasing him on the eve of the assizes 
without taking bail for his appearance. Mr. 
Pallas was Sued £20 as well as Mr. Web- 
ster for releasing without bail a prisoner 
charged with a capital offence. But the 
prisoner was of the religion of Mr. Pallas. 

When the judge came to Lifford, in Don- 
egal, amongst the presentments tendered 
by the Grand Jury to the judge for his _/?<;£ 
was one for a very large sum to be levied 
upon occupiers of land, under pretence of 
repaying Government for money advanced 
to pay bounties to three hundred and fifty 
men, the quota of that county under the 
" Army of Reserve act." But not one 
man of that force had been recruited ; 
although it was the duty of the Marquis 
of Abercorn, as governor of the county, to 
have caused that recruiting to be effected. 
The presentment of the Grand Jury then 
was a fraud upon the public. Judge John- 
son refused to put his fiat on it, and publicly 
censured Lord Abercorn for neglect of duty 
— Lord Abercorn, the great patron and 
favorite of the Orange Society of thaG 
region. Such a judge as this, it was evi- 
dent, was somehow to be got rid of. 

Many months after the occurrences above- 
mentioned, the Marquis of Abercorn, in a 
most malignant and vindictive speech in the 
House of Lords, brought the conduct of 
Judge Fox before their lordships. He said, 
" that he had grave and serious matters of 
complaint to bring before their lordships 
against one of His Majesty's judges, in 
which the administration of justice was 
deeply concerned." 

There ensued one of the most extraor- 
dinary state prosecutions ever seen in any 
country — the House of Lords which had 
no original jurisdiction, undertaking to make 
itself a court to try a judge on a criminal 
charge. The distinct charges were numer- 



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ous, including many cases of " unjust fines," 
"excessive" fines, partiality, seeking to 
bring Lord Abercorn into contempt, casting 
censure on Lord Euniskiilen, impeding the 
course of justice, and the like ; and the Pro- 
testant interest of the North of Ireland was 
filled with anxiety for the result. Lord 
Abereorn pressed these prosecutions with 
wonderful virulence ; Lord Hardwicke and 
the Irish Government aided it.* The pub- 
lic purse was opened to pay for it. A great 
mass of evidence, (all exparte,) was pro- 
duced. The proceedings lasted three years ; 
and the excellent judge was ruined in health 
and fortune. At last, on motion of Lord 
Grenville, the House of Lords voted, by a 
small majority, that the proceedings should 
be quashed. The cost to the public in the 
prosecution of this ease amounted to £30,- 
000. 

On the division in the House of Lords, 
the old Lord Thurlow voted for getting rid 
of the whole matter, as unconstitutional and 
vexations. He said it was a proceeding " to 
gratify the malignant resentments of indi- 
viduals who fancied themselves insulted and 
exposed by any instance of virtuous inde- 
pendence upon the Bench." 

Lord Eldon voted for continuing the pro- 
secution to the end ; and the Duke of Cum- 
berland, (Queen Victoria's uncle,) an Or- 
angeman, and special friend of Lord Aber- 
corn, strongly opposed Lord Grenville's mo- 
tion. " He trusted," he said, " and expected, 
that the matter would not be put off sine, 
die." His Royal Highness was naturally 
of opinion that no justice could be done in 
Ireland if there were to be judges going 
round checking the wholesome severities of 
the very masters of lodges. 

It is but justice towards the British House 
of Lords to admit, that after speudiug the pub- 
lic time and the public money for three years, 
iu prosecuting a virtuous judge, because he 
was a virtuous judge, did at last grow 
ashamed of the foul trausaction, and by a 
small majority, thrust it out of Court. 

The case of Mr. Justice Johnson, one of 
the Justices of the Common Pleas, was 

* The Marquis read, as a part of his speech be- 
fore the Lords, a letter from the Lord-Lieutenant of 
Ireland to the British Minister, in which the judicial 
conduct of Mr. Justice Pox, on the Xorthwest Cir- 
cuit, was arraigned in terms of marked reprobation. 



even more extraordinary. Some anonymous 
Irishman, signing himself " Juverna," had, 
in November of 1803, immediately after 
Robert Emmet was executed, published a 
scries of letters in Cobbett's Political llesfis- 
ler, containing severe animadversious upon 
Lord Redesdale, Lord Hardwicke and his 
government, upon the public proceedings of 
Secretaries Wickham and Marsden, upon 
a charge delivered by Mr. Justice Osborne, 
and other matters. No government in Ire- 
laud ever before had the press so thoroughly 
corrupted or intimidated as that of Lord 
Hardwicke ; and the first of the "Jiu-enm" 
letters was sent to Mr. Cobbett avowedly 
because every printer in Dublin had refused 
to publish it. The sturdy William Cobbett, 
(who was then, and for many years after, a 
sharp thorn in the side of Pitt and Castle- 
reagh,) admitted the letter at once to his 
Register; and then several others. These 
letters excited much attention, and extreme- 
ly exasperated the Government, because they 
were evidently the production of some per- 
sonage highly placed, who knew the secret 
machinations of the Irish officials against 
the people. 

Great efforts were made to discover the 
audacious "Juverna ;" but, in the meantime, 
as the next best thing, the Attorney-Gener- 
al prosecuted Cobbett himself for publish- 
ing the "libels." His trial took place on 
.May it, 1804. 

Cobbett had an interval of repose from 
persecution of two days allowed him, when, 
at the suit of the Right Honorable W. C. 
Plunket, Solicitor-General of Ireland, he 
was again called on to sustain an action for 
libels contained in letters sigued "Juverna," 
published in the Register, reflecting on Mr. 
Plunket's conduct on the occasion of Robert 
Emmet's trial. Cobbett was again con- 
victed, and damages were awarded to the 
plaintiff to the amount of ii.iOO. 

It was believed, by the Irish Government, 
that the letters in question, had been written 
by Judge Johnson. On the second trial 
of Mr. Cobbett, the manuscript of the letter 
relating to Lord Plunket, was produced ; 
and witnesses were easily found to swear 
that it was in the handwriting of the Judge. 
The Government, therefore, determined to 
prosecute him al=o, and to bring him over to 



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London for trial, as the publication had 
been in the County Middlesex. But there 
was a difficulty in the way ; there was no 
law then, no law in existence, giving power 
to remove offenders from Ireland to England, 
or vica versa, for trial. But Parliament was 
in session, and a new law was quickly pro- 
cured, the two principal persons on the 
committee which framed it, being Mr. Per- 
ceval, brother-in-law of Lord Redesdale, and 
Mr. Yorke, brother of Lord Hardwieke, 
who were two of the persons complaining of 
being libelled. 

A warrant was issued to bring the judge 
to London, and he was arrested at his house 
near Dublin. Tims he was taken under an 
ex-post facto act, which his counsel contended 
could not operate retrospectively. 

The matter was discussed, during six days, 
in the King's Bench in Ireland, in Janu- 
ary, 1805. The legality of the warrant 
was confirmed. In the meantime, the perse- 
cuted judge procured a writ of Habeas Cor- 
pus from the Court of Exchequer, where the 
"case was argued February 4th and 7th, and, 
subsequently, in the Court of Common Pleas ; 
and in both courts, the arrest was held good. 
Tlie judge was then brought over to Lon- 
don, and put on his trial before Lord Ellen- 
borough, November 23, 1805. 

Lord Ellenborough, staunch and consis- 
tent — always ready to lend the weight of 
his judicial character and position to the 
Government on any seditious libel case prose- 
cution, unjustly on this occasion threw dis- 
credit on the respectable witnesses produced 
by Judge Johnson, to prove that the MSS. 
of the libel prosecuted, was not in the hand- 
writing of the defendant. But the jury, 
misdirected by Lord Ellenborough, brought 
in a verdict of "guilty;" the Attorney- 
General, however, never applied for judg- 
ment. 

It was true, indeed, that Judge Johnson 
was the author of the letters of "Jucerua ;" 
which were a very just, necessary, and well- 
merited castigatiou of the Irish Government ; 
yet he was found guilty on bad evidence, for 
the manuscript was not his.* 

* '• The libel above-mentioned I know (on the 
authority of t.ord Cloncurry), though the production 
of Judge Johnson, was sent to Cobbett in the .hand- 
writing of the judge's daughter."— Madden. 



The matter, however, was pressed no 
further. It was judged sufficient to dis- 
grace a judge of the land by a criminal con- 
viction, to ruin him by heavy expenses in- 
curred in his defence, and to render the jus- 
tice of Westminster Hall auxiliary to the 
police of Dublin. But the prosecution had 
caused great scandal by its unusual features ; 
and in order to put as quiet a close to the 
matter as possible, the Attorney-General was 
directed, and he, accordingly, did enter a nolle 
prosequi on the record, as of Trinity Term 
1S06. The learned judge, whose health was 
much on the decline, was allowed to retire 
upon a pension for his life.f 

The treatment of these two honest judges 
was a significant warning to the judges of 
Ireland, first that they were not to embarrass 
Orange justice with thdr justice, and second, 
that they were not to presume to say that a 
Lord-Lieutenant, or Chaucellor, or Secre- 
tary, could do wrong.- 

In this year, Mr. Pitt's political power 
begau to decline ; and many of his partizans 
fell from him. Lord Sid mouth deserted 
him on the occasion of the impeachment of 
Lord Melville. Mr. Foster, the Irish 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, had tendered 
his resignation ; and it was known that 
Lord Hardwieke was resolved to tender his. 
The star of the great Minister was growing 
pale ; his Continental combinations against 
Buonaparte, were all failures ; and men were 
already beginning to speculate upon their 
chances under Mr. Pitt's successor, about 
the time when Parliament was suddenly 
prorogued on July 12th. 

The defection of Lord Sidmouth, the im- 
peachment of Lord Melville and consequent 
shiftiegs in the Cabinet, created the necessity 
of Lord Castlereagh's vacating his seat for 
the County Down, in order to accept the 
office of Secretary of State for the Colo- 
nies and War Department. He sought a re- 
election for Down ; but in that county, there 
was a very strong feeling against him, on ac- 
count of the outrage put upon the Marquis 

f This excellent judge, afterwards in his retirement 
in France, wrote a very excellent treatise on the 
"Military Defence of Ireland," under the name of 
Captain Philip Roche Fermoy. This work has speci- 
ally in view, a defence of the country by the inhabi- 
tants of it, against the English ; and has been much 
studied since that time. 



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was, as usual, placed in the back-ground. 
lie had upon his hands the difficult business 
of negotiating a peace with France ; and 
his fast-failing health did not permit him to 
go into the details of Irish appointments 
and Irish grievances. 

Yet, Charles James Fox was of a char- 
acter noble, open, and generous ; as oppo- 
'(SiR site to Mr. Pitt, in personal qualities, as he 
was in his place in the House of Commons. 
If he had, at this juncture, accepted the po- 
sition of Viceroy — if he had seen with his 
own eyes the insolent and audacious cruelty 
of the Orange magistracy, which was now 
strong enough to brave both law and Gov- 
ernment — the too-patient suffering of the 
great mass of the people, and the decaying 
trade and industry of the towns — it would 
Sa, have been impossible to repress indignation 
in such a nature as his. But he had 
been specially brought into power for the 
purpose of negotiating a peace with France ; 
and this was enough for his diminished en- 
ergies. Lord Grenville, the Premier Min- 
ister, who had been an active agent in 
carrying the Union, was by no means so 
favorable to Ireland as the Foreign Secre- 
tary. Lord Sid mouth was the boasted and 
pledged opponent to Catholic concession, un- 
der every possible variation of political occur- 
rence. The friends and cBoperators of Lord 
Redesdale, the Attorney and Solicitor-Gen- 
eral, retained their situations and confi- 
dence ; Mr. Alexander Marsden, the secret 
adviser and machinist of the late adminis- 
trations, was not displaced. The whole of 
the Orange magistracy remained undisturb- 
ed in the commission of the peace. Even 
Major Sirr was still seen, as the tutelary 
guardian of the Castle-yard. No floating 
patronage was removed from any promoter 
of the late, to countenance or encourage the 
supporters of the new, system. The name 
of Grattan, the friend and father of Irish 
liberty, was not seen on the list of changes, 
and Mr. Curran, the unwavering asserter 
of Ireland's rights and freedom, remained 
nearly five months unpromoted. 

As for the Catholics, they were deluded 
again. They soon found that there was no dis- 
position to disquiet the United Kingdom with 
an importunate insistance upon any claims 
of theirs. But at the first moment of the 



V 



change of Viceroys, they were so confident 
of their affairs being now in good hands, 
that they resolved not to press the matter 
too keenly. A newly-constitnted Catholic 
Committee met in March, before the Duke 
of Bedford had yet arrived, at Mr. M'Don- 
nell's house, in Allen Court, and there re- 
solved, with the exception of two dissent- 
ing voices, that it was inexpedient to 
press a discussion of the Catholic question, 
during the present session, of Parliament ; 
and that it would be proper to present an 
address, on behalf of the Catholics, to the 
Duke of Bedford, congratulating him on his 
appointment to the chief government of 
Ireland, and expressing their confidence in 
the wisdom and abilities of the illustrious 
personages who composed the present ad- 
ministration. 

Indeed, nothing cau well be conceived 
more helpless than the management of the 
Catholic cause during the whole of the Bed- 
ford administration. A Mr. Ryan, a mer- 
chant, who had a large house in Marlborough 
street, threw his house open to informal 
meetings of active members of the Commit- 
tee, and entered into correspondence with 
Mr. Fox, as an authorized agent, or rather 
leader, amongst the Catholics. This pro- 
duced jealousies and discontents ; other meet- 
ings were held in various places ; where con- 
siderable diversity of opinion made itself 
manifest, chiefly on this question — should 
they press for emancipation at once, or await 
a more convenient season ? Many gather- 
ings of Catholic gentlemen and merchants 
took place in some of the counties, and 
strong resolutions were passed. It was 
manifest that a good share of public spirit 
had been roused amongst them ; but they 
lacked organization, and sage and bold 
counsel. The new Viceroy received their 
ultra-loyal and rather mealy-mouthed ad- 
dresses with courtesy ; but answered them 
with equivocation, For example, one ad- 
dress, from the Catholics of Dublin, signed 
by Lords Fingal, Southwell, Kenmare, 
Gormanstown, &c, was presented at the 
Castle on the 29th of April, 1806. It 
closes in this humble style : — 

" May your Grace permit ns to conclude 
with the expression of those sentiments, in 
which all Irish Catholics can have but one 



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voice. Bound as we are to the fortunes of 
the empire, by a remembrance of what is past, 
anil the hope of future benefits, by our pre- 
ference and by our oaths, should the wise 
generosity of our lawgivers vouchsafe to 
crown that hope which their justice inspires, 
it would no longer be our duty alone, but 
our pride, to appear the foremost against 
approaching danger ; and, if necessary, to 
remunerate our benefactors by the sacrifice 
of our lives. - ' 

And the gracious reply ends with these 
words; an admirable sample of the phrase- 
ology with which the Catholics were enter- 
tained for many years : — ■ 

" In the high situation in which His Ma- 
jesty has been graciously pleased to place 
me, it is my first wish, as it is my first duty, 
to secure to all classes and descriptions of 
His Majesty's subjects in this part of the 
United Kingdom, the advantages of a mild 
and beneficent cul ministration of the law. 
With this important object in view, I enter- 
tain no doubt that the Roman Catholic in- 
habitants of the city of Dublin will, by 
their loyalty to the King, their attachment 
to the Constitution, and their affection for 
their fellow-subjects, afford the strongest re- 
commendation to a favorable consideration 
of their interests.'' 1 

His Grace takes care to say their "in- 
terests ; " but it was not their interests they 
were pleading for ; it was their rights ; and 
of rights he said not a word. 

But while rival aspirants for leadership 
of the Catholics were addressing excited 
meetings, their dissensions were suddenly 
somewhat allayed by ostentatious warnings 
contained in the Government newspapers, 
that they were iu danger of bringing them- 
selves within the penalties of the Con- 
vention act. It was a sore and embar- 
rassing suggestion for the struggling Cath- 
olics. 

The Convention act, which passed in 
1 193, was one of the baleful measures of the 
Fitt system, to muzzle the victim before the 
infliction of torture ; to render the voice of 
the subject equally powerless for preven- 
tion and redress ; and, in truth, this formid- 
able act has remained ever since one of the 
surest safeguards of British domination in Ire- 



land, 



as well as one of the conspicuous 

57 



badges of provincialism ; for there is no 
such law in England. 

Lord Chancellor Fonsonby, in whose 
hands was most of the patronage of Ireland, 
was not found to exercise that patronage as 
had been expected by his friends ; nor is it 
interesting, at this time, to enter into those 
personal anil political claims which were 
either admitted or rejected. Yet there is 
one case which interests every reader, even 
at this late day, because it is the case of the 
illustrious John Philpot Curran. He had 
been promised, and did expect, on a change 
of Ministry, a legal position commensurate 
with his services and standing at, the bar. 
The new Lord-Chancellor neglected him for 
five months, and then offered him the place 
of Master of the Rolls, the second Judge 
in Equity. It was not satisfactory to Cur 
ran, for several reasons ; his practice had 
been more in law than in equity ; and, be- 
sides, this place carried with it no political 
influence. In his letter to Grattan, on this 
subject, he says: "When the party with 
which I had acted so fairly had, after so 
long a proscription, come at last to their na- 
tural place, I did not expect to have been 
stuck up into a window, a spectator of the 
procession." He took the place, however, 
for the sake of unanimity in the party. A sin- 
gular demonstration of party malignity was 
made on this occasion by some of Mr. Cur- 
ran's professional brethren, at a very numer- 
ous bar-meeting, convened to take into con- 
sideration an address to his honor on his 
late promotion. His talents were too trans- 
cendent, his spirit too independent, his prin- 
ciples too Irish, not to have enemies, who 
would openly oppose this just tribute to his 
splendid genius and unrivaled fame. Th» 
notice of the intended meeting had no sooner 
been published, than the prominent support- 
ers of the Ascendancy set every engine to 
work to prevent, embarrass, and defeat so 
critical an appeal to the virtue and inde- 
pendence of the Irish bar upon the brightest 
ornament of their profession, and the staunch 
and incorruptible friend of their country. 
On the 1th of July, the meeting took place, 
consisting of two hundred and fifty gentle- 
men of the bar, of whom one hundred and 
eighty only chose to divide. Of these, 
one hundred and forty-six voted for the ad- 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



dress ; thirty-four opposed it. The question 
was warmly debated for several hours. In 
opposition to, and defiance of the professional 
] lowers and political influence of Messrs. 
Saurin and Bushe, the spirited independence 
of the bar was honorably asserted, and the 
talent, integrity, and virtue of the country 
triumphed over the jealousies and intrigues 
of the system and its abettors. 

While the Catholics found themselves 
once more thrust back from the threshold 
of that Constitution which they so much 
longed to cuter, the Northern Orangemen, 
on their side, (who had been a little nervous 
at first about the advent of these Whigs,) 
soon found that they had no cause for alarm. 
A very singular correspondence passed 
this summer between Secretary Elliott and 
Mr. Wilson, a Tyrone magistrate, touching 
certain outrages perpetrated on Catholics in 
his neighborhood, and particularly, the burn- 
ing down the house of a man named O'Neill, 
a hatter. This outrage was done by night, 
without any provocation ; and was alleged 
to have been perpetrated in mere wanton- 
ness hy a mob of Orangemen coming out of 
a lodge, and headed by two sons of Mr. 
Yerner, a magistrate, and himself a famous 
Orangeman. Mr. Wilson's representations 
were so earnest, demanding inquiry and re- 
dress, that Mr. Sergeant Moore was sent 
down to the neighborhood, accompanied by 
a Crown Solicitor, to investigate the facts. 
Mr. Plowden affirms, on the authority of 
Mr. Wilson, probably, that Sergeant Moore, 
on his arrival, put himself in communication 
with the Messrs. Verner, the accused house- 
burners, to procure him evidence of what 
took place. " The evidences were brought 
forward by the young Messrs. Yerner ; but 
lie could not get anything out of them, 
(after the most strict examination,) which 
could tend towards the crimination of these 
gentlemen. The house certainly was burn- 
ed ; but the incendiaries could not be iden- 
tified. It was true, the two young Messrs. 
Yerner were there, but only as spectators, 
lfter the house was destroyed ; but nothing 
ippeared to justify an opinion that either 
of those gentlemen was concerned in the 
outrage." Of course, the learned Sergeant 
returned as wise as he came. 

Some days after Mr. Wilson was sum- 





moned to Dublin, and had an interview with 
Lord-Chancellor Ponsonby, who questioned 
him as to the outrage, and as to the in- 
quiry. Mr. Wilson attempted to make some 
comment upon the way which the Sergeant 
hail taken for arriving at the facts — the 
Chancellor twice interrupted him with great 
energy to declare, that Mr. Sergeant. Moore's 
conduct entitled him to, and possessed the 
warmest approbation of Government. Mr. 
Wilson made some observations on the state 
of the magistracy in his part of the country, 
and the Chancellor asked, how he proposed 
to remedy the evil ? Mr. Wilson replied, 
that the only effectual mode would be, by 
issuing a general new commission. This 
would not give any partial offence ; and 
care afterwards should be taken not to ad- 
mit any improper persons into it. His 
lordship replied by a smile. This ended 
his personal communications with Govern- 
ment ; but not his correspondence. He 
wrote several times again on the subject ; 
but without effect. He applied to have his 
nun commission, as a magistrate, extended 
from Tyrone into Armagh, (as he dwelt on 
the border,) in order that he might have 
some power to protect the poor Catholics, 
who lived in daily and nightly terror under 
the shadow of the original Orange Lodge, 
and in that very neighborhood which had 
been the scene of the " Hell-or-Connaught" 
exterminations, ten years earlier ; but Mr. 
Wilson's application was refused. This af- 
fair would be in itself too trilling to occupy 
space in a general narrative like the present, 
but that it is, unfortunately, only one ex- 
ample of very much of the same kind of 
wanton oppression and official connivance 
which made the North of Ireland itself a 
hell for the Catholic people, during many a 
year since — and which is by no means over 
at this day. 

Poor Mr. Wilson, who was so Quixotic 
as to interest himself for the oppressed 
Catholics of Tyrone and Armagh, after the 
refusal of an Armagh commission to that 
gentleman came to be known, was himself 
subjected to the outrages of the Protestant 
" wreckers." His range of offices, filled 
with hay, was burned down one night ; and 
as he still continued to importune the Secre- 
tary and the Chancellor 



I 



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lNG . UttiMBos.^ 











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behalf, not of himself, but of his persecuted 
neighbors, he was finally (3d of July, 1807,) 
deprived of the commission of the peace for 
Tyrone, by a regular writ of Supersedeas. 



CHAPTER XL VIII. 

1808—1807. 

Revenue and Debt of Ireland — Rapid Increase of 
Debt — Drain of Wealth from Ireland— Character 
of the Imports and Exports — Rackrents, Tithes, 
&c. — Distress of the People— The "Threshers" — 
Threshers Hung— Catholic Meetings — Increase 
of Maynooth Grant — From Apprehension of the 
Irish College in France — Catholic Officers' Bill — To 
Promote Depopulation — Bill Abandoned — Change 
of Ministry — The King Demands a No-Popery 
Pledge — Duke of Cumberland — Perceval Adminis- 
tration — Camden and Castlereagh in Office— Xo- 
Popery — Recruiting in Ireland— John Keogh on 
Catholic Officers' Bill- -O'Connell— Too-Easy "Grati- 
tude of the Irish towards Whigs — Populace Draw 
the Duke of Bedford's Coach. 

Ireland, until the period of the consoli- 
dation of the National Debts, had a separ- 
ate Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and the 
actual Chancellor, Sir John Newport, in 
bringing forward his Irish Budget, iu this 
session of 1806, made as favorable a repre- 
sentation of the finances of the country as 
possible, according to the usual custom of 
Finance Ministers. Everything, according 
to him " afforded proofs of the increase of 
prosperity and confidence in tlue Government." 
The revenue of Ireland for the year he pro- 
posed to increase, from £3,360,000 to £3,- 
800,000, by means of several new taxes ; 
but later in the session Sir John Newport 
brought in a bill " for relief of the Irish 
poor." On his financial statement, Mr. Parnell 
drew the attention of the House to the general 
financial situation of the country, as repre- 
sented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
himself. He calculated, that were the debt 
of Ireland to increase with the same rapid- 
ity as at present for fifteen years, it would 
at that period amount to £120,000,000. 
He, therefore, called upon Ministers to adopt 
some efficient measures for restraining the 
progress of so alarming an evil. 

Mr. Parnell either did not know, or pre- 
tended not to know, that Ministers did not 
regard this as an alarming evil at all, and 
that it was precisely for this, amongst other 



r m 



great objects, the Union had been effectuat- 
ed. Mr. Parnell also fell short in his esti- 
mate of the rate of future increase of our 
debt : — "So well have British book-keepers 
worked our account, that, within eleven years |S3 
(in 1817) our debt was found to amount, not 
to 120,000,000, but to£130, 561, 037, and so 
brought Ireland up to the condition of in- 
debtedness which entitled her to share equal- 
ly in all the public liabilities of England." 

The truth is, that although from the 
increase of population, and, therefore, of con- 
sumption, the actual amount of taxes now 
ground out of the Irish people was increasing 
year by year, those taxes were becoming 
more and more difficult to pay, and were 
reducing great numbers of people continually 
to abject poverty ; so that at the very mo- 
ment when the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
was felicitating Parliament upon Ireland's 
financial prosperity, he had also to bring in 
a bill for relief of the poor. The system of 
drainage of Ireland for imperial purposes 
was even then in full operation, although nut 
so highly developed as we have seen it since 
that day. There were some circumstances 
then existing, which in part counteracted . 
that imperial policy — iu the first place, the 
enfranchisement of Catholics as voters, iu 
1793, had considerably promoted and in- 
creased the practice of giving leases of small 
farms ; so as to create freeholders to support 
their landlords' interests at county elections ; 
and next, the war in Europe, though occas- 
ionally interrupted by short seasons of armed 
peace, maintained a good price for all kinds 
of agricultural produce ; because the British 
Government was constantly obliged to victual 
o-reat fleets and garrisons in all quarters of 
the world ; and as such large numbers of the 
cultivators of the land had leases, their in- 
creased profits could not be immediately 
appropriated by their landlords in the shape 
of increased rents, and so carried off to Eng- 
land- to be spent ; an inconvenience and loss 
to the " sister-kingdom " which was after- 
wards fully repaired by the abolition of the 
" forty-shilling freeholders," as will be seen 
further on. 

In the meantime, however, the war cer- 
tainly enhanced the profits of Irish agricul- 
ture ; and although that increase was not 
altogether for behoof of the people theui- 



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HISTORT OF IRELAND. 



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dress ; thirty-four opposed it. The question 

w ras warmly debated For several hours. In 

tion to, and defiance of the profi • 

- and political influence of Messrs. 
Saurin and Bushe, the spirited independence 
of the bar was honorably asserted, and the 
talent, integrity, and virtue of the country 
triumphed over the jealousies and intrigues 

-• sti m and it- - 

While the Catholics found themselves 
once more thrust back from the threshold 
of that Constitution which they so much 
longed to enter, the Northern Orangemen, 
on their o had been a little nervous 

at first about the advent of these W igs 
soon found that they had no cause for alarm. 
A very singular correspondence passed 
this summer betweeu Secretary Elliott and 
Hi Wilson, a Tyrone magisfar I touching 
certain outrages perpetrated on Cat: 

_-:iborhood, aud particularly, the burn- 
ing down the house of a man named x 
a hatter. This outrage was done by night, 
without any provocation : and was alleged 
to have been perpetrated in r.: 

a mob of iremen coming out of 

- -\ and headed by t sons of Mr. 
Terner, a magistrate, and himself a famous 
Orangeman. Mr Wife n's repr - 

were so earnest, demanding inquiry and re- 

ss thai Mr. Sergeant Moore was - 
down to the neighborhood, accompanied by 
S Ikitor, to investigate the facts. 
Mr. Tlowden affirms, on the auth> : 
Mr Wilson, probably that Serg 

d, put himself in communi 
with the Messrs. Temer. the accused house- 
burners, to procure him evidence of what 
took place. " The evidences were b 
forward by " J g Messrs Verner; but 
he could n get anything it of them, 
• examination,] which 

could tend t - - .ination of these 

geutlemeu. The house certainly was burn- 
ed ; but the ine- • ■ inld not be iden- 
tified. It was 1 

Terner were there, but only as - 
ifter the house was - I ; but nothing 

ippear . . opinion that either 

" those g vtlemen was concerned in the 
itrage," the leant . - a 

returued as wise as he came. 



moned to Dublin, and had an interview with 
Lord-Chancellor Ponsouby, who questioned 
him as to the outrage, and as to the in- 
quiry. Mr. Wfls d attempted to make some 
comment upon the way which the Sergeant 
had taken for arriving at the facts — the 
Chancellor twice interrupted him with great 
- ■ declare, f tat M v . M -re's 
I him to, and possessed the 
warmest approbate rnment. Mr 

W\ - o ■" - m ' 3) rvattons on the SI I 
- • art of the country, 
and the Chancellor asked, how he prop - 
to remedy the evil ? Mr. Wilson replied, 
that the only effectual mode would b 
issuing a geueral new commission. T lis 
would not give any partial offence : and 
care afterwards should be taken not to ad- 
mit any improper persons into it. His 
lordship replied by a smile. This ended 
his personal communications with Govern- 
ment ; but not his correspondence. He 
wrote several times again on the subject ; 
but without effect. He applied to ha\ • 
own commission, as a magistrate, extended 
. Tyrone into Armagh, i^as he dwelt on 
the border.) iu order that he might have 
some power to protect the poor Cat 
who lived in daily and nightly terror under 
the shadow of the original Orangt L 
and in that very neighborhexxi which had 
been the scene of the " ffell-or-Oonnaug 
exterminations, ten years earlier ; but Mr. 
Wi - n's application was refused. Tuis af- 
ould be in frilling to occupy 

iu a general narrative like the pit- 
but that it is, unfortunately, only one ex- 
ample of very much the s \ kind of 
want --ion and juivanee 

which mace the North of I: self a 

hell for the C;r pie, during many a 

year since — and which is by no means over 
- ' - day. 
1' : Mr Wits :. who was so Quix 

tor the oppr<.-- . 
Cath - I '_■ roue aud Armagh, after the 
sal of an Armagh commission to that 
gentleman came to be known, was hints 

ires of 1 Protestant 
" wreckers." His r.^tige of offices, filled 
with hay, was burntd down one night ; and 

> :.e- 



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Some r Mr. Wilson was snm-| tary and the Chaucellor with applications oa 




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behalf, not of himself, but of his persecuted 
neighbors, he was finally (3d of July, 1801,) 
deprived of the commission of the peace for 
Tyrone, by a regular writ of Supersedeas. 



& 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

lSOG— 1807. 

Revenue and Debt of Ireland— Hapid Increase of 
Debt — Drain of Wealth from Ireland— Character 
of the Imports and Exports— Raokrents, Tithes, 
&c.— Distress of the People— The " Threshers "— 
Threshers Hung — Catholic Meetings — Increase 
of Maynooth Grant— From Apprehension of the 
Irish College in France — Catholic Officers' Bill — To 
Promote Depopulation — Bill Abandoned — Change 
of Ministry — The King Demands a No-Popery 
Pledge— Duke of Cumberland — Perceval Adminis- 
tration— Camden and Castlereagh in Office— No- 
Popery — Recruiting in Ireland — John Keogh on 
Catholic Officers' Bill— O'Connell— Too-Easy Grati- 
tude of the Irish towards Whigs — Populace Draw 
the Duke of Bedford's Coach. 

Ireland, until the period of the consoli- 
dation of the National Debts, had a separ- 
ate Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and the 
actual Chancellor, Sir John Newport, in 
bringing forward his Irish Budget, in this 
session of 1806, made as favorable a repre- 
sentation of the finances of the country as 
possible, according to the usual custom of 
Finance Ministers. Everything, according 
to him " afforded proofs of the increase of 
prosperity and confidence in t/ie. Government." 
The revenue of Ireland for the year he pro- 
posed to increase, from £3,360,000 to £3,- 
800,000, by means of several new taxes ; 
but later in the session Sir John Newport 
brought in a bill " for relief of the Irish 
poor." On his financial statement, Mr. Parnell 
drew the attention of the House to the general 
financial situation of the country, as repre- 
sented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
himself. He calculated, that were the debt 
of Ireland to increase with the same rapid- 
ity as at present for fifteen years, it would 
at that period amount to £120,000,000. 
lie, therefore, called upon Ministers to adopt 
some efficient measures for restraining the 
progress of so alarming an evil. 

Mr. Parnell either did not know, or pre- 
tended not to know, that, Ministers did not 
regard this as an alarming evil at all, and 
that it was precisely for this, amongst other 



great objects, the Union had been effectuat- 
ed. Mr. Parnell also fell short in his esti- 
mate of the rate of future increase of our 
debt : — "So well have British book-keepers 
worked our account, that, within eleven years 
(in 1811) our debt was found to amount, not 
to 120,000,000, but to £130,561, 031, and so 
brought Ireland up to the condition of in- 
debtedness which entitled her to share equal- 
ly in all the public liabilities of England." 

The truth is, that although from the 
increase of population, and, therefore, of con- 
sumption, the actual amount of taxes now 
ground out of the Irish people was increasing 
year by year, those taxes were becoming 
more and more difficult to pay, and were 
reducing great numbers of people continually 
to abject poverty ; so that at the very mo- 
ment when the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
was felicitating Parliament upon Ireland's 
financial prosperity, he had also to bring in 
a bill for relief of the poor. The system of 
drainage of Ireland for imperial purposes 
was even then iu full operation, although not 
so highly developed as we have seen it since 
that day. There were some circumstances 
then existing, which in part counteracted 
that imperial policy — in the first place, the 
enfranchisement of Catholics as voters, in 
1193, had considerably promoted and in- 
creased the practice of giving leases of small 
farms ; so as to create freeholders to support 
their landlords' interests at county elections ; 
and next, the war in Europe, though occas- 
ionally interrupted by short seasons of armed 
peace, maintained a good price for all kinds 
of agricultural produce ; because the British 
Government was constantly obliged to victual 
great fleets and garrisons in all quarters of 
the world ; and as such large numbers of the 
cultivators of the land had leases, their in- 
creased profits could not be immediately 
appropriated by their landlords in the shape 
of increased rents, and so carried off to Eng- 
land* to be spent ; an inconvenience and loss 
to the "sister-kingdom" which was after- 
wards fully repaired by the abolition of the 
" forty-shilling freeholders," as will be seen 
further on. 

In the meantime, however, the war cer- 
tainly enhanced the profits of Irish agricul- 
ture ; and although that increase was not 
altogether for behoof of the people them- 



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HISTOET OF mELAXP 



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solves, (for much of it could be carried off 
by taxation, as we have seen, to pay the 
charges of an unjust debt,) yet they were not 
then by any means so cunningly plundered, 
so scientifically stripped bare, (for want of the 
requisite machinery,) as they have been since, 
and are now. Population, therefore, was 
rapidly increasing during all these years of 
war. although thousands of young Irishmen 
wire each year recruited for the British ar- 
i. y, to fight against Jacobinism, French 
principles, and the rights of man. 

The imports and exports of Ireland con- 
tinued to increase after the Union, iu pro- 
portion to the increasing population ; but by 
no means at so rapid a rate as during the 
eighteen years of national independence, 
when the country had the fostering care of 
a native legislature, bad and corrupt as that 
legislature was. But it is very material to 
observe the character of those imports and 
exports. The imports consisted more and 
more of British manufactures, and of foreign 
and colonial produce purchased in England, 
and imported l/ience : the exports more and 
more of cattle, meat and grain, raw agricul- 
tural produce — and of spirits made from 
grain. There is au exception in the single 
article of linen cloth ; yet the increase in 
that trade did not keep pace with the in- 
crease of population. * Iu the table given 
below of the official returns of the exports 
aud imports for ten years before, and teu 
years after, the Union, (assuming those offi- 
cial returns to be correct,) this very material 
difference may be studied and appreciated : 
Mr. Marmiou, in his History of t/te Mar- 
itime Forts of Ireland, of this Ta- 
ble : "These returns were no doubt furnished 
to support the opinions of certain advocates 
for the Legislative Union, as tciut — the con- 
sumption of which was likely to show the 
means of tiie country, if progressing, as cor- 
rectly a< any other article — has been exclud- 
ed altogether. The import of wine, in 1799, 
was one million two hundred and thirty-eight 
thousand live hundred and twelve gallons ; 
and it has gradually decreased siuce then to 
live hundred and twelve thousand three hun- 
dred and nineteeu gallons in 1S4S, about 
which quantity still continues to be consum- 
ed annually.'' 



* See annexed table. 




The high " war prices," then, for agricul- 
tural produce, helped to establish a s - : 
current of exportation in all that species of 
commodities, out of Ireland into Englaud ; 
while at the same time the increasing ab- 
senteeLsm of Peers aud landed-proprietors 
(who now preferred to drink their wine in 
England,) carried off also to that country 
more aud more of the prices received iu Ire- 
land for those commodities. Tims England 
•\ as already gaining every way by the Union, 
aud Ireland losing every way. 

Yet the system was not yet by any means 
perfect : so long as voters for counties had 
to be created by small freeholds, there wtre 
large and increasing numbers of working 
farmers not wholly at the mercy of their 
landlords, nor liable to be turned out at the 
end of any six months. These people could 
live, and could eveu employ labor iu im- 







DISTRESS OF THE PEOPLE THE " THRESHERS.' 



453 



proveraents ; so that there was a certain 
comparative prosperity ; although manufac- 
tures (except liucn) still continued to de- 
cline ; and the market was flooded with 
English fabrics. It was not till the peace 
brought low prices that the series of Irish 
famines recommenced ; and after that, the 
abolition of the "forty-shilling freeholders" 
— then the systematic refusal of leases — 
then the universal " tenaucy-at-will" — and 
finally the Poor law, rendered the British 
system as nearly perfect as any system of 
human invention can lie, for leaping the full 
fruits of the Legislative Union. 

It was under great difficulties and oppres- 
sions that Irish fanners, at the period we 
have now arrived at, made out life even so 
well as they did. Their chief troubles 
arose from middlemen, rack-rents, tithes, 
church-rates, and the monstrous Grand Jury 
jobs by which gentlemen accommodated one 
another, at the expense of the county with 
roads and bridges, which were not useful to 
the county, but were convenient or ornamen- 
1tal to the demesnes of those gentlemen them- 
selves. Those who knew Ireland in the 
early years of this century can well remem- 
ber the many cases of exasperating oppres- 
sion, the scenes of misery and despair which 
were caused by each oue of the plagues above 
enumerated. In some counties during this 
very year, 1806, the too-long suffering coun- 
try people were goaded into secret combina- 
tions and violent local resistance. 

In consequence of recent exactions by the 
tithe proctors in the counties of Mayo, Sligo, 
Leitrim, -and parts of Roscommon, formerly 
notable for their pacific aud orderly demeanor, 
a body of people, styling themselves Thresh- 
ers (i. e. of tithe proctors' corn) had ap- 
peared in a sort of public confederacy. Up 
to that time, they had punctiliously confined 
their outrages and depredations to the col- 
lectors of tithes and their underlings. They 
frankly averred their reasons for their con- 
duct, viz., that from the late unprecedented 
rise in the tithes, beyond what had before 
been insisted upon, the profits of their crops 
centered almost entirely in the tithe proctor. 
They sent letters, signed Captain Thresher, to 
the growers of flax and oals, warning them, 
under severe pains, to leave their tithes in 
kiud on the fields, but on no account to pay 



any monied composition to their rectors and 
vicars, or their lessees or proctors. Had the 
managers of the Bedford administration in 
all things minutely followed the example of 
their predecessors, those couuties would have 
been proclaimed, and probably a more gen- 
eral insurrection have existed in Ireland, 
than in the year 1198. Many of the task- 
drivers under the former Government (all 
found in place were retained, except Lord 
Redesdale and Mr. Foster, discharged by 
Mr. Fox,) urged the Government to proclaim 
the disturbed counties, and recommence the 
discipline and goadings of 1798. 

But there was then no motive for resort- 
ing to the system of Camden aud Carhamp- 
ton ; there was no need now of provoking an 
insurrection, because the Uniou had been 
carried, aud all was safe. Accordingly, it 
was resolved to meet the case of the poor 
"Threshers" by the usual Constitutional mea- 
sures, assises, special commissions, packed 
juries, and the gallows. During the whole 
of the Bedford administration, not a single 
measure was adopted nor attempted for the 
redress or abatement of this curse of tithes ; 
the people were left at the mercy of the grind- 
ing proctors and rectors, * and if they com- 
mitted " outrage," they were hung. Twelve 
Threshers were executed in the autumn of 
this year in Mayo County alone ; and others 
suffered death in Galway, Roscommon, and 
Longford. There was not the smallest evi- 
dence that they had any political views ; or 
French principles. They were simply White- 
Boys under another name. 

During this summer, the anxious negotia- 

* Grinding was not the worst of it. Rectors dis- 
covered a practice of swindling farmers in the follow- 
ing manner : In order to encourage the labor and 
industry of husbandmen in improving their lands, 
many clergymen granted leases of tithes to the ten- 
ants during their incumbencies The lessee specula- 
ting upon the life of the incumbent, would make ex- 
penditures in the improvement of his lands propor- 
tionate to the probability of his own enjoyment of 
the fruits of his improvements. When the improved 
lands began to yield increased crops, in order that 
the church should not lose the advantage of them 
(decirnee. uberiores), the incumbent would effectuate 
an exchange of livings (often preconcerted), with 
some other lessor of Itis tithes for his incumbency; 
thus letting each other gratis into the full benefit of 
the tenant's labor and expenditure, upon the specu- 
lation of a life interest, at least, in his improvement*. 
In some instances, this fructifying process has been 
known in two or three years to have doubled, aud in 
others to have trebled the v *lue of the living. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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tions for peace with France, conducted by 
Lord Lauderdale failed ; and his lordship 
returned to London. This was the death of 
Charles James Fox — he died on the 13th of 
September, and relieved the administration 
of the embarrassment of the presence of one 
honest man. The death of Mr. Fox caused 
no alteration in the Irish Government. In 
England, Lord Howick quitted the Admi- 
ralty, and went to the Foreign Office. 

Catholic meetings were held from time to 
time during the winter of 1806-7, mostly at 
the Star and Garter in Essex street. At 
one of these a committee of twenty-one was 
appointed to prepare a petition for Catholic 
Relief ; and amongst the twenty-one we find 
the names of John Keogh, the old and faith- 
ful leader of the Catholics, Daniel O'Con- 
nell, the young and ultimately victorious 
leader, Furcell O'Gorman, Doctor Drom- 
goule, Thomas Wyse, and others, whose 
names were afterwards household words in 
every Catholic home during the long strug- 
gle fur emancipation. A petition was 
framed, adopted, and committed to Henry 
G rattan for presentation. 

On the 4th of March, 1807, on the Re- 
port of the Committee of Supply being 
brought up in Parliament, it appeared that 
the committee estimated the grant to May- 
nooth College at £13,000 instead of £8,000. 
This increase was, of course, opposed by Mr. 
Perceval, who always showed himself the 
most zealous Protestant in Parliament. The 
increased grant, however, was carried ; not 
through any feeling of liberality towards the 
Catholics ; but for the reasons set forth by- 
Lord Howick in supporting the grant. lie 
said he did so on the large principle of con- 
necting the Irish Catholic with the state. It 
was then particularly necessary to promote 
the domestic education of the Catholic 
clergy, as an institution of great extent had 
been formed at Paris, at the head of which 
was a Dr Walsh, a person of considerable 
notoriety, with a view to reestablish the 
practice of Irish Catholic education at that 
place, and to make that education the chan- 
nel of introducing and extending the political 
influence of the French Government in Ire- 
lud.* 

* " Iu the latter end of autumn, 1S0G, some printed 
copies of an arret, or decree, signed ' Napoleon, 



English governments, after having so 
long prohibited by penal laws the education 
of Catholic youths at home, and having thug 
driven them abroad for education, were now 
almost willing to bribe them to stay at home 
and receive that education which within the 
memory of men then living, would have 
merited transportation or death. Yet there 
was nothing inconsistent in these two modes 
of treatment. A century before, the great 
object of law and government had been to 
get and keep possession of Catholic lands 
and goods — and for that purpose to debase 
Catholics to the condition of brutes for want 
of education — but in I80T, the great need and 
absorbing passion of the Government was to 
crush France, and keep out French princi- 
ples ; and it was desirable to keep young 
divinity students away from Paris, where 
they might learn matters not expedient to 
be known in Ireland ; might Learn, for in- 
stance, that it is not so very miserable a 
case for each man to be his own landlord ; 
that country-people can be pretty comfort- 
able even without paying tithes — that peo- 
ple of all religions in France are equal be- 
fore the law — that the French are not a race 
of creatures altogether abandoned to crime, 
debauchery and atheism, for want of noble 
landlords ; and many other things of this 
nature. Therefore, when the Government at 
one time drove young Irishmen abroad for 
education, and at another time induced them 
to stay at home for education, it knew very 
well each time what it was doing, and acted 
in both cases upon the invariable principle 
that all Irish life, activity and industry, 
physical and intellectual, lay and clerical, be- 

llugh B. Maret, Champagny, and Walsh, Administra- 
tor General,' dated Milan, 28th Floreal, An. xiii , 
uniting the English, Irish, and Scotch Ecclesiastical 
Establishment, in the French dominions, under the 
general administration of tin- Reverend Dr. Walsh, 
tat" Superior of the Irish College at Paris, were 
Ben1 from thence via Hamburg, to England and Ire- 
land. At the same time Dr. Walsh invited the stu- 
dents of St Patrick's Irish College at Lisbon, to re- 
pair to Paris, to prosecute their studies, and encour- 
aged them to undertake the journey, by promising 
that the expenses of it would lie defrayed. The 
Roman Catholic Archbishops and other Prelates, 
Trustees of Maynooth College, having met in Dublin 
on business concerning it in January, Isiit, availed 
themselves of the occasion, to express their 
disapprobation of the invitation from Paris, in a 
letter to the Rev. Doctor Crotty, Hector of the Irish 
College at Lisbon, a copy of which was sent to Mr. 
Secretary Elliott, and also to Lord Howick. 



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THE KING DEMANDS A NO-POPERY PLEDGE. 



455 



long to England, and are to be regulated 

and disposed of, displaced, transferred, en- 
couraged, and prohibited, as British policy 
and interest shall from time to time require. 

Upon the very same invariable principle, the 
Government in this session introduced what 
was called the "Catholic Officers' bill," to 
enable Catholics to hold commissions in the 
arm}' or navy. This measure was intended 
by Ministers for two purposes ; first, to stop 
by a small concession, the threatening agita- 
tion of the Catholics for their complete re- 
lief ; and secondly, by commissioning some 
Catholic officers, to make the British service 
more popular with the people, and thus pro- 
mote enlistment. On this latter point, the 
words of Lord Howick, who introduced the 
bill, are worth preserving : — 

" On the Commonalty of Ireland the 
measure must have a powerful effect, by af- 
fording a salutary c.huk to the increasing su- 
perabundant population of that country ; 
as it would induce numbers to enter into the 
service of His Majesty, even of those, who 
by their own discontents, and by the artifi- 
ces of others, had so lately been urged into 
insurrection and rebellion." 

It is needless to say that this measure also 
was resisted by the model Protestant, Perce- 
val, "lie greatly feared," he said, "that 
this was but the beginning of a system, 
which would in its consequences, when fully 
disclosed, be highly dangerous to the Con- 
stitution and Protestant establishment. He 
perceived, that step by step, and from day 
to day, they were bringing forward measures, 
which he thought must end in the totai, re- 
pkal of the Test act." Mr. Perceval was 
himself, he declared, " as great a friend to 
toleration as any man," but he could not see 
how the Constitution in Church and State 
was to stand, if persons were allowed to 
command t lie King's troops who believed in 
Seven Sacraments. The bill was read a first 
time ; and immediately arose a violent fer- 
ment, both iu England and amongst the 
"Ascendancy" in Ireland. The University 
of Oxford petitioned against the measure ; 
so did the Corporation of Dublin. The 
Dukes of York and Cumberland, Lord Eh Ion 
and Lord Hawkesbury, had frequent access 
to the King, whose mental disorder was then, 
iudeed, so much aggravated, that he had 



need of advisers, if those advisers had been 
honest. George III. was at that time 
an idiot ; sometimes a helpless and moping 
idiot ; sometimes a talking and busy idiot ; 
and, unfortunately, he was in the latter spe- 
cies of paroxysm. Mr. Perceval advertised 
in the public papers that "the Church was 
in danger ; " and a great cry of " No-Po- 
pery ! " arose over all England. The events 
that followed are clearly set forth in the ex- 
planations given by Lord Grenville and Lord 
Howick in the two Houses, of the causes 
which led to the sudden change of Ministry. 
It appears that the Ministers had had sev- 
eral interviews with the King, who seemed at 
first satisfied with their statements of the 
expediency of the measure proposed ; but 
the unhappy patient had evidently not un- 
derstood their statements. He asked Lord 
Howick one day, " What was going on in 
the House of Commons V On being told that 
the Catholic Officers' bill was to come on, 
he expressed his general dislike. 

"The next day (said Lord Howick) His 
Majesty, in the same gracious manner that 
we have been accustomed to experience from 
him, informed us, that he must look out for 
new servants. Two days afterwards, I was 
authorized to state this circumstances to the 
House, and on Tuesday last, His Majesty 
signified his pleasure that we should resign 
our offices next day." Ministers then pro- 
posed to drop the bill altogether ; but this 
was not euough for the King, in the condi- 
tion of nervous irritation to which he had 
been worked up by Lord Eldon and their 
Royal Highnesses, his two sous, the Dukes 
of York and Cumberland. He required 
from them a pledge that they would never 
more bring forward any measure whatever 
respecting Papists — in other words, would 
never advise His Majesty to do any act of 
justice towards one-fourth part of his sub- 
jects. This was two much. The Ministers 
had no idea of emancipating the Catholics ; 
it was to stave off that question of emanci- 
pation that they had proposed the trifling 
concession in question ; but to give such a 
pledge as he required (a pledge which had, 
however, been given him by Mr. Pitt,) would 
have been contrary to their duty as Minis- 
ters of State, and to their oath as Privy« 
Councillors, who swear " faithfully aud truly 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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to declare their mind and opinion, according 
to their hearts and consciences, in all things 
to be moved, treated, and debated in coun- 
cil." Before the resin-nation, however, seve- 
ral debates took place. In one of these. 
Mr. Plnnket, making his first speech in a 
united Parliament, brought under the no- 
tice of the House the singular proceeding 
of the Duke of Cumberland. He said:— 

"Not satisfied with their placards, &c, 
an attempt has been made by the Chancellor 
(il the University of Dublin (the Duke of 
Cumberland) to disturb the peace of that 
University, by endeavoring to procure a pe- 
tition against the Catholic bill. Finding 
(to the honor of that learned body) the 
first application unsuccessful, a second had 
bnii sent, in which it was intimated, that 
the only way to preserve the favor of the 
royal Duke, was by signing such a petition. 
lie was not aware, whether the latter ap- 
plication took place after the measure had 
been abandoned in Parliament, or before. 
If after, it was apolitical scheme to support 
the new administration — if, while the bill 
was pending, it was an unconstitutional and 
unwarrantable interference." 

The matter ended with the resignation of 
Ministers ; and the installation of the fa- 
mous "No-Popery" Cabinet, with the pious 
Perceval at its head as Chancellor of the 
Exchequer. Lord Castlereagh, who had 
become indispensable to the councils of his 
sovereign, was Secretary for the Colonies 
and the War Department ; Lord Camden 
was President of the Privy-Council ; and 
George Canning Secretary for Foreign Af- 
airs. Lord Eldon was Lord-Chancellor of 
England ; the Duke of Richmond Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland ; and the Chief Secre- 
tary of that country was to be the victor of 
Assaye, and conqueror of the Mahrattas, 
who had just returned alter his brilliant cam- 
paign in India. The Baron Sutton was 
created Lord Manners, and appointed Chan- 
cellor of Ireland. 

The occasion or pretext for this change 
of Ministry was so absurd, and gave such 
an impression of craziness, that many mem- 
bers of both Houses of Parliament wrn- 
unwilling to resign themselves, and the conn- 
try to be governed by the fitful caprices of 
an idiot ; and several efforts were made by 



offering resolutions against the principle of 
the required fledge to keep Ministers in their 
places. Of the Parliamentary debates on 
these resolutions, it is only material in this 
place to notice such passages as throw any 
light on Irish affairs. Mr. Tighe, an Irish 
member, said the tranquillity of Ireland 
would, he feared, be affected by the remov- 
al of the Duke of Bedford. He did not, 
however, see any ground for apprehending 
any alarming disturbance, because the peo- 
ple of Ireland had been accustomed to view 
with colli, determined apathy, all changes in 
administration here, as none of those changes 
were attended with any benefit to them. 
Few recruits were to be had in the South, 
or in the West, because there was no secu- 
rity for the free exercise of religion. Some 
years ago, a gentleman had got some men in 
his neighborhood, upon his own pledge, and 
the pledge of a magistrate, that they should 
always be allowed the free exercise of their 
religion ; but when they arrived at their quar- 
ters in the Isle of Wight, they were com- 
pelled to attend the Protestant worship, and 
forbidden ever to attend a neighboring chape 
of their own, under pain of military punish- 
ment. Consequently, the recruiting pro- 
ceeded but slowly in Ireland, though tho 
country was poor, and the bounties offered 
extravagantly high. Since the Union, Ire- 
laud had felt no community of rights, no 
community of commerce ; the only commu- 
nity it felt, was that of having one hundred 
assessors in the British Parliament, who 
were to give ineffectual voles for the interest 
<>/' their country, as he might do th<tt night. 

.Mr. Tighc's estimate of the value of Irish 
representation at Westminster remains true 
at this day. 

Sir John Newport (as he and his friends 
were going out, and were not to be respon- 
sible for pledges,) showed in his speech a 
sacred regard for " pledges." He said : 
"Ireland would force itself upon the consid- 
eration of the House and of the empire, of 
which it was a vital part ; it was in vain to 
overlook the wants and interests, the expect- 
ations and the rights of Ireland ; it was in 
vain to trifle with the pledges given ; Ire- 
land must have its weight, for it must bo 
felt, that the common enemy could not bo 
resih'ed without. Ireland. The pledge, given 




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DUKE OF RICHMOND VICEIiOT. 



tinder the authority of the Doble Lord oppo- 
site, could not be evaded, though the noble 
Lord m:iy not aet as it required him. The 
noblu Duke at the head of the present gov- 
ernment had given a still stronger pledge. 
He had written two letters to two officers 
of the Irish Brigades, inviting them to enter 
into the service of this country, on the prom- 
ise Hi' making the Irish act of 1193 general, 
and further, of opening the whole military 
career to them. 

In Ireland, these Ministerial changes caus- 
ed a great commotion among the Catholics. 
Their committee Imd drawn np Heir petition 
for complete emancipation ; and had sent it 
to Mr. Grattan for presentation. He had 
consulted with the friends of their cause in 

L Ion, particularly with Sheridan, and 

wrote to the committee that they had better 
withhold it. A Catholic meeting was then 
held, at which the venerable John Keogh 
moved the postponement — not abandonment 
— of further proceedings upon their petition. 
A*, to the paltry measure of conciliation 
which had been proposed by Govern- 
ment, and which the Catholics had not pe- 
titioned for at all, Mr. Keogh thus truly 
described it : " The English Ministers re- 
solved to encourage our Catholic gentlemen 
to enter into the army and navy, and 
through their influence to induce our peas- 
antry to enter the service in great numbers. 
One of their objects, they admit to be, to 
lessen our population, and, on the whole, to 
change disorder and weakness into subordi- 
nation and strength. l>ut candor must com 
pel us to allow, that this bill would not have 

given them any great claim for gratitude 
from the Catholics ; to relieve them was not 
the object of the bill; it did not profess to 
admit them to the privileges of their conn- 
try. It has been called a boon to the Cath- 
olics ; but, in truth, had it been carried 
into effect, it would have been a boon given 
by the Catholics; the boon of their blood, 
to defend a constitution from which they, 
and they only, were cautiously excluded." 

Yet Mr. Keogh praised warmly the Min- 
istry who had attempted to grant even this 

"1 i;" and proposed that from respect 

to them, and in deference to the advice of 
Mr. Grattan and other friends, their petition 
lor emancipation should not then be pre- 



sented. This motion was opposed by Mr. 
O'GormaD, but sustained by the potent 
voice of Daniel O'Conncll, who spoke oa thil 
occasion with a warm and Glial regard of 
the veteran Catholic agitator, John Keogh, 
and his long services to the cause. The res- 
olution to postpone was carried ; the com- 
mittee was dissolved ; and Lord Fingal was 
deputed to present a respectful address to 
the Duke of Bedford ; although, how his 
grace merited any confidence or gratitude 
from the Irish Catholics it would now be 
difficult to explain. The whole policy of 
his administration had been directed to keep 
back their claim for emancipation, and to 
preserve the Orange Ascendancy in its op- 
pressive domination. 

Yet the Duke seemed to be removed from 
office upon a question which touched the 
Catholics, though never so little. The Or- 
ange men were excited against him; party 
spirit had been roused ; and such zealous 
partizans are the Irish populace, and so 
grateful for' any presumed kind intention, 
that the Dublin mob, absolutely took out 
the horses from the Duke's carriage, and 
from the Duchess' carriage, yoked some of 

themselves to the carriages, and tle^w them 
to the water side, where they embarked for 
England on the 21st of April, 1807. 



CHAPTER XLIX 
1807—1808. 

Duke <if liii'tmionil Vi' rroy— Sir A. Wellesley, Secre- 
tary — Their System— -Depression of Catholics— In- 
solence of Orangemen — Government Interference 
in Elections — Ireland Get - a New [nsnrri ction Art 
— Anil an Arms Act — Grattan Advocates I ftercion 
Acts— Sheridan Opposes Them Acta Passed The 
I(islin|> ui Quimper Means Used to Create Exas- 
peration against Catholics—" Shanavests" and 
"Caravats 11 — "Church in Danger 11 .Catholic Pe- 
tition — Influence of O'Connell — Lord Fingal — 
Growing Liberality amongst Prot< jtanl May- 
nootli Grant Curtailed- Doctoi Dnigenan Privy- 
Councillor — ■ Catholic Petition Presented — The 
" Veto " Offered — Mr. Ponsonby ami Mr. Grattan 
— They Urge the Veto as a Security — Petition Re- 
jeeted— Controversies (in I In- \'vlo -l!ish(i|is' Reso- 
lutions— No Catholics in Rank of Ireland— Dublin 
Police. 

The Duke of Richmond had arrived iii 
Dublin, as Lord-Lieutenant, a few days be- 
fore his predecessor left it. 




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As the new administration had accepted 
office immediately after the King had re- 
quired a pledge from his Ministers that no 
Catholic claims, or rights, or wrongs, should 
cm- be mentioned to him again, this accept- 
ance of cilice was itself a pledge to that ef- 
fect l'_v the new advisers of the Crown ; and, 
bo far as they were concerned, they certainly 
redeemed the pledge. They were profess- 
edly a " No-Popery " Cabinet ; and the 
first principle of their policy was resist- 
ance to all reform, and especially to all 
concession to Catholics. Such being their 
merits, the Viceroy and his Secretary, Sir 
An liar Wellesley, were at once presented 
by the Dublin Corporation with the free- 
dom of the city in a sold and in a silver 
box, respectively. The vote was accom- 
panied by an enthusiastic speech of the no- 
torious Mr. John Giffard, who said, this 
was not the mere compliment of custom, but 
a special recognition of their known deter- 
mination "to maintain the Constitution in 
Church and State" — that is, the Protestant 
Ascendancy, and the exclusion and debase- 
ment of Catholics. 

It may well lie understood that this event 
aggravated the insolence of Orange magis- 
trates and squires, all over the island, mak- 
ing the lot of the Catholic country-people 
still more bitter than before ; and that it 
caused despondency, irritation, and some de- 
gree of disorganization amongst the Catho- 
lic leaders, who were striving in such hope- 
less circumstances for the civil rights of their 
countrymen. It would be difficult to con- 
ceive any political prospect more gloomy 
than that of the Catholic body at that mo- 
ment ; dreading the rigor of the new ad- 
ministration, with its ferocious Orange sup- 
porters, and reduced to be thankful to the 
out-going Ministers for attempting a paltry 
army-reform, avowedly intended to diminish 
the Catholic population. This is the first 
time — seven years after the Union — that we 
first find British Ministers urging the depop- 
ulation of the island ; a policy which lias 
since been prosecuted with such eminent 
success. 

The new Parliament opened in June. In 
the elections which preceded it, the Govern- 
ment made unusual exertions to secure a 
large majority. Of the nature of the influ- 



ences employed in Ireland for this purpose, 
one example may suffice : Soon after the 
House met, Mr. Whitbread stated, from 
a paper which he produced, to the House, 
that Mr. Ormsby, the Solicitor for the For- 
feited Estates in Ireland, went down to the 
election for Wexford County, and person- 
ally waited on Mr. James Grogan, for the 
purpose of influencing him to support the 
Ministerial candidates, by a promise of a 
restoration to the family of all the estates 
of his late brother, Cornelius Grogan, which 
had been forfeited Ministers neither de- 
nied nor blamed, nor offered to investigate 
the fact, or punish the delinquent. Mr. 
Perceval assured Lord Howick, that he had 
never before heard of it ; and Sir Arthur 
Wellesley declared, that the Government of 
Ireland had given no instructions to Mr. 
Ormsby on the subject ; and any improper 
use of such influence was unknown to Gov- 
ernment. The actual abuse of the Govern- 
ment influence, the overt negotiation of 
their confidential servant, and his subse- 
quent impunity, tell the whole story plainly 
enough. 

The first act passed for Ireland in this 
Parliament was a new "Insurrection act." 
The second was an " Arms act." They 
were brought in by Sir Arthur Wellesley ; 
and it appeared on the debates that they 
had been actually framed by the late Gren- 
ville administration, but there had not been 
time to pass them. The Duke of Bedford 
and Mr. Secretary Elliott had recommended, 
and now supported them ; — yet, the Dublin 
people had harnessed themselves to Lord 
Bedford's carriage 1 So easily won by even 
pretended kindness are our generous-hearted 
countrymen — and so minute is the difference 
between Whigs and Tories. 

The " Insurrection act" renewed the pow- 
er of the Lord-Lieutenant to proclaim dis- 
turbed counties, and the authority of the 
magistrates to arrest persons who should be 
found out of their dwellings between sun- 
setting and sunrising. There was a clause 
enacting, " that magistrates might have the 
power to enter any houses, or authorize any 
persons, by warrant, to do so, at any time 

From after sunset, to sunrise, from 

which they should suspect the inhabitants, 
or any of them to be then absent, and cause 



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absent persons to be apprehended, and deem- 
ed idle and disorderly, unless they could 
prove they were absent upon their lawful 
occasions." 

Many persons thought it singular to find 
Mr. Grattan, then member for Dublin, sup- 
porting this coercion law ; but in truth, it was 
quite consistent with his former course ; he 
had supported the former Insurrection act, 
and Gunpowder act, in the Irish Parliament. 
Nobody could have a greater horror of re- 
volutionary movements, and of French prin- 
ciples than Grattan ; and Air. Elliott, the 
late Secretary, assured him that the poor 
"Threshers" were at bottom no other than 
Jacobins. He said, on this occasion : — 

" He understood from his Right Honor- 
able friend beside him, (Mr. Elliott,) that 
there were secret meetings of a dark and da n- 
gerous description in Ireland. This formed 
a ground lor the bill. He was afraid of a 
French interest in Ireland, and he wished that 
Government should be furnished with the 
means not merely of resisting, but of extir- 
pating that interest, wherever and whenever 
it should appear." 

But his support of so cruel a measure 
greatly alienated his friends in Ireland. To 
do him justice, he vehemently objected to 
the clause authorizing magistrates to enter 
houses by night, on suspicion, or to give a 
warrant for that purpose to any one who 
might say he hud a suspicion. " But who," 
he exclaimed, " were the persons to be vest- 
ed with the power ? Perhaps some lawless 
miscreant — some vagabond. Perhaps, the 
discretion of that reasonable time was to be 
lodged in the bosom of some convenient 
menial, some postillion, coachman, host- 
ler, or ploughboy, who, under the sanction of 
the law, was to judge when it would be a rea- 
sonable time for him to rush into the apart- 
ment of a female, while she was hastily 
throwing on her clothes, to open the door to 
this midnight visitor. This would give a 
wound that would be felt long." 

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, to his honor 
be it said, went against his friend and most 
of his party upon this question. " His Plight 
Honorable friend had said, that the mea- 
sure could only be justified by an imperious 
necessity ; now it was that necessity which 
he wished to have clearly made out to exist, 




before the measure was resorted to. It was 
no answer to him, that the measure had 
been prepared by his friends. If it had, the 
Threshers were then engaged in their dis- 
turbances, and administering unlawful oaths. 
Ireland was now as loyally tranquil as any 
part of the empire. Would they state in 
the preamble of.the bill, " Whereas, a very 
small part of Ireland was some time ago 
disturbed by the Threshers, and whereas, that 
disturbance has been completely put down 
by the ordinary course of the law, and Ire- 
land is now completely tranquil, be it, there- 
fore, enacted, &c. That most extraordinary 
powers, &e." 

The bill passed into law, however, with 
all its clauses ; and by continual renewals 
(for it is always temporary, like the Mutiny 
act,) it has been substantially the law of 
Ireland even to this day. 

Next came the Arms bill. It was the 
needful complement of the other ; for if the 
people were not very carefully deprived of 
arms, it was known that they would not 
submit to the daily and nightly outrages 
which were intended to be perpetrated upon 
them under the " Insurrection act." Put 
while the latter was to be contingent upon 
the Viceroy's proclamation, the Arms act 
was universal and was to operate at once. 

Mr. Sheridan opposed this measure also. 
He said that if the former bill seemed odious 
in its form and substance, this was ten thou- 
sand times more so ; it was really abomina- 
ble. Put at the same time, as if it were 
meant to make the measure both odious and 
ridiculous, it was so constructed, as that it 
would plunder the people of their arms, and 
put down the trade of a blacksmith. Noth- 
ing like a blacksmith was to exist in Ireland, 
lest he might possibly form something like a 
pike. If ever there were an instance, in 
which the liberties of a loyal people were 
taken from them, and they were thereby 
tempted to become disloyal, it was the pres- 
ent. Indeed, from the general spirit, with 
which the bill was framed, he thought there 
only wanted a clause to make it high trea- 
son for any man to communicate either of 
these bills to Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor 
of the French, lest he should conceive them 
to be direct invitations to him to visit that 
part of His Majesty's empire. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




On the 14 th of August, Mr. Sheridau 
moved for a serious Parliamentary inquiry 
into the state of Ireland, Mr. Perceval 
eagerly opposed the motion ; earnestly de- 
precated " the time and the spirit " of Mr. 
Sheridan's motion ; and got rid of it by the 
" previous question." 

Thus, at I lie moment when Catholics were 
told to despair of ever being admitted to the 
privileges of the Constitution, they were to 
be disarmed and coerced on suspicion and 
hearsay ; and all inquiry into the causes of 
their discontent was refused, because the 
right time had not come. And, in fact, it 
has never come. We have said the Catho- 
lics were to be disarmed and coerced ; for 
although no religious distinction is made in 
the acts, yet every one knew then, as now, 
that such laws are never enforced against a 
Protestant, unless it be, perhaps, some Pro- 
testant like Mr. Wilson, the Tyrone mag- 
istrate, who makes himself obnoxious by 
standing up for his Catholic neighbors. 

The stem and eternal negative put upon 
Catholic claims soon reached France. A 
certain Bishop of Quimper, in a pastoral to 
his flock, very naturally drew a striking con- 
trast between the intolerance of England 
and the regard for religion and absolute tol- 
eration shown by the Emperor's Govern- 
ment* These remarks were, in the eyes of 
the English Government, a development of 
the most infamous French principles, or 
ather a proof of a Franco-Irish conspiracy. 
Indeed, nothing ever has so bitterly provok- 

* The good Bishop of Quimper says amongst other 
things : " He (the Emperor) shall hear the acclama- 
tions of your gratitude and your love. They will 
prove to the eternal enemy of the glory and prosper- 
ity of France that all her perfidious intrigues will 
never be able to alienate from him your religious and 
faithful hearts Pora momentshe had Bednced you — 
at that unhappy epoch when anarchy ravaged this 
desolatedland, and when its impious furies overturned 
your temples and profaned your altars. She only af- 
fected concern tor the reestablishment of your holy 
religion in order to rend and ravage your country. 
See the sufferings which England inflicts upon Ire- 
land, which is Catholic like you. and subject to her 
dominion. The three last ages present only the af- 
fi .tin.,' picture of a people robbed of all their relig- 
ious and civil rights. In vain the most enlightened 
men of that nation have protested against the tyran- 
nical oppression. A new persecution has ravished 
from them even the hope of seeing an end to their 
calamities. An Inflamed and misled (the English) 
people, dares applaud such injustice, it insults with 
sectarian fanaticism the Catholic religion, and its 



ed the British public and its Government, 
as when the eloquent tongue of some illus- 
trious French prelate proclaims aloud the 
shocking truth about Irish rule, and pours 
forth the hot torrent of sacred indignation 
upon the deliberate, cold-blooded atrocities 
of England. f 

Upon the slender foundation of the Bish- 
op of Quiroper's Pastoral, Government un- 
derlings engrafted a most base fabrication, 
for the double purpose of raising indignation 
against the French, and of throwing odium 
upon the body of the Irish Catholics. The 
Government prints gave out, that a very 
important document, pregnant with danger 
to this country, signed by Napoleon and 
Talleyrand, had fallen into the hands of his 
Majesty's Ministers, together with a docu- 
ment of still more importance to the Catho- 
lic cause in Ireland, asserted to have been 
solemnly issued from the Vatican. It was 
falsely asserted, that the Tope had lately 
issued a Bull, addressed to the titular bish- 
ops of Ireland, exhorting them in the most 
forcible terms to excite in the minds o.f all 
people of the Roman Catholic persuasion 
under their influence and direction, an ar- 
dent devotion to the views and objects of 
Buonaparte, and an expectation, that by his 
assistance and protection they might eventu- 
ally obtain an uncontrolled exercise of their 
rights, religious and political. It was also 
stated, that this address from the Roman 
Pontiff, was accompanied by another paper 
containing a solemn declaration on t lie part 
of the French ruler, that it was his firm de- 
knows not how to be just towards its own subjects, 
and dates to calumniate this, which has given us se- 
curity and honor. Whilst the Irish Catholics groan 
beneath laws so oppressive, our august Emperor docs 
not confine himseli to the protection and establish- 
ment of that religion in his own states. He demand- 
ed in his treaty with Saxony, that it should there en- 
joy the same liberty as other modes of worship." 

fit is hut a very few years since Monsieur Dupanloup, 
the eloquent bishop of Orleans, having given out that 
he was about to preach a charity sermon, for the re- 
lief of the exterminated Irish, Lord Plunket, bishop 
of Tuam, wrote to Monsieuer d'Orleans that lie 
knew In- was going to libel Kim, and fling foul sland- 
ers upon him. Efforts were even made through the 
English Embassy to induce the Emperor ta forbid 
the sermon. It was preached, however, to avast as- 
semblage, and though his grace of Tuam was not 
slandered nor named in the discourse, yet it was a 
most scathing and touching expose of the whole 
course of British policy in Ireland. The English 



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SHANA VESTS " AND " CARAVATS ' 




termination to give the Roman Catholic 
religion the ascendancy in Ireland. 

By foul means such as these the " No-Po- 
pery " cry was stimulated to its most savage 
pitch of blood-thirsty ferocity. Even the 
rural organizations, calling themselves 
" Shanavesls," and " Caravats," which arose 
this year in Tipperary, and who were noth- 
ing in the world but White-Boys and Thresh- 
ers, under local names, were carefully given 
out to be secret political societies, which 
were going to bring in the French. In 
truth, those unhappy people had their 
thoughts much more occupied about the 
tithe-proctor than about the Emperor Na- 
poleon ; and knew more about County-cess 
than about French principles. Unfortuna- 
tely, however, the Shanavests and Caravats 
were not one agrarian faction, but two ; and 
sometimes, when they ought to have been 
threshing the tithe-corn, they threshed each 
Other at fair and market. Mr. Plowden 
says : — 

"Both parties seemed to be indiscrimina- 
tely sore at the payment of tithes ; both 
complained of the exorbitancy of the ad- 
vanced demands of rack-rents for lands out 
of lease. Both manifested symptoms of a 
natural and interested attachment to the 
soil they had occupied, by their undisguised 
" ostility to every competitor for the farms 
of the old occupiers. They had not then 
begun (as they were afterwards charged,) 
to lix a general rate of tithe and rent, and 
.to enforce the observance of it by threats of 
visiting those who should dare to exceed it. 
They assumed no appellation expressive of, 
or appropriate to, any of those objects which 
they have since pursued to the disgrace and 
disturbance of the country. When the In- 
surrection and Arms bills passed into laws, 
it is no less true, than singular, that in all the 
counties, then said to be disturbed, not a 
single charge was to be found on the calen- 
dar, of sedition or insurgency, at the prcced- 
ng assizes. Widely as the Threshers had 
extended their outrages, they had been com- 
pletely put down and tranquillized by the 
arm of the common law, without recourse 
to the violent measure of suspending the 
Constitution. The objects of their outrages 
had been ascertained by the judges, who 
had gone into the disturbed parts on the 



late special commission ; and not even a 
spurious whisper had reached their ears, that 
there was amongst them anything describa- 
ble as an existing French party." 

These miserable writhings of a crushed I s3 
peasantry, under the heel of local tyrants, 
were, however, eagerly seized and dwelt 
upon, as both justifying the coercion bills, 
and exhibiting the unchangeable, ineradica- 
ble wickedness of Papists ; so that when 
Parliament met, on ' the 21st of January, 
1808, No-Popery! and Church in Danger! 
rung Bercely through the Three Kingdoms. 

Tivo days before Parliament assembled, 
there was a large meeting of Catholics in 
Dublin, Lord Fingal in the Chair. On mo- 
tion of Count Dalton, it was resolved to 
petition Parliament for the repeal of the re- 
maining Penal laws. Some gentlemen, as 
Mr. O'Conor, of Belanagare, moved an 
adjournment of the meeting, as they de- 
spaired of any success, under the existing 
regime ; but O'Connell, who now constantly 
attended these meetings, and took a leading 
part in them, had already adopted his well- 
known maxim — Agitate! Agitate! He 
supported the resolution to petition ; so did 
John Byrne, of Mullinahack. The resolu- 
tion of adjournment was withdrawn, and 
that for a petition unanimously passed. 
O'Connell's influence was, even thus early, 
very powerful in softening down irritation, 
soothing jealousies, and inspiring self-abne- 
gation, for the sake of the common cause. 
It was this great quality, not less than his 
commanding ability, which made him, soon 
afterwards, the acknowledged head of the 
Catholic cause. Nf Tjsk^'-^x 

The petition was intrusted to Lord Fin- 
gal, who went to London and asked Lord 
Greuville and Mr. Grattan, to present it, 
after the Duke of Portland, to whom it 
was first offered, hail coldly refused to have 
anything to do with it. And humiliating 
enough it must have been, to that Peer ol 
ancient race, to be obliged to hawk round 
among " Liberal " members of both Mouses 
the humble petition of himself and his conn- VS^^'Q 
trymen, to be admitted to the common civil 
rights of human beings, and to see the re- 
presentative of oneof King William's Dutch- 
men turn his back upon the importunity of 
the Irish Papist. Nothing came of this 




petition. It was laid on the table of the 
Lords; but when Mr. G rattan offered it in 
the Commons, the sharp eyes of Canning 
and Perceval detected an informality — seve- 
~V\ J rul of the names appeared to be written in 
the same handwriting — a fatal objection, as 
they insisted, and the petition was not re- 
ceived. Evidently, the right way had not 
yel been discovered, to command the atten- 
tion of that House to Catholic claims ; and 
it was not till twenty-one years later that 
the right way was suddenly found out by 
O'Connell. 

It is agreeable to have here to record, 
that the furious bigotry of the Ministry and 
the studied excitations to religious animos- 
ity, were not responded to by the Irish Pro- 
testants altogether as had been expected. 
The Duke of Cumberland had entirely failed 
to induce or intimidate the University of 
Dublin into petitioning against the Catholic 
claims, as Oxford had done. The Protest- 
ant inhabitants of many of the counties in 
Ireland presented petitions in favor of the 
claims of the Catholics. There were nine 
counties that had shown the noble example 
of liberality and sound policy. The Counties 
of Clare and Galway had, at meetings con- 
vened by the sheriff, expressed their ardent 
wish for admitting their Catholic brethren 
to tile benefits of the Constitution. In the 
Counties of Tipperary, Kilkenny, Roscom- 
mon, Waterford, ami Meath, and in the 
town of Newry, resolutions to the same ef- 
fect were entered into, as well by the Pro- 
testant gentry ami inhabitants, as by the 
great bulk of Protestant proprietors of 
land. That recommendation was owin" 
partly to the growing influence of liberality 
'SjQ^ I and confidence, partly to the absence of all 
suspicion of any real intention to invade the 
landed property of the county on a conve- 
nient occasion, but more particularly to the 
strong and immediate feeling of danger 
which a divided country would have to en- 
counter in case of hostile invasion. On that 
principle did wise Protestants deprecate the 
terrible privilege of an exclusive monopoly 
of Constitutional right and political power. 
The Duke of Cumberland, indeed, hail 
the gratification of presenting to the House 
of Lords one petition from the Orange Cor- 
poration of Dublin against the Catholics ; 



but the example was not generally followci 
One reflection arises upon these facts : — 
That the most potent and unrelenting enemy 
to the Irish Catholics, at all limes, was not 
the Irish Protestants, bat the British imperi- 
al system. It was the English Parliament, in 
King William's time, then assuming to bind 
Ireland by its own acts, which first violated 
the treaty of Limerick, by excluding Cath- 
olic Peers and Commoners from Parliament. 
It was while the English Parliament com- 
pletely controlled the action of that of Ire- 
land, (by requiring the heads of bills to be 
sent over,) that the dreadful Penal Code 
was successively elaborated and maintained 
in force. But it was Ireland's free Parlia- 
ment which, in 1793, gave the grand shock 
to that infamous code, admitting Catholics 
to the bar, to the corporations, to the juries, 
allowing them to go to school, and to teach 
school, to bear arms, to own horses, to hold 
lands in fee, to take degrees in the Univer- 
sity ; — in short, it was the Irish Protestant 
Parliament, once free, that swept away, in 
"iie day, live-sixths of the oppressions, |*en- 
alties, and disabilities, accumulated and piled 
upon the Catholics, during a whole century, 
by the unappeasable hate of England. 

This accounts for O'Connell's frequent 
declaration, that, rather than remain in the 
Union, he would gladly take back the Irish 
Protestant Parliament — consent to repeal 
of Catholic Emancipation, and take his 
chance with his Irish fellow-countrymen. 
And O'Connell was right. 

Two of the first things recommended for 
Ireland by the Duke of Richmond were, 
the curtailment of the Maynooth Grant, and 
the appointment of Doctor Daigenan to a 
seat on the Irish Privy-Council. The whole 
spirit of the Perceval administration is ap- 
parent in these two exampl s. Doctor 
Duigenan had devoted his life to raking up 
all the vile, forgotten slanders tiiat had ever 
been heaped upon Catholics since the days 
of Calvin ; and was never so much in his 
clement as when pouring forth his foul col- 
li, -lion, by the hour, in a full-foaming stream 
of ribald abuse. The appointment of such 
a man to such a place, was a public affront 
and a significant warning to Catholics, show- 
ing them in what estimation they and theii 
claims were held by the new Government. 



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DOCTOR DUIGENAN PRIVY-COUNCILLOR. 



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The other pitiful manifestation of No- 
Popery spite was cutting down the appro- 
riation for Maynooth College. This was 
evidently a subject of difference and discus- 
sion in the Cabinet. Mr. Foster, Chancel- 
or of the Irish Exchequer, in Committee on 
the Supplies, slated, that additional build- 
ings were in progress at Maynooth ; that 
the establishment was capable of accommo- 
dating two hundred and fifty students ; and 
that it was his intention to move that the 
Slim of £9,250 should be granted to that 
institution for the current year. Sir John 
Newport moved that it should lie £13,000, 
which was the annual grant lixed by the 
late administration, as will be remembered, 
in their alarm lest the Irish College of 
Paris should again attract Irish pupils. A 
warm debate ensued. Mr. Perceval, as a 
matter of course, opposed the larger grant, 
upon strictly evangelical principles ; so did 
William Wilberforce, (a gentleman whose 
sympathies were strongly excited by the de- 
gradation of oppressed people, provided they 
were of a black color.) General Mathew, 
a good and generous Irishman, earnestly 
supported the proposal to grant the larger 
sum. 

He had been, within the last ten days, at 
Maynooth, and he could assure the House, 
that, unless the whole of the last year's grant 
should be voted, the buildings upon which 
former grants had been expended, woidd 
fall. There was no lead on the roofs, and 
the rain penetrated through them. He al- 
luded to the offer made by order of Napo- 
leon, to induce Irish students to go for edu- 
cation to France from Lisbon and Ireland, 
upon a promise of the restoration of all the 
Irish Bmvrses ; and read an extract from the 
answer of the Irish Catholic Bishops, stating 
their gratitude to the Government for the 
liberal support of Maynooth, and denouncing 
suspension against any functionaries, and 
exclusion from preferment in Ireland against 
any students, who should accept the offers 
of the enemy of their own country. Would 
any one say after that, that the Catholics 
were not to lie confided in? If they were 
not to be trusted, why not dismiss them from 
the army and navy ? Why allow them to 
vote at elections ? 

But this was not the act of Ministers. 



He was sorry to be obliged to allude to the 
conduct of any of the Royal family. But, 
however, it was rumored, that even Minis 
ters were disposed to agree to the grant, ti 
they went to St. James' Palace, and were 
closeted for several hours with a Royal 
Duke, after which they resorted to the pres- 
ent reduction. That Royal Duke was the 
Chancellor of the University of Dublin ; lie 
was Chancellor of a Protestant school, and 
might wish to put down the education of the 
Catholics ; but no man, who knew or valued 
Ireland, as he did himself, could countenance 
such a project. 

Ministers, however, had a sure majority, 
and succeeded in cutting down the proposed 
graut to Maynooth. One can only wonder 
that the Catholic body, clergy and laity, 
persisted in such an obstinate "loyalty" to 
the British Government, and did not turn tc 
France, and hearken to the liberal invitation 
of the Emperor Napoleon. 

Amongst the bitter opponents of the May- 
nooth Grant was Doctor Duigeuan, the new 
Privy-Councillor, who was member for an 
Irish Borough. He vented some of the ven- 
om, of which he had plenty, upon his Cath- 
olic countrymen ; said they were always trai- 
tors in theory, and wanted but the opportu- 
dity to be traitors in action. This gave rise 
to some sharp debating. 

Mr. Barham could not contain his execra- 
tion of such scandalous and wicked senti- 
ments. This drew from Mr. Tierney the 
question to Mr. Perceval, whether the offi- 
cial order for making Doctor Duigenan a 
Privy-Councillor had been sent over to Ire- 
land. On a negative answer from the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer, Sir A. Wellesley 
apprised the House, that the Right Honor- 
able and learned gentleman had been speci- 
ally recommended by the Lord-Lieutenant 
to be a Privy-Councillor, as from his knowl- 
edge of ecclesiastical business he could be 
of great service in Ireland in that situation. 
This induced Mr. Barham on a subsequent 
day to move the House, that an humble ad- 
dress be presented to His Majesty, praying 
that he would order to be laid before the 
House, copies of the extracts of the corres- 
pondence, which passed between the Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland and the Government 
of England, as to the appointment of Doctor 




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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



Patrick Duigenan to a scat in the Privy- 
Council of Ireland. The question being put, 
Mr. AV. Wynne said he was anxious to hear 
a vindication of so extraordinary an appoint- 
ment, and one which was so much lamented. 
Mr then alluded to the dismissal and subse- 
quent advancement of Mr. Giffard, and con- 
sidered the present only as a fresh endeavor 
to irritate the feelings of the Catholics of 
Ireland. Sir A. Wellesley repeated, that 
applications had been made to Government 
here, to grant to the learned Doctor as 
Judge of the Prerogative Court, the office 
of member of the Privy-ConnciL Till the 
time of his predecessor this had been the 
uniform custom, and it was now resorted to 
again as a matter of convenience. He be- 
lieved, that the present session was the first 
time it had been attempted to be argued, 
that because u man was friendly to the 
Church, he ought not to be trusted. If the 
Honorable and learned Doctor had been 
indiscreet in his language, why was it not 
taken down at the time, and complaint 
made to that House? lie did not cure of 
what religion a man was. If he could be 
useful in any line, in that line, he was of 
opinion, he ought to be employed. 

There is no doubt that Sir Arthur Wel- 
lesley was quite sincere in these declarations ; 
he did not care of what religion a man was ; 
he was always a practical person ; he de- 
sired, in a privy-councillor, as in a staff-offi- 
cer or a commissary, precisely such quali- 
ties as were serviceable for the business in 
hand ; and as the business in hand at, that 
moment was to trample down and humiliate 
,1m' Catholics, he approved of Doctor Duig- 
enan for Privy-Councillor. 

The Catholic petition which had been re- 
jected by the House of Commons, on a 
point of form, hail been sent back to Ire- 
land to lie signed anew. Iu the meantime, 
Lord Fingal remained in Loudon, ami had 
frequent interviews with the friends of the 
Catholics, particularly with .Mr. Ponsonby. 
It was now that the delicate subject of the 
veto lirst took a tangible shape. Lord Fin- 
gal was aii amiable, high-minded, and un- 
suspicious man ; but a weak one. The 
success of the petition, he was assured by 
the friends of the Catholic cause, would be 
greatly forwarded by an admission of the 



royal veto in the nomination of the Irish 
prelacy. This negotiation, which has since 
produced effects of great national import- 
ance, though then iinl'orseen, was of n pri- 
vate nature ; and the particulars of it would 
not have reached the public, had not subse- 
quent events induced the parties to it to 
make them public. Never was a point of 
poUiico-l/ieologicalcoatvovtirsy so fiercely con- 
tested, and, consequently, so misconceived 
and misrepresented as this question of veto. 
Lord Fingal had certainly received no spe- 
cific instruction concerning it from the Cath- 
olic meeting, which voted him the side dele- 
gate, guardian, and manager, of their peti- 
tion ; and the subject of a veto was not iu 
contemplation of that meeting. 

The history of this affair proves, in a 
most striking manner, how dangerous it is 
for any national Church, in matters affecting 
its discipline, government, and independence, 
to take counsel of any one outside of itself. 
In the present case, Lord Fingal, only 
anxious for the emancipation of his coun- 
trymen, and credulous enough to believe that 
the English Parliament would grant it upon 
fair terms, without the strongest coercion, 
acted by the advice of Doctor Milner, an 
English Vicar-Apostolic, and author of a 
learned controversial work ; and as Doctor 
Milner was a kind of agent iu England for 
the Irish Bishops, though not with any such 
purpose as this, the two together took it 
upon them to authorize Mr. Ponsonby and 
Mr. (J rattan (as both those gentlemen af- 
firmed,) to reinforce the prayer of the 
Catholic petition, by offering the veto power 
to the Crown. 

The petition having returned from Ire- 
land, duly signed, was presented by Mr. 
rattan, on the '2. r >ih of May. The only 
remarkable passage in his speech, is that in 
which he proposes the veto. He said : — 

"The influence of the Pope so far was 
purely spiritual, and did not extend even to 
the appointment of the members of his Cath- 
olic hierarchy. They nominated themselves, 
ami looked to the Pope, lint for his Spiritual 
sanction of such nomination. Dut if it 
should be supposed, that there was the 
smallest danger iu this course, he had a 
proposition to suggest, which he hail autho- 
rity to state, which, indeed, he was instructed 






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to make ; namely, thai His Majesty may 
interfere upon nny such occasion with his 
negative. This would have the effect of 
preventing any Catholic ecclesiastic being 
advanced to the government of that Church 
in [reland, who was not politically approved 
of l>y the Government of that country." 

Air. Ponsonby, in supporting the petition, 
made the same proposal ; and said he did 
so upon the authority of Doctor Milner, who 
was a Catholic Bishop in England, and 
who was authorized by the Catholic Bishops 
of Ireland to make the proposition, in case 
the measure of Catholic Emancipation should 
be acceded to. The proposition, lie said, 
was this: That the person to be nominated 
to a vacant Bishopric should be submitted 
to the King's approbation; and that, if the 
approbation were refused, another person 
should be proposed, and so on, in succession, 
until His Majesty's approbation should be 
obtained, so that the appointment should 
finally rest with the King. 

Mr. Perceval, us might have been expect- 
ed, earnestly and prayerfully opposed Mr. 
Grattan's motion, and all other possible con- 
cession to Papists, whether on thecondition 
of veto, or any other condition. Not that 
he would be averse, lie said, front giving 
contentment to his Catholic brethren, whom 
lie loved as a Christian, as much as any 
man; and "should not conceive himself 
precluded from supporting their claims un- 
der different circumstances, in the event, for 

instl e, of a change Inking place in the 

Catholic religion itself." On the division 
upon Mr. Grattan's motion, the Minister 
had a majority of one hundred and fifty- 
three — one hundred and twenty-eight having 
voted for going into committee, and two 
hundred and eighty-one against it. 

Lord Grenville presented the same peti- 
tion in the Lords ; made the same offer of 
the veto, and the petition met the same fate 
as in the Co ions. 

These debates at once raised an immense 
controversy both in England and in Ireland ; 
which lasted many years, and produced in- 
numerable books and pamphlets ; discuss- 
ing the limits between spiritual and tem- 
poral power ; the meaning of loyalty, and 
of the oath of supremacy, and the "liber- 
ties of the Gallican Church "■ — which ought 
59 



rather to be termed the "Slavery of the 
Gallican Church," because it means the 
subordination of the government of tha 
Church to the civil power. That civil 
power, indeed, is native and not foreign ; but 
when it comes to be a question of subordin- 
ating the government of the Catholic Church 
in Ireland to a Protestant King of Eng- 
land, one must only wonder that even the 
eagerness for civil emancipation could ever 
have made tiny Irish Catholic entertain such 
an idea for a moment. Into the merits of 
the question we do not here enter ; but it is 
matter of history that when Mr. Pitt and 
Lord Castlercagh wei'e intriguing for sup- 
port to the Union, in L799, they had deluded 
certain Irish Bishops into accepting the 
principle of the veto, by holding out to them 
the bait of immediate emancipation titer 
the Union* 

The alarm and indignation excited in Ire- 
land, both amongst clergy and laity, by 
the veto project, were quite vehement. The 
conscientious' Catholic historian, Plow. leu, 
says : — 

"The prospective view of a national re- 
ligion, preserved with a virtuous hierarchy, 
without any civil establishment or state in- 
terference, through three centuries of op- 
pression and persecution, produced alarm in 

* The Rev. Mr. Brenan, in his Ka-lrsinflicril Hut.wtj 
of Ireland, narrates the circumstances thus: — 

"During the course of that year, ten of lie- Irish 
Bishops, constituting the Board of Maynootb Col- 
lege, happened to lie convened in Dublin, on the ar- 
rangement of some ecclesiastical business, when 
Lord Castlereagh, then Secretary for [reland, availed 
himself of their presence, and submitted for their 
adoption two vitally momentous measures, originat* 
ing from the British Ministry.* 

" By the first of these it was proposed, that His 
Majesty should lie invested with the power of a veto 
in ail future ecclesiastical promotions within this 
kingdom, and agreeably to the second, the Catholic 
clergy of Ireland were to receive a pension out of 
the treasury; at tie- same tune, assurances were sol- 
emnly pledged by Government, that on the acquies- 
cence of the Irish hierarchy in these Btate measures, 
the fate of that great national question, Catholic 
Emancipation, entirely depended. Thus In-set by 
Ike proffers of the Minister on the one hand, and by 
the alarming posture of the country on the other, 
the Bishops already alluded to agreed, ' that in the 

* The prelates composing the board were as follows :— 
Richard O'Reilly, R C A B., Armagh; J. T Troy, B. a 

A B , Dublin ; Edward Dill I:, C A B , Team ; Thomas 

Bray, K. C. A. I!., C.slel ; P. .1 Ptardrett, R. C 1: , Meathj 
I\ Movlan, R. O. I!., Cork ; Daniel DeJaney, R C. J'.., Kil- 
dare ; Edmund French, R, (' B. , Elphin ; James Caul- 
lield, K. C. B., Ferns ; Johb Cruise, R. C. B., Aidauu. 








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HISTORY OP IRELAND. 



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every reflecting mind. The proposed inno- 
vation of introducing Royal and Protestant 
connection, influence, and power into the 
constitution and perpetuation of a Catholic 
hierarchy, to the otter exclusion of which 
the Irish Catholics ascribed that almost mi- 
raculous preservation, threw the public mind 
into unusual agitation. The laity abhorred 
the idea of the ministers of their religion 
becoming open to Court influence and in- 
trigue, and shuddered at the prospect of 
prostituting the sacred function of thai 
apostolic mission and jurisdiction, to which 
they had hitherto submitted as of divine in- 
stitution, to its rcvilers, persecutors, and 
sworn enemies, At the same time, the whole 
Catholic clergy of Ireland were driven by a 
Common electric impulse into more than or- 
dinary reflection u] the stupenduons effi- 
cacy of that evangelical purity and inde- 
pendence by which the spiritual pastors hail 
so long, and under such temptations and dif- 
ficulties, preserved their flocks iu the relig- 
ion of their Christian ancestors. 

"The general voice of the people crying 
out against religious reform, was an awful 
warning to the clergy ; and although the in- 
sidious concordat of 1799, was still clothed 
in darkness, the Irish Catholic prelates met 

appointment of Roman Catholic prelates to vacant 
sees within the kingdom, such intcrivrcnce of Gov- 
ernment as may enable ii in be satisfied of the loy- 
alty of the person appointed is just, and onght to be 
agreed to ; ' this statement was accompanied w ith an 
admission, ' Mint ;i provision, Mirou^li Government, 
for tin' Roman Catholic clergy of this kingdom, com- 
petent iiml secured, onght to be thankfully ac- 
cepted.' " 

This transaction remained a Becret for many years. 
Mr. Plowden speaks of "the long and mysterious 
suppression from the knowledge of the Catholic body, 
of the resolutions of the Clerical Trustees of May- 
M. 10 ili i !ollege in 1799, which never came folly to light 

till Is 10. It is not si 1 1| Mis i ng, n he adds, " I hat respect- 
able prelates should wish to conceal them from the 
eyi s of the public, ami particularly of such of their 
friends as they wished to engage in their cause, and 
whose esteem and confidence they subsequently 
courted. They were the base offspriug of their un- 
guarded connection with Mr, Pitt, whilst he was 
meditating the Union ; which they have been Borely 
lamenting from the hour they round themselves 
swindled out of the stipulated price of their seduc- 
tion." 

It should he stated, in justice I o I loci or M il nor, that, 

after the use of his name in Parliament, as authoriz- 
ing the offer of a r, to, he published a statement Mint 

lie had DO authority to sanction such an offer; and 

that he had been misquoted. After the Irish llishops 

passed their Bynodical resolutions, there was no 
Dtore ardent opponentof the veto than Doctor Milnor. 



in regular National Synod on the 14th and 
15th of September, 1808, in Dublin, and 
came to the following resolutions: — 

" It is the decided opinion of the Roman 
Catholic Prelates of Ireland, that it is inex- 
pedient to introduce any alteration in the 
canonical mode hitherto observed in the 
nomination of the Irish Roman Catholic 
Bishops, which mode, long experience, has 
proved to be unexceptionable, wise, and 
salutary. 

" That the Roman Catholic prelates 
pledge themselves to adhere to the rules by 
which they have been hitherto uniformly 
guided ; namely, to recommend to His ho- 
liness only such persons as are of unimpeach- 
able loyally and peaceable conduct." These 
Synodical resolutions were signed by twenty- 
three prelates. Three only (they were 
three of those who had signed the resolu- 
tions of 1199,) dissented."* 

Immediately were held many meetings of 
Catholics throughout Ireland, who, by their 
resolutions and addresses, protested vehe- 
mently against the whole project of veto, 
and thanked the Bishops for their linn'resu- 
lutions. When the real nature of the pro- 
posal was explained, and fully known, the 
Catholics of Ireland indignantly resolved 
rather to remain uticinancipatcd, than suffer 
their Church to lie enthralled. O'Connell 
was a strong opponent of the veto from the 
first ; the more active and educated of the 
laity repulsed the plan with scorn ; the press 
teemed with pamphlets, of which none made 
so much impression as the republication of 
Burke's letter to a peer iu Ireland, in which 
he treats of a similar project, of giving the 
Crown a voice in the nomination of Catho- 
lic Uishops.f 

* Plowden. Poet-Union History, p. .IDS, et $eq. 

f Kdmund Burke, who was as warm a friend to his 
Catholic countrymen as Grattan, and a much wiser 
friend, says, in his letter to a Peer: "Never were 
tin- members <»l one religious sect lit to appoint pas- 
tors to another. Those, who have no regard for 
their well, no, reputation, or internal quiet, will not 
appoint such as are proper. The Seraglio of Con- 
stantinople is as equitable as we are, whether Catho- 
lics or Protestant; and where their own sect is 
concerned, full as religions; but the sport which 
they make of the miserable dignities of the Greek 
Church, the factions of the Harem, to which they 
make them subservient, the continual sale to which 
they expose and r&expoBe the same dignity, and by 
which they squeeze all the inferior orders of the 
clergy is nearly equal to all the other oppressions t» 






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The project of enslaving the Irish Catho- 
lic Church to the English Protestant State, 
was for. thai time defeated ; but it was 
brought forward again and again, during the 
struggle for emancipation, and for many 
years, greatly agitated the Catholic public. 

In the course of this session, Lord Gren- 
ville made his unit ion to make Catholic mer- 
chants admissible as Governor and Directors 
of the Bank of Ireland. Lord Westmore- 
land opposed the motion, on the general 
ground that no further concessions whatever 
should, under the present circumstances, be 
granted to the Catholics. But to this not 
very intelligent argument, his lordship added 
a sensible observation. He said " he was 
surprised to see such motions so often 
brought forward by those who, when they 
were themselves in power, employed every 
exertion to deprecate and prevent such dis- 
cussions." This was true. Ireland and her 
grievances, the Catholics and their wrongs, 
had become, in the Imperial Parliament, a 
stock-in-trade for Whigs out of place ; and 
have so remained ever since. When these 
politicians are in power, they still " depre- 
eate such discussions." Lord Ilcdesdale, 
late Chancellor of Ireland, was alarmed at 
the danger to the Protestant interest which 
would arise, from allowing Catholics to be 
Bank Directors. He said he had only to re- 
peat his former objections to such claims 
" The more you were ready to grant them, 
the more power and pretensions you gave to 
the Catholics to come forward with fresh 
chums, and perhaps to Insist upon them. His 
lordship then launched out into a general 
invective against the Catholics, and particu- 
larly the priests." 

gether, exercised by Husselmen over the unhappy 
niL-inbera of the Oriental Ctiurch. It is a great deal 
to Buppose, that the present Castle would nominate 
Bishops l<>r the Roman Church uf Ireland, with a re- 
ligious regard lor its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, 
perhaps dare not do it." And in another letter to 
Doctor Hnssey, the Catholic Bishop of Waterford, 
he iid: "If you (the Catholic Bishops,) have not 
wisdom enough to make common cause, they will cut 
you off, one by one. I am sure, that the constant 
meddling of yum- Bishopsand Clergy with the Caslle, 
and the CasUe withlhem, will infallibly set them ill 
with their own body. AH the weight, which the 
clergy have hitherto had to keep tin- people quiet 
will be wholly lost, if this once should happen. At 
bestyouwill have a marked schism, and more than 
one kind, and I am greatly mistaken if this is not in- 
tended, and diligently and systematically pursued." 



This debate about the Bank of Ireland, 
is not, by any means, worth recording (lor 
the motion was rejected, as its mover knew 
it would be,) save to illustrate the party 
tactics of the Whigs, anil the cool and stu- 
pid insolence of the "Ascendancy." 

The Dublin Police bill was carried, crea- 
ting eighteen new places for police magis- 
trates ; and Parliament was prorogued on 
the 8th of July, 1808. 



CHAPTER L. 

1808—1809. 

The Duke of Richmond's Anti-Catholic Policy The 

Orangemen Flourish— Their Outrages and Murders 
— Castlereagh and Perceval Charged with Selling 

Seats— Corruption— Sir Arthur Wellesley— Tithes 

Catholic Committee Reorganized—John Keogh on 
Petitioning Parliament — O'Connell and the Con- 
vention Act — Orangemen also Reorganized — Or- 
ange Convention — More Murders by Orangemen 

Crooked Policy of the Castle — Defection of the 
Bandon Orangemen— Success of the Castle Policy 
in Preventing Union with Irishmen. 

The administration of the Duke of Rich- 
mond showed a venomous determination to 
keep down the Catholic people, and to rule 
the island most strictly through the Orange 
Ascendancy, and for its profit. 

The legislative rejection of the Catholic 
petition had been aggravated by the resto- 
ration of a certain Mr. Jacob, a notorious 
Orangeman, to the magistracy, the appoint- 
ment of Mr. Giffard to a more valuable sit- 
uation than that from which he had been 
displaced, the admission of Doctor Duigenan 
to the Privy-Council, and the curtailed grant 
to Maynooth College. A fostering counte- 
nance was given to the Orangemen, that 
tended more to foment and encourage, than 
to put down or punish their atrocities. 

It is certainly not an agreeable part of 
our duty to narrate anil to dwell upon these 
Orange outrages ; because this helps, more 
or less, to keep alive the religious animosities 
between the two religions sects ; which was 
the very object of the English Government 
in encouraging those outrages. Much more 
pleasing would it be to draw a veil of obliv- 
ion over them, and to think of them no more. 
But for two reasons this cannot be : lirst, 
the modern history of Ireland would 






111 




most a blank page without the villanies of 
Orange persecution, the complicity of Gov- 
ernment in those villanies, and their conse- 
quences upon the general well-being of the 
island ; next, because however well-inclined 
to forget those horrors, we have not been 
permitted to do so for a moment down to 
the present day. It was as late as 1848 
that Lord Clarendon secretly supplied the 
Orange Lodges with arms ; as late as '49, 
that a magistrate of Down County led a band 
of Orangemen and policemen to the wreck- 
ing and slaughter of a Catholic townland.* 
Later still, the records of assizes in the 
northern circuits show us the frequent pic- 
ture of an Orange murderer shielded from 
justice by his twelve brethren who have 
been carefully packed into the jury-box by 
a sheriff who is an officer of the Crown. All 
this odious condition of society being ;i direct 
product of British policy, and now nourish- 
ing and still bearing its poisouous fruit, a 
student of Irish history is bound to look at, 
and to study, the wretched details. 

On the evening of the 23d of June, 1808, 
n considerable number of men, women, and 
children, were assembled round a bonfire at 
Corinshiga, within one mile and a half of 
the town of Xewry. They had a garland, 
and were amusing themselves, some dancing, 
others sitting at the fire, perfectly unappre- 
hensive of danger, when in the midst of their 
mirth, eighteen yeomen, fully armed and ac- 
coutred, approached the place, where they 
were drawn tip by their sergeant, who gave 
them the word of command to " present and 
fire," which they did several times, leveling 
at the crowd. One person was killed ; many 
were grievously wounded. The magis- 
trates of NewrVj although far from being 
friendly to the Catholic people, were scan- 
dalized at this atrocity. They offered a 
reward for the discovery of the perpetrators ; 
inclosed a copy of their publication to the 
J hike of Richmond, and prayed him to take 
some measures for the protection of the 
Catholics, who they said were all unarmed, 
'while the very lowest class of Protestants 
were well provided with fire-arms. The 

* It is true that the magistrate was dismiss'',] from 
tlio Commission. Ho had somewhat exceeded the 
Intentions of the Castle in getting up a " loyal de- 
monstration.' 1 Yet the arms of that banditti had 
beeu furnished out of tno Castle vaults. 



Duke made a civil, but unmeaning, reply, 
expressing his "regret" at the sad circum- 
stance. Some weeks elapsed ; and still no 
measures were adopted. In the meantime, 
one of the persons concerned in the outrage 
was apprehended, but was allowed to escape 
by the yeomen, to whose custody Lord Gos- 
ford had intrusted him ; and a number of 
the same corps, to which the murderers be- 
longed, so far from showing any shame or 
regret at the conduct of their comrades, one 
day returning from parade, fired a volley (by 
way of bravado) over the house of M'Keown, 
(father of the deceased,) the report of which 
threw his wife into convulsions. 

Several inhabitants of the townland of 
Corinshiga, came to the magistrates and 
made depositions as to the continual terror 
and danger of themselves and their families, 
and the atrocious threats of the Orange 
yeomen who lived near them. Mr. Waring, 
one of the magistrates, who appears to have 
exerted himself earnestly in this affair, sent 
to the Castle copies of these depositions, 
ami entreated the Government to issue a 
proclamation, offering a reward for (Tie as- 
sassins, and to take some measures of repress- 
ing open outrage. 

Mr. Secretary Traill replied, coldly, that 
the Government declined to do anything in 
the matter. Mr. Waring again wrote, still 
more earnestly, "that the magistrates had 
expected that Government would have is- 
sued a proclamation offering a reward for 
prosecution, and pardon to some concern- 
ed for evidence against the others; that if 
this had not the desired effect, still much 
good might be expected to arise from the 
marked disapprobation of Government of 
an outrage of so dangerous and alarming a 
tendency ; that it might appear not un- 
worthy the consideration of his grace, 
whether such a measure might not even 
then (the 3d of August, 1808,) be adopt- 
ed with propriety, and that this procedure 
SO far front having a tendency to supersede 
the exertions of the local magistracy, could 
not but prove an efficient aid to them." 
This last letter was not answered, mid so 
the business dropped.* The advertisement 
or proclamation of the Newry magistrates 

* See abstract of the whole correspondence in 
l'lowdeu's (Volume III,) Post- Union lliMory. 









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was sent to the Hue and Cry, but was not 
Inserted. Not the least notice was taken of 
it, or t lie letter accompanying it. Such was 
1 1 ic unblushing tenderness of the Duke of 
Richmond for the band of eighteen Orange- 
men, each and every one of whom was 
guilty of open murder. Not one of them 
was ever brought to justice ; and to this 
day the inhabitants of that and many another 
Catholic neighborhood in Ulster, when the 
anniversaries of the 1st and 12th of July 
come round, either bar themselves up in 
their houses and put out all lights, or else 
prepare for defensive battle. 

The foregoing incident is related in detail, 
because it is a characteristic example of 
many similar cases ; save, indeed, that the 
local magistrates, instead of seeking to 
bring offenders to justice, as in this case, 
have generally sought to screen them. If 
an atrocity like this had been at any time 
done by Catholics, troops would immediately 
have been sent down to quarter themselves 
upon their houses, and a special commission 
would have issued to hang at least eighteen, 
guilty or innocent. 

It was not merely in the way of direct 
encouragement to lawless Orangeism, that 
Lord Richmond's administration showed its 
settled design of trampling down the Catho- 
lics. We have seen that in Dublin, the 
wealthiest and most respectable merchants 
were insultingly kept out of the Bank Di- 
rection, because they were Catholics. In 
the counties, Catholic gentlemen, whose pro- 
perty and position entitled them to be called 
upon the Grand Juries, were studiously ex- 
cluded. If any High Sheriff of a county 
was not a supporter of the Ministerial policy, 
or was known to be favorable to his Catho- 
lic neighbors, his "name was carefully ex- 
cluded from the next list. And in all these 
measures, Sir Arthur Wellesley was unusu- 
ally active and rigorous. The time, indeed, 
had almost come, when his services would 
be required in the Spanish Peninsula ; and 
his native country could well spare him. 

During this year, (1808,) corruption seems 
to have been almost as rife in Ireland as 
it had been immediately before the Union ; 
and seats in Parliament were bought and 
sold. Early in the session of 1809, Mr. 
Maddox brought forward a specific charge 



of this sort of corruption, criminating Lord 
Castlereagh and Mr. Spencer Perceval, 
stating, amongst other things, that at the 
last general election, a sum of money was 
paid by Mr. Quintin Dick to Lord Castle- 
reagh, through means of the Honorable 
Henry Wellesley ; and that gentleman (Mr. 
Dick) was thereby returned member for 
Cashed, and Mr. Spencer Perceval was also 
a party to the transaction. Upon occasion 
of the late investigation as to the Duke of 
York, Mr. Quintin Dick waited upon Lord 
Castlereagh, and informed him of the vote 
he meant to give, and the noble lord not 
approving of that mode of voting, suggest- 
ed to him the propriety of relinquishing his 
seat in Parliament. 

Mr. Perceval, indeed, refused to plead to 
the charge ; said it was an insidious plan to 
lay the foundation for a measure of Parlia- 
mentary reform — which it certainly was — 
and so bowed to the Speaker, and went out. 
Lord Castlereagh followed his example ; but 
it is quite' evident the charge must have 
been true, otherwise, there wotdd not have 
been, in a House of six hundred and fifteen, 
in the teeth of all Ministerial influence, the 
large minority of three hundred and ten for 
a motion to inquire. There is every reason 
to believe that Sir Arthur Wellesley, dur- 
ing his Secretaryship, took the largest share 
in all this traffic for seats and votes and in- 
fluence. He had a mind of the character 
usually termed "eminently practical ;" and 
thought he had a right, as he declared long 
after, speaking of his administration in Ire- 
land, " to turn the moral weakness of indi- 
viduals to good account ;" that is, to the 
account of his party. 

In the session of Parliament, in 1809, 
little or no attention was given to the af- 
fairs of Ireland. An attempt was made by 
Mr. Parnell, to carry a motion for inquiry 
into the mode of collecting tithes in this 
country. The grievances and oppressions 
connected with the Church establishment, 
and the irritating spoliation of the people, 
for support of clergymen whose ministrations 
were of no use to them, were but too well 
known already, and needed no Committee 
of Inquiry at all. On this very ground, the 
motion was opposed by Ministers, who, hav- 
ing no idea whatever of giving any relief, or 



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redress, naturally enough refused the empty 
formality of an inquiry. The Chancellor of 
the Exchequer "did not think that the 
House was in ignorance, with respect to the 
suliject of tithes in Ireland, but that the 
difficulty was, how to find out a practical 
mode of securing the property of the 
Church. He could not be persuaded, that 
any inquiry, either by commission or com- 
mittee, would do any good ; for they did not 
wailt information?' 

In the short debate on this motion, Sir 
John Newport observed, that he thought 
Lord Castlereagh bound, by his former pro- 
fessions at the Union, to find out some mod- 
ifications to lighten the burdens of the poor, 
oppressed people of Ireland. Instead of 
doing so, that noble Lord appeared to for- 
get all his pledges for the public good, and 
merely to attend to those that went to pro- 
vide for individuals, whom he had taken care 
to seduce to his own standard. Lord Cas- 
tlereagh arrogantly asserted, that he knew 
of no pledge made, either by Mr. Pitt or 
himself, upon the subject of tithes, or the 
Catholic question. He most distinctly denied, 
that he hail OXr wail,' any pledge whatever as 
to Ireland. Mr. C. Hutchinson deprecated 
the conduct of Lord Castlereagh as to Ire- 
hind. He was the parent of the Union, 
and, in order to effect it, he had made many 
promises ; but whenever any question as to 
the amelioration of the situation of Ireland 
came to be agitated, he either put a nega- 
tive upon it, or moved the previous question. 
And, in fact, by the "previous question," 
the whole question was put aside upon this 
occasion also. 

On the 21th of .May, was held in Dublin 
a numerous meeting of the Catholics, to 
consider what, step they should take to fur- 
ther their claims. The requisition convening 
the meeting was signed by Lord Netter- 
ville, Sir Francis Goold, Daniel O'Connell, 
Richard O'Gorman, Edward Hay, Denis 
Scully, Doctor Dromgoole, and many others, 
whose names havij since been familiar, in 
connection with the Catholic cause. Mr. 
O'Gorman opened the proceedings with a 
speech, in which lie proposed to petition 

Parliament. Tiiis was opposed by the vete- 
ran John Keogh, who spoke with great bit- 
terness of the treachery practiced towards 



the Catholics in the matter of the Union, 
and deprecated petitioning altogether, at 
least while the existing Ministry remained 
in power. Mr. Keogh observed, that, with 
respect to the existence and oppressiveness 
of their grievances, they were unanimous ; 
and differed only as to the means most likely 
to remove them. He was ready, on his 
part, to sacrifice, to burn, with his own 
hands, the resolution, which he was about 
to propose to the meeting, if any man could 
show him what was likely to be more effec- 
tual to promote the object of all their wish- 
es. A petition at the present moment, 
must, if presented, be presented to decided 
enemies, or lukewarm friends ; upon neither 
of whom could be placed any reliance for 
success. Mr. Perceval and his colleagues 
were admitted into office, upon the express 
condition of excluding the Catholic claims 
from the relief of the Legislature; and 
their predecessors had very willingly con- 
sented to give up a bill, nominally only in 
favor of the Catholics, rather than resign 
their places. Mr. Keogh adverted in strong 
and pointed terms, to the double imposition 
practiced upon the Catholics at the time of 
the Union. He insisted, that the proposals 
for their support from the Unionists and the 
Anti-Uniouists, were equally hollow, and 
equally insidious. Had it been otherwise; 
had the Catholics been liberally treated by 
their Parliament, they would have raised a 
cry in its defence that would have been 
heard, and would have shaken the plan of 
Union to atoms. No man had a right to 
suppose, that he wished to relinquish the 
Catholic claims. With his dying breath, 
with his last words, as a testamentary be- 
quest to his countrymen, he would recom- 
mend to them never to relinquish, never 
even to relax, in the pursuit of their un- 
doubted rights. No man could expect suc- 
cess to the petition. Without that expec- 
tation, lie saw nothing likely to accrue from 
the measure but mischievous and injurious 
consequences. He resisted the measure, not 
for the purpose of retarding, but of for- 
warding the Catholic claims. 

Mr. Keogh, therefore, moved a. resolution 
in accordance with these views, which was 
passed ; but the meeting then proceeded to 
organize a new Catholic Committee, consist- 



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ing of the Catholic Peers, ami the survivors 
of the Catholic Delegates of 1793, together 
with certain gentlemen who had been lately 
appointed by the Catholics of Dublin to 
prepare an address. It was resolved that 
these persons "do possess the confidence of 
the Catholic body." 

This new committee was to be permanent ; 
and was to consider the expediency of pre- 
paring a petition, not to the then sitting, but 
to tin; next session of Parliament. The 
committee, undoubtedly, was capable of be- 
ing regarded as a virtual representation of 
the Irish Catholics, and, therefore, as com- 
ing under the penalties of the "Convention 
act ;" for which reason Mr. O'Connell, who 
knew that the Government was watching 
their proceedings with a jealous eye, endea- 
vored to guard against this legal peril by 
introducing a resolution which was carried 
unanimously : " That the noblemen and gen- 
tlemen aforesaid are not representatives of 
the Catholic body, or any portion thereof; 
nor shall they assume or pretend to be rep- 
resentatives of the Catholic body, or any 
portion thereof." 

We thus find Mr. O'Connell, from the 
first of his long series of agitations, always 
anxiously steering clear of the rocks and 
shoals of law ; and find, also, that the most 
dangerous of those rocks and shoals was al- 
ways the same " Convention act." It em- 
barrassed the Catholic Committee in 1809 ; 
it stopped the "Council of Three Hundred," 
in 1845 — and, in fact, it had been passed for 
the very purpose of preventing all organized 
deliberation, and all effectual action, by 
Catholics for the attainment of their rights. 
There is no doubt that the Government 
might at any time have prosecuted to con- 
viction the members of this Catholic Com- 
mittee as delegates, (notwithstanding their 
disclaimer,) by means of a well-packed 
Castle jury ; but, in the meantime, the af- 
fairs of the Catholics seemed to acquire 
some consistency and strength from the 
permaneut organization of the committee 
and the respectability of its members. Of 
course, this circumstance alarmed and in- 
furiated the Orangemen ; who are generally 
believed to have at the same time remodeled 
and improved their societies. It is not easy 
to arrive at the exact truth regarding all 



the secret tests and oaths and " degrees " 
of this mischievous body — the precise forms 
have beeu from time to time altered ; and 
their "Grand Masters" and their organs at 
the press have boldly denied what is alleged 
against the Society, although such allegation 
had been true very shortly before, and was 
substantially true when denied, even if some 
trifling form may have been altered, to jus- 
tify the denial. 

Mr. Plowden, writing in 1810, says, very 
distinctly, that "a renovation of the system 
(of Orangeism) actually prevailed in the 
year 1809," and that new oaths were intro- 
duced. He says, further : — 

" It was reported, believed, and not con- 
tradicted, that about the time, at which the 
Catholic Bishops of Ireland were assembled 
in National Synod to oppose the veto, the 
Orange associations met by deputation in 
Dawson street, Dublin, in order, as may be 
naturally presumed, to counteract the pre- 
sumed resolutions of that Episcopal Synod, 
and to make head generally against the 
alarming growth of Popery. A deputy 
from the seventy-two English (almost all 
Lancastrian) Lodges came over iu unusual 
pomp of accredited diplomacy to the Irish 
Societies. Throngh the gloom of Orange 
darkness it would be presumption to ascer- 
tain the points of debate within their strict- 
ly-guarded sanctuary iu Dawson street." 
The same writer observes : — • 

" So much undeniable truth has lately 
been brought before the public concerning 
the Orange institution, so glaringly has the 
illegality and mischief of the system been ex- 
posed, snch weighty and fatal objections 
urged against it, that, it has become fashion- 
able with many Orangemen, of education 
and fortune, to affect to disclaim everything 
objectionable in the system, and to throw 
it exclusively upon the incorrigible ignorance 
and bigotry of the rabble, who are alike in 
every country, and of every persuasion. 
This was base artifice to disguise or conceal 
the countenance and support which the Or- 
ange societies have uniformly and unceasing- 
ly received from Government. If the obli- 
gations and oaths of Orangemen were of 
a virtuous and beneficial tendency, why not 
proclaim them aloud? If illegal and dan- 
gerous, why criminally conceal them 1 Whilst 






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HISTORY OF rRFXANB. 



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tlie Orange aristocracy thus affects to dis 
Claim their own institute, in detail, their 
activity in keeping the evil on foot is super- 
eminently criminal. Nor can they redeem 
their guilt without revealing in detail the 
whole mischief of the system, by enabling 
others, or cooperating effectually themselves, 
(as far as they possess power,) to expose 
and effectually extinguish it." 

Upon the subject of the new and alarm- 
ing development of the Orange system 
which took place at this date, we may fur- 
ther cite the language of O'Connell, at an 
aggregate meeting, in May, 1811. He said : 

" From most respectable authority I 
have it, that Orange Lodges are increas- 
ing in different parts of the country, with 
the knowledge of those whose duty it is 
to suppress them. If I have been misin- 
formed, I would wish that what I now say 
may be replied to by any one able to show 
that I am wrong. I hold in my hand the 
certificate of an Orange purple man, (which 
he produced,) who was advanced to that 
degree as lately as the 24th of April, 1811, 
in a Lodge in Dublin. I have adduced 
this facl to show you, that this dreadful and 
abominable conspiracy is still in existence ; 
and I am well informed, and believe it to be 
the fact, that the King's Ministry are well 
acquainted with this circumstance. I have 

1 n also assured, that the associations in 

the North are reorganized, 1 that a com- 
mittee of these delegates, in Belfast, have 
printed and distributed live hundred copies 
of their new constitution. This I have heard 
from excellent authority ; and I should not 
be surprised if the Attorney-General knows 
it. Yet there has been no attempt to dis- 
turb these conspirators ; no attempt to visit 
them wiih magisterial authority ; no attempt 
to rout this infamous banditti." 

In truth, the " banditti " were so useful 
and indispensable an agency of British domi- 
nation in Ireland, that they were perfectly 
safe from the law and the Attorney-General ; 
and that functionary was not in the least 
obliged to O'Connell for his information. 
It was against Catholics only that penal sta- 
tutes were made. Thus, although the Con- 
vention act makes no distinctions between 
Catholic and Protestant, the Orange Lodges 
were never at all embarrassed about sending 



delegates to a meeting in Dublin. And al- 
though the acts against administering secret 
oaths, especially apply to the oaths of Or- 
angemen, no Orangemen was ever prosecut- 
ed by the Crown under those laws. The 
oath which Government punished, was not 
an oath to extirpate one's neighbors, but 
an oath to promote the union of Irishmen. 

It would be easy to accumulate examples 
of Orange outrages at this time in many 
parts of the country ; but these incidents 
have a wearisome sameness. On the 12th 
of August, 180S, fifty unarmed men of the 
King's County militia, who had volunteered 
into the line, marched from Strabane into 
Omagh, in Tyrone County, where fifty of 
their comrades occupied the barracks. As 
they came into the town, it happened that 
three hundred Orange yeomen had assem- 
bled, and were celebrating the battle of 
Aughrim. A yeoman began operations by 
knocking off and trampling upon the cap of 
one of the militiamen, because it was bound 
with green, which, though regimental, was 
not considered " loyal " enough for that oc- 
casion. The militiaman resented the .out 
rage by a blow. A general assault was 
made by the whole body of yeomanry upon 
the fifty unarmed men ; tbey retreated in 
good order to the barrack, where they were 
attacked again ;. but as they were now sup- 
plied with arms, they defended themselves 
to some purpose, and killed four of their as- 
sailants. Thomas Hogan, a corporal of the 
King's County militia, was tried for the 
murder of those four men, and was actually 
found guilty of manslaughter. 

Again, at Mountrath, the annual return 
of the Orange festival, in July, 1808, had 
been disgraced by the most atrocious mur- 
der of the Rev. Mr. Dnane, the Catholic 
priest of that parish ; and it was followed 
up in the succeeding year by the no less bar- 
barous murder of a Catholic of the name 
of Kavanagh, into whose house the armed 
yeomen rushed, and barbarously fractured 
his skull, in the presence of his wife ami 
four infant children. On the first day of 
this same July, at Bailieborough, in the 
County Cavan, the Orange armed yeoman 
went in a body to the house of the parish 
priest, at whom they fired several shots, 
and left him for dead. They then wrecked 



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DUKE OF RICHMOND 8 "CONCILIATION. 



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the chapel, and wounded and insulted every 
Catholic they met. 

None of the persons guilty of these out- 
rages, either atMonntrath or Bailieborough, 
was ever punished, or even questioned. 

But while the government of the Duke 
of Richmond thus encouraged Orange out- 
rage, and screened the perpetrators, his 
grace sometimes affected to deprecate vio- 
lent demonstrations of the Society, at least 
in his own presence. For example, he made 
a tour through Minister in the summer of 
this year, 1809 ; and as the object of his 
excursion was chiefly to conciliate the Cath- 
olics of that province, (many of whom were 
wealthy and influential,) and so to prevent 
them from joining in the agitation for their 
own rights, he issued orders that no distinct- 
ively Orange displays should take place on 
his line of route. The town of Bandon was 
in those days a great stronghold of Orange- 
ism, in the South, and possessed a " legion " 
of six hundred yeomanry, all brethren of 
the Order. On the first of July, the yeo- 
manry being assembled, according to cus- 
tom, to celebrate the battle of the Boyne, 
and to flaunt before the eyes of the op- 
pressed Catholics the emblems of their 
defeat, they were astonished at being ad- 
dressed by their Commander and Grand- 
Master, Lord Bandon, in a very unusual 
strain : He said, " those Orauge emblems 
were calculated to keep up animosities, and 
his grace the Lord-Lieutenant did not 
wish anything of the sort on Ike present oc- 
casion" The men suddenly dispersed in high 
indignation. The next parade-day was the 
6th, aud they again assembled ; but to show 
how they valued the homily of Lord Ban- 
don, every man of them appeared decorated 
with Orange lilies. 

The Earl of Bandon and Colonel Oriel, 
the inspecting officer of the district, observ- 
ed, that if they wished to be considered 
really obedient and loyal, they would at- 
tend to the orders of their officers, as Gov- 
ernment seemed particularly anxious to pre- 
vent the further wearing of any emblem of 
this kind. They then ordered them, either 
to take these marks of distinction down, or 
else to ground their arms. The corps for 
some time remained undecisive, when at 
length, with the exception of twenty-five, 
60 




they indignantly threw down their arms and 
accoutrements, sooner than obey the com- 
mand of Government, delivered throng 
their officer. The whole yeomanry of Ban- 
don amounted to about six hundred men. 
On the 24th of July, 1809, the members 
composing the Boyne, Union, and True- 
Blues corps of yeomanry, under the denomi 
nation of the Loyal Bandon Legion, openly 
declared the cause for which they laid down 
their arms.* 

This "defection of the Bandon Orange- 
men," as it was called, made the Govern- 
ment very cautious for long afterwards how 
it showed the least displeasure against these 
"loyal" displays, or the outrages which 
nearly always attended them. Indeed, Grand 
Masters and Ascendancy journals often cool- 
ly reminded the successive Chief-Governors 
of Ireland that English dominion could not 
be maintained one day in Ireland without (he 
Lodges, which was true ; so that Lords- 
Lieutenant and Ministers, while feeling them- 
selves bound in common decency to affect, at 
least, to deprecate violence, and hypocritic- 
ally to advise concord and good feeling, have 
been exceedingly tender of wounding the 
sensibilities of those people, who were, and 
are, their only support in the country. 

So well had the Castle succeeded, during 
the administration of the Duke of Rich- 
mond, in undoing all that the volunteers 
and United Irishmen had done, and in mak- 
ing impossible that vmionof Irishmen, which 
was the only thing the Castle feared in the 
world. 



CHAPTER LI. 

1810—1312. 

Duke of Richmond's "Conciliation" — Orange Op- 
pression — Treatment of Catholic Soldiers — The 
Veto again - Debate on Veto iu Parliament- 
Catholic Petition Presented by Grattan -Rejected 
— O'Connell'a Leadership— New Organization of 
Catholics— Repeal of the Union First Agitated— In- 

Banity of the King— Treachery of the Regent 

Prosecution of the Catholic Committee— Conven- 
tion Act — Suppression of the Committee —New- 
Measures of O'Connell — Mr. Curran at Newry 
Election— Effects of the Union. 

The Duke of Richmond was one of our 
"conciliatory " Viceroys. In his tocr through 

* For a fuller account of these transactions at Ban- 
don, see Plowden, Vol. PI, of Post- Union History. 



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the South, he rendered himself more than 
usually affable and urbane ; and having a 
frank and gracious manner, he was not with- 
out some success in soothing the Catholics, 
whom long oppression Jiad rendered too 
credulously impressible by a few words of 
hollow and hypocritical kindness. At a mo- 
ment when it was notorious that he was 
acting as the zealous agent of a No-Popery 
administration ; that he was excluding Cath 
olio gentlemen from the Grand Juries, Cath- 
olic merchants from the bank, that Catholic 
soldiers were regularly punished by their 
officers for going to Mass, and that his 
grace's Orange banditti were killing and 
maiming their Catholic neighbors with a 
perfect certainty of impunity, we find that 
at the entertainment given by the Corpora- 
tion of Waterford to the Lord-Lieutenant, 
lis grace's affability and attention to all 
were conspicuous. He took an opportunity 
of addressing Doctor Power, the Catholic 
Bishop of Waterford, whom in a gracious 
and cordial style he thanked, for his and his 
flock's conduct in putting down the disturb- 
ances in their county. He openly and dis- 
tinctly assured him, that he had it in special 
instructions from His Majesty, to make no dis- 
tinction between Protestant and Catholic, 
which injunction he emphatically declared 
he had punctiliously complied with, ever 
since he had undertaken the government of 
the country, as far as the laws would allow 
of. Those laws, he lamented, it was not in 
his power to deviate from. Such was the 
traveling style of the Vice-regal Court. 
At the dinner given to his grace by the 
Mayor and Corporation of Cork, at the Man- 
sion House, amongst the regular Corpora- 
tion toasts, was announced, in its order, the 
Protestant Ascendancy of Ireland, on which 
his grace arose and declared, lie wished to 
see no ascendancy in Ireland but that of 
loyalty ; and strongly recommended the same 
line of conduct to be pursued by all good 

subjects. 

At another dinner in Cork, given by the mer- 
chants, traders, and bankers, his excellency 
had eveu the sanctimonious audacity to ex- 
press his wonder, that religion being only 
occupied with a great object of eternal con- 
cern, men should be excited to rancorous 
enmity because they sought the same great 




end by paths somewhat different. This kind 
of language, which has been the common 
style of Irish Viceroys ever since, was first 
brought into vogue by the No-Popery Duke 
of Richmond ; and what is very remark- 
able, it so far imposed upon many simple- 
minded Catholics, that they were afterwards 
but slow and reluctant in even coming for- 
ward to petition for their withheld rights 
and franchises. 

In the meantime, the daily and continual 
oppressions and humiliations which were in- 
flicted upon the Catholics, not only by Or- 
ange magistrates and yeomen, but by the 
Government itself, were too notorious and 
too galling to be soothed away by the fair 
words of a conciliatory Viceroy. The 
treatment of Catholic soldiers in the army 
(of which they already constituted nearly 
one-half,) excited the strongest and bitterest 
feelings of discontent. At Euniskillen, a 
Lieutenant Walsh turned a soldier's coat, in 
order to disgrace him, for refusing to attend 
the Protestant service ; others were effectu- 
ally prevented from attending the servjge of 
their own church, by an order not to quit 
the barracks till two o'clock on the Sunday, 
when the Catholic service was over, as at 
Ncwry. The case which acquired the most 
publicity, and produced the strongest effect 
upon Ireland, was that of Patrick Spence, a 
private in the County Dublin militia, who 
had been required (though known to be a 
Catholic,) to attend the divine service of the 
Established Church, and upon refusal, was 
thrown into the Black Hole. During his 
imprisonment, he wrote a letter to Major 
White, his commanding officer, urging, that 
in obeying the paramount dictates of con- 
science, he had in no manner broken in upon 
military discipline. He was shortly after 
brought to a court-martial, upon a charge 
that his letter was disrespectful, and had a 
mutinous tendency. He was convicted, and 
sentenced to receive nine hundred and 
ninety-nine lashes. Upon being brought out 
to undergo that punishment, an offer was 
made to him to commute it for an engage- 
ment to eulist in a corps constantly serving 
abroad ; this he accepted, and was transmit- 
ted to the Isle of Wight, in order to be 
sent out of the kingdom. The case having 
been represented to the Lord-Lieutenant, by 



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TREATMENT OF CATHOLIC SOLDIERS THE ™ VETO AQAIN. 




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Doctor Troy, the titular Archbishop of 
Dublin, Air. W. Polo wrote him a letter, 
which stated, that the sentence had been 
passed upon Spenco for writing the disre- 
spectful letter ; not denying (therefore ad- 
mitting,) that the committal to the "Black 
Hole " was for the refusal to attend the 
Protestant Church ; but that, under all the 
circumstances, the Commander-in-Chief had 
considered the punishment excessive, and 
had ordered the man to be liberated, and to 
join his regiment. When Spence arrived in 
Dublin, he was confined several days, and 
then discharged altogether from the army. 
The copy of Spence's letter, which be 
vouched to be authentic, contained nothing 
in it either disrespectful or mutinous. The 
original letter was often called for, and al- 
ways refused by those who had it in their 
possession, and might, consequently, by its 
production determine the justice of the sen- 
tence of nine hundred and ninety-nine 
lashes. 

Many other examples of this kind of pet- 
ty tyranny occurred about the same time ; 
and as no officer was ever punished or repri- 
manded for any of them, they are sufficient 
to indicate the real feelings of the Govern- 
ment, and how much sincerity there was in the 
after-dinner liberality of the Duke of Rich- 
mond. In short, it was the settled design 
of the British Government, not only to 
break the promises made for carrying the 
Union (as it had formerly broken the treaty 
of Limerick,) but also to make the Catho- 
lics feel in their daily life the whole bitter- 
ness of their degradation. 

They had, of course, no representative in 
the British Parliament ; and it appeared, 
in the course of the year 1810, that such 
Protestant friends and advocates as they 
possessed in that Assembly, Mr. Grattan 
and Mr. Ponsonby for example, desired to 
effect their emancipation only on the terms 
of enslaving the Catholic Church to the 
State, by means of the veto. The subject 
of veto was now revived, both in Parliament 
and in the country. The English Catholics, 
in their petitions for relief, offered to accept 
emancipation on such terms ; that is, on the 
terms of giving to a Protestant State a dis- 
cretion as to the appointment of their Bish- 
ops. In Ireland, that idea was uow univer- 



sally repulsed, by the clergy and laity ; al- 
though, as before stated, it had once been 
favorably received by a few of the higher 
clergy. 

Late in January, 1810, was held a large 
meeting of the Catholics of Dublin. The 
Secretary, Mr. Hay, stated, that the most 
Rev. Doctor Troy had received from an 
English member of Parliament (Sir John 
Cox Hippesley) a letter, accompanied by an 
explanatory printed copy of a sketch of pro- 
posed regulations, concurrent with the estab- 
lishment of a state provision, for the Roman 
Catholic clergy of Ireland.* 

It was the project of veto in all its naked- 
ness, but recommended both by the prospect 
of civil emancipation and by a state provis- 
ion for the clergy. To the credit of the 
whole Catholic body (for it must be admit- 
ted that the bribe was high,) all proposals 
of this nature were rejected, and rejected 
with indignation. A petition was prepared 
for presentation to Parliament asking for 
unconditional- emancipation, intrusted to 
Lord Fingal, who carried it to London, 
and presented by Mr. Grattan. But, al- 
though he presented it, he said that it was 
merely in order to have the claims of the 
Catholics put ou record ; that he had hoped 
the Irish Catholics would be willing to al- 
low, on the appointment of their Bishops, a 
veto to the Crown ; " he was sorry to see 
that at present no such sentiment appeared 
to prevail." Mr. Grattan had still the same 
violent horror of "French influence," which 
had formerly prevented him from joining 
the United Irishmen. " The Pope," he 
said, " was almost certain now to be a sub- 
ject of France ; and a subject of France, 
or French citizen, could never be permitted 
to nominate the spiritual magistrates of the 
people of Ireland." In short, Mr. Grattan, 

* The Catholic historian, Plowden, says : " This 
deep-laid plan, suggested by Sir John Cox Hippesley, 
fathered by Mr. Pitt, adopted by Lord Grenville, 
palmed by Lord Castlereagh upon the duped or in- 
timidated trustees of Maynooth College, in contem- 
plation of the Union, was now brought forward with 
the privity and approbation of several of the leading 
members of the Board ol British Catholics. The 
concluding sentence speaks in full its primary intent : 
" All confirm the principle, that the sovereign power 
in every State, of whatever religious communion, has 
considered itself armed with legitimate authority in 
all matters of ecclesiastical arrangement within its 
dominion." 



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476 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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iu both the speeches which he made in this 
session, spoke against the petition which he 
had presented. It would be tedious to 
make even an abstract of the debate ; and 
it will be sufficient to say that on the motion 
for going into committee with the Catholic 
petition, Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Grattan, and 
Sir John Cox Hippesley, were in favor of 
the motion, subject to veto ; Mr. Hutchesou, 
Mr. Parnell, and Sir John Newport, in fa- 
vor of it, without veto — Lord Castlereagh 
wholly against it in every shape ; so, of 
course, were Mr. Perceval, and all other 
members of the No-Popery administration ; 
and the motion was lost by a majority 
against the Catholic claims of oue hundred 
and four. 

In June, the petition was presented by 
Lord Donoughmore to the Lords, in a very 
fair and just speech. He said, speaking of 
the Catholic Church: "No man was so 
ignorant as not to know, that its profess- 
ed unity in doctrine and in discipliue, un- 
der one and the same declared head was the 
essential distinguishing characteristic of the 
Catholic Church, and yet they were told, 
that the Irish Catholics were the most un- 
reasonable of men, because they would not 
renounce, upon oath, this first tenet of their 
religion, and consent to recognize a new 
head of their Church iu the person of a 
Protestant King. The Irish Catholic, under 
the existing tests, solemnly abjures the au- 
thority of the Pope iu all temporal matters, 
pledges himself to be a faithful subject of 
the King, and to defend the succession of 
the Crown, and the arrangement of proper- 
ty as now established by law, and that he 
will not exercise any privilege, to which he 
is, or may become, entitled, to disturb the 
Protestant religion or Protestant govern- 
ment. What possible ground of apprehen- 
sion could there be, which was not effectual- 
ly provided against by the terms of this 
oath. With respect to that ill-fated veto, 
the introduction of which, into the Catholic 
vocabulary, he witnessed with sincere re- 
gret ; he could only say for himself, that he 
wanted no additional security ; but he was 
equally ready to acknowledge, that it was 
the bounden duty of the Catholic, whenever 
the happy moment of conciliation should ar- 
rive, to go the full length his religion would 



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permit, him, to quiet the scruples, however 
groundless and imaginary, of the Protestant 
Legislature." 

After a short debate, in which we find 
Lord Holland, Lord Erskine, the Duke of 
Norfolk, and Lord Grey, speaking in favor '.- _ 
of going into committee on the petition ; 
against it, Lord Liverpool, Lord Claucarty, 
Lord Redesdale, and the Lord-Chancellor 
— there appeared on a division : for the mo- 
tion, sixty-eight ; non-contents, one hundred 
and fifty-four ; majority against the Catho- 
lics, eighty-six. 

It was now at last tolerably evident that 
there was no use in petitioning that Parlia- 
ment to acknowledge the rights of Catho- 
lics ; that the insidious promises made by 
Lord Coruwallis and Lord Castlereagh, for 
l he purpose of carrying the Union, were to 
be deliberately disregarded ; and that the 
Catholic cause must be either abandoned al- 
together, or must be taken up by some more 
potent hand than any of those which had 
guided it up to that time. Daniel O'Con- 
nell was to be the new leader of the Irish 
Catholic cause, and may be said to daTe the 
commencement of his wonderful career of 
agitation from the Parliamentary defeat sus- 
tained by the petition of 1810. In a month 
alter the rejection of that petition, the gen- 
eral committee of the Catholics, after pass- 
ing a vote of thanks to the worthy old John 
Kcogh " for "his long and faithful services to 
the cause of Catholic Emancipation," issued 
an address to all the Catholics of Ireland, 
urging upon them a new and more combined cf- 
lbrm of political action, and bearing the 
signature of "Daniel O'Connell, Chairman." 
The programme of action presented in this 
address is substantially the same which was 
followed up by Mr. O'Connell, under sev- 
eral successive names, throughout all his agi- 
tations — local organizations holding frequent 
meetings, and corresponding with a central 
committee iu Dublin. All proceedings were 
to be peaceful and legal ; yet there was the 
hint of a possibility that millions of people 
steadily denied their rights, might in the 
end be driven to extort them wijth the strong 
band. Here is an extract : — 

"Still, whilst time and opportunity i/el re- 
main for peaceful counsels, the virtuous 
Catholic will deeply revolve in his mind the 






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« isest course for his redemption. He will 
prefer that success, which promises the 
greatest permanent enjoyment to himself 
and his family ; the most salutary to his 
country ; the most conformable to the best 
laws ami dearest precepts of civil society. 
He will prefer to "opposite courses — those of 
peace, of reason, aud of temperate, but firm 
perseverance, in well-regulated efforts. 

" The committee, sir, consulting not 
merely local, but general feelings, entertain 
every wish and hope, of calling into fair and 
free exercise the unbiased judgment and in- 
dependent opinions of the Catholics of Ire- 
land, thinking and acting for themselves 
throughout their respective counties, dis- 
tricts, cities, and towns, and deciding upon 
snch measures as shall appear to them most 
eligible. 

" They hope that the Catholics will take 
frequent opportunities, and as early as pos- 
sible, of holding local meetings for these 
purposes ; and there, unfettered by external 
authority, and unaffected by dictation, ap- 
<ply their most serious consideration, to sub- 
jects of common and weighty concern, with 
the candor and directness of mind, which 
appertain to the national character. 

" The establishment of permanent boards, 
holding communication with the General 
Committee in Dublin, has been deemed in 
several counties highly useful to the interests 
of the Catholic cause. 

" Nothing is more necessary amongst us 
than self-agency. It will produce that sys- 
tem of coherence of conduct, which must 
insure success. B 

" In the exercise of the elective franchise, 
for instance, what infinite good might not 
result from Catholic coherence? What 
painful examples are annually exhibited of 
the mischief flowing from the want of this 
coherence ? 

" The Catholic Committee have, there- 
fore, every reason to expect the most bene- 
ficial effects to the general cause, from local 
and frequent meetings." 

During this same summer, was heard the 
first loud cry for a Repeal of the Union. In 
the Corporation of Dublin — then, of course, 
an exclusively Protestant body — Mr. Hut- 
ton, pursuant to notice, made an impressive 
speech, in which he powerfully depicted the 



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ruin, bankruptcy, despair, and famine, that 

were apparent in every street of Dublin — ilfY 

pointed out that the debt of the nation was 

then above ninety millions ; that two millions Si' fiftp 

sterling, wrung from the sweat of Iii.sh S3 

peasants, were squandered in a foreign conn- r^\ £S^ 

try, by absentees,* and that .£2,500,001) 

more was drained away to pay the interest 

on that insupportable debt. He proposed 

resolutions to the effect, that the cure for all 

these evils was the- repeal of the Union. 

Of course, he was vehemently opposed by 

Griffard and his party ; but the resolutions 

were carried by a majority of thirty. 

The next step was a requisition from the 
Grand Jurors of Dublin, to the two High 
Sheriffs, Sir Edward Stanley and Sir James 
Riddall, to call a meeting of the freemen 
aud freeholders, to consider " the necessity 
that exists of presenting a petition to His 
Majesty and the Imperial Parliament, for a 
repeal of the act of Union. " Stanley de- 
clined to call such a meeting ; he said it 
" would agitate the public mind." But Rid- 
dall called the meeting. On the 13th of 
September, at the Royal Exchange, was 
held this memorable meeting, at which both 
Protestants and Catholics were unanimous, 
not oidy in affirming the universal misery 
and beggary of the country, but in attribu- 
ting the whole to that fatal and fraudulent 
measure called the Act of Union. O'Con- 
nell delivered, on this occasion, a speech of 
the most concentrated power and passion, 
which deeply impressed his audience, and the 
entire nation. It was at once printed on a 
broadside, surmounted with a portrait of 
the orator ; and O'Connell was from that 
moment the leader to whom all Catholics 
turned with pride and hope. The resolu- \j^&^>] 
tions for the preparation of a petition for 
repeal of the Uuion, were adopted unani- 
mously. 

What we have to remark is, that in these 
first movements favoring repeal of the 
Union, all speakers concurred in represent- 
ing the material aud financial effects of that 
measure as disastrous in the extreme to lre- 

* Dean Swift estimated the absentee rents in Ilia 
time at half a million sterling, and thought that 
same a great grievance. In 1818, Mr. Smith O'Brien, 
always moderate in his statements, said the. drain 
through this single chauuel amounted to five mil- 
lions. 




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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 






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and ; yet those speakers do not appear to 
have bethought them that the impoverish- 
ment of Ireland was the exact measure of 
the profit to England ; that this was the 
specific object for which England had de- 
manded, contrived, and accomplished the 
Union ; and that the existing relation be- 
tween the two countries, was the accurate 
fulfillment of the prediction made by that 
honest Englishman, Samuel Johnson, to an 
Irish acquaintance — " Sir, we shall rob you." 

The Catholics of Ireland were by this 
time quite unanimous in favor of repealing 
that Union, the perpetration of which they 
had been induced to regard with indifference, 
or almost with complacency. At least, they 
knew how treacherously they had been 
dealt with on that occasion by the English 
Government and its agents, Cornwallis aud 
Castlereagh ; and the natural soreness which 
they felt at being duped, aggravated the 
sufferings which fell upon them, as well as 
upon the Protestants, in consequence of de- 
pressed trade and ruined manufactures. 

"Repeal" was, therefore, fairly before the 
country ; but it was too late for any peace- 
ful redress. When the shark has once made 
his union with his prey, he does not easily 
disgorge ; for this there needs, either a 
miracle, as in the case of Jonah's fish, or 
else that the shark be killed and cut up. 
Feli! inn his; for restitution of that rich prey, 
is, perhaps, the most imbecile idea that ever 
possessed any public man since the begin- 
ning of the world. 

Catholic Emancipation, however, was 
another kind of question ; and one quite 
susceptible of a peaceful solution ; because 
to emancipate Catholics would cost England 
nothing ; but, on the contrary, would prob- 
ably win over many of the leading, educated, 
and professional Catholics, who might be in- 
duced, by the prospect of honors and emo- 
luments for themselves, to abandon their 
people to plunder and extirpation, and to 
sell the cause of their country to its ene- 
mies ; — an anticipation which we have un- 
happily seen realized on a large scale. 

Catholic Emancipation, then, although a 
minor question, was the immediately-prac- 
tical one for an Irish agitator ; and O'Con- 
nell saw that it was so, and devoted him- 
self to it accordingly. 



In October, King George III. fell into his 
final and irremediable insanity ; and the 
Prince again became Regent ; this time with 
almost full regal powers. It was a matter 
of no interest whatsoever to Ireland ; save 
that many Catholics were simple enough to 
believe that it removed the only real ob- 
stacle to their emancipation ; namely, the 
stupid scruples of the idiot King as to his 
Coronation oath. The Prince had made 
many professions, even distinct promises and 
pledges, afterwards minutely specified by 
O'Connell, that so soon as he should enjoy 
actual power, he would do all that in him 
lay to bring about Catholic Emancipation. 
In 1806, he had made such a pledge, through 
the Duke of Bedford, then Viceroy, in or- 
der to induce the Catholics to withhold their 
petitions ; his good friends, the Catholics, 
were to trust all to him, the Prince. Mr. 
Ponsonby, then Chancellor, had, in the same 
year, promulgated a similar promise in the 
Prince's name. He had himself given such 
a pledge to Lord Kenmare, at Cheltenham. 
Finally, he had given a formal verbal pledge 
to Lord Fingal, in presence of Lord Petre 
and Lord Clifford, which was reduced to 
writing by those three noblemen, and signed 
by them soon after the interview ended. 
The Prince had now uncontrolled power ; 
and, as usual, the Catholics found them- 
selves cheated. He retained as his Prime 
.Minister, the No-Popery Perceval, and was 
surrounded by advisers intensely hostile to 
the Catholic cause ; his mistress at that 
time was the wife of the Marquis of Hert- 
ford ; aud the conscience of that lady could 
not reconcile itself to the thought of con- 
ceding any right to persons who believed iu 
Seven Sacraments. Even the two Protest- 
ant Sacraments were one too many for her 
ladyship.* 

* Certain resolutions passed in the Catholic Com- 
mittee but too plainly referred to this woman, when 
they spoke of the " fatal witchery " which had led 
the Regent t" form a Ministry hostile to liberty of 
conscience in Ireland. The enchantress was over 
fifty years of age ; and her husband ami her son were 
the closest 1 n-companioxis of the lover of the fath- 
er 1 ! wife and of the son's mother. These famous 
" witchery " resolutions were supposed to have so 
strongly aroused the Protestant feelings of the Prince 
as to adjourn all thought of Catholic Emancipation 
for many years, and to have been the cause of the 
exceedingly bad grace with which King George IV. 
at last assented to that measure. 



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Almost tlie first act of any consequence 
done in Ireland, after the Prince became 
Regent, was a State prosecution, instituted 
against the Catholic Committee, in the per- 
sons of two of its members, Mr. Kirwan and 
Doctor Sheridan, who were charged to have 
been elected as delegates, in breach of the 
Convention act. The Government had been 
long watching for this chance, and now the 
Castle strained every nerve to insure a con- 
viction. Mr. Saurin, Attorney-General, com- 
menced his speech thus : " My Lords and 
Gentlemen of the Jury — I cannot but con- 
gratulate you and the public, that the day of 
jus/ice has at last arrived ;" surely a most 
extraordinary expression, under the circum- 
stances ; seeing that these Catholics were 
but peacefully claiming their manifest right ; 
and seeing that the crime of which they 
were now accused was unknown to the law 
of England. Mr. Bushe, then Solicitor- 
General, afterwards Chief Justice, speaking 
of the committee, constituted as it was, 
thus concluded his speech upon that trial : 
" Compare such a constitution with the es- 
tablished authorities of the land, all con- 
trolled, confined to their respective spheres, 
balancing and gravitating to each other — 
all symmetry, all order, all harmony. Be- 
hold, on the other hand, this prodigy in the 
political hemisphere, with eccentric course 
and portentous glare, bound by no attrac- 
tion, disdaining any orbit, disturbing the 
system, and affrighting the world ! " The 
remedy for this horrible comet was a packed 
jury ; which is one of those " established 
authorities — all symmetry and harmony — " 
spoken of by Mr. Bushe. A conviction was 
obtained ; and the Catholic Committee, in 
that form, ceased to exist. Mr. Sheil says : 
" A great blow had been struck at the 
cause, and a consideraye time elapsed be- 
fore Ireland recovered from it." 

But although that organization was at an 
end, many angry meetings were held ; and 
the Catholic press assumed a tone of aggres- 
sion and defiance which had not been usual 
with it. Mr. O'Connell, in conjunction with 
Mr. Scully, a gentleman of large property 
and high talent, established a newspaper ; 
and both in the press and in public assem- 
blies there was manifested by the popular 
leaders, so much boldness and activity, as 



assured all men that the cause of the nation 
was now in a fresh and vigorous hand. 

Mr. Wellesley Pole, had been appointed 
Irish Secretary of State, as successor to his 
brother, Lord "Wellington ; and his admin- 
istration was chiefly noted for his circular 
letter against meeting in conventions, with a 
view to the suppression of the Catholic Com- 
mittee. Mr. Wellesley Pole was soon after 
succeeded by Mr. Robert Peel, who proved 
himself during many years after the most 
deadly, and, indeed, most fatal foe the Irish 
nation ever encountered. He was but twen- 
ty-four years of age ; and continued Chief 
Secretary for six years, during which ho 
closely studied the character and wants of 
the people ; so that of all English statesmen, 
in modern times, Sir Robert Peel may be 
said to have understood Ireland best, to Ire- 
land's bitter cost. 

In 1812, Mr. Perceval, the "No-Po- 
pery" Prime Minister, was assassinated by 
a maniac, in the lobby of the House of 
Commons ; 'and a change of administration 
became necessary. But the new arrange- 
ments had little interest for Irishmen, and 
presented no hope of any approach to jus- 
tice, in the treatment of that country. Lord 
Liverpool was Prime Minister, and both 
Canning and Castlereagh were members of 
the Cabinet. A dissolution of Parliament 
and general election followed, at which sev- 
eral additional "Liberals" were returned 
from places in Ireland. Mr. Curran was 
persuaded by his friends, and invited by the 
Liberal electors of Newry, to permit him- 
self to be placed in nomination for that 
borough. He had never, since the Union, 
sought to enter the British Parliament ; 
and it was with no sanguine hope of being 
able to eft'ect any good there for his conn- 
try, that he now essayed to enter public life 
once more. He was defeated at Newry ; 
defeated by General Needham, one of the 
military tyrants who had dragooned the peo- 
ple into insurrection, in 1798. But in Mr. 
Curran's speech, on that occasion, to the 
electors of Newry, though imperfectly re- 
ported, is found a passage most vividly de- 
picting the condition of Ireland twelve 
years after the Union, and Curran's esti- 
mate of the nature and effects of that mea- 
sure. He said : " The whole history of man- 



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kiinl records no instance of any hostile Cab- 
inet, perhaps, even of any Cabinet, actuated 
by the principles of honor or of shame. 
The Irish Catholic was, therefore, taught to 
believe that if he surrendered his country he 
would cease to be a slave. The Irish Fro- 
tostaut was cajoled into the belief that, if he 
concurred in the surrender, he would be 
placed upon the neck of a hostile faction. 
Wretched dupe ! you might as well per- 
suade the jailer that he Is less a prisoner 
than ijie captives he locks up, merely be- 
cause hp carries the key in his pocket. By 
that reciprocal animosity, however, Ireland 
was surrendered — the guilt of the surrender 
was most atrocious — the consequences of the 
crime most tremendous and exemplary. We 
put ourselves into a condition of the most 
unqualified servitude ; we sold our country, 
and we levied upon ourselves the price of the 
purchase ; we gave up the right of disposing 
of our own property ; we yielded to a for- 
eign legislature, to decide whether the 
funds necessary to their projects, or their 
profligacy, should be extracted from us, or 
be furnished by themselves. The conse- 
quence has been, that our scanty means 
have been squandered in her internal corrup- 
tion, as profusely as our best blood has been 
wasted in the madness of her aggressions, 
or the feeble folly of her resistance. Our 
debt has, accordingly, beeu increased more 
than ten-fold — the common comforts of life 
have been vanishing — we are sinking into 
beggary— our poor people have been wor- 
ried by cruel and unprincipled prosecutions ; 
and the instruments of our Government 
have been almost simplified into the tax- 
gatherer and the hangman." This dismal 
picture of the condition of his country, 
could not have been made in so public a 
manner, and by a man of Curran's charac- 
ter, unless it had been true. He could not 
have ventured to tell a large assembly of his 
countrymen, that they were ground down 
by taxes and sinking into beggary, if they 
could all have risen up and contradicted him 
tin the spot. Besides, the evidence from 



other quarters is too clear and strong to al- 
low us to doubt of the accuracy of any one 
feature in the sombre scene he depicts. The 
country was during all those years, as usu- 
al, disturbed now and then by a vindictive 
murder of some bailiff, or agent, who had 
turned poor families adrift, and pulled down 
their houses ; or some tithe-proctor, who 
had seized on a widow's stack-yard. And 
all these acts of vengeance or despair were 
uniformly treated as seditions " insurrec- 
tions." Ireland, therefore, remained under 
an almost uninterrupted Insurrection act 
The act of Habeas Corpus had been sus- 
pended in 1800 by the act for the suppres- 
sion of the rebelliun ; that act had been con- 
tinued in 1801, and again in 1804 ; and had 
been replaced in 1807 by another martial 
law (substantially the same law,) called 
Insurrection act, which was maintained un- 
til 1810. It will be seen hereafter, how 
steadily the same exceptional coercion laws 
— but with ingenious variations of name, 
have been continued down to this day. 

When Mr. Curran mentioned that the 
people were "worried by cruel and unprin- 
cipled prosecutions," he had in his thoughts 
the long series of "special commissions" 
sent down in state to the country, to hang 
up some scores of haggard wretches, and to 
terrify the rest ; he was thinking of the 
many fathers of poor families, who were of- 
ten dragged to jail, without a charge against 
them, and without the right to demand a 
trial ; he was thinking of the free course 
which suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
gave to the vindictive outrages of Orange 
magistrates, and to the fanatical rage of 
packed juries. 

So uniform has been the long passion of 
Ireland — generation after generation, wast- 
ing and withering under the very same atro- 
city which calls itself "Government;" the 
children losing heart and hope, as their 
fathers had done, and begetting a progeny 
to pine way under the same miseries still — 
until they arc tempted to doubt whether a 
just God reigns over the earth. 



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Grattan's Emancipation Bill— More Veto— Qnaran- 
totti — Unanimity in Ireland against Veto— Mr. Peel 
and his New Police— Stipendiary Magistrates- 
Close of the War— Restoration of the Bourbons 
— Waterloo— Evil Effects on Ireland— The Irish 
Legion in France— Its Fate— Miles Byrne and his 
Friends— Effects of the Peace in Impoverishing the 
Irish— Cheap Ejectment Law Passed— Beginning 
of Extermination— " Surplus Population"— Catho- 
lic Claims Ruined by the Peace— O'Connell and 
Catholic Board— Board Suppressed— O'Connell in 
Court— His Audacity— His Scorn of the Dublin 
Corporation— Duel with D'Estcrre— Distress in Ire- 
land—Famine of 1817— Coercion in Ireland—" Six 
Acts " in England— Mr. Plunket's Emancipation 
Bill— Peel and the Duke of York— Royal Visit to 
Ireland— Catholics Cheated Again. 

I Mr. Grattan made his final effort to ef- 
fect the emancipation of the Catholics in the 
first session of the new Parliament, in 1813. 
The bill which he proposed was a very imper- 
fect and restricted one ; but it provided that 
Catholics should sit in Parliament, and hold 
certain offices— excepting those of Lord- 
Chancellor— either in England or in Ireland, 
and that of Lord-Lieutenant, or Lord-De- 
puty, in Ireland. It did not include a pro- 
vision fur the royal veto upon Catholic Bish- 
ops. The debate which ensued is scarce 
worth recording, inasmuch as after several 
amendments, providing for veto, and at last 
an amendment, striking out the clause ena- 
bling Catholics to sit and vote in Parlia- 
ment, the bill was withdrawn, and finally 
lost. 

The veto amendments proposed by Castle- 
reagh and Canning were the work of Sir 
John Hippesley, that indefatigable patron 
of veto. They proposed to constitute a 
Board of Commissioners, to examine into 
the loyalty of those proposed for Episcopal 
functions, and to exercise a surveillance and 
control over their official correspondence 
with Rome. But the Irish Catholics were 
now fully alive to the insidious nature of 
this proposal; and both clergy and people, 
with great unanimity, rejected all idea of 
emancipation upon any such terms. But 
the English Catholics, not having any na- 
tional interest at stake in the matter, were 
quite favorable to the project, and used 
their utmost endeavors to have it accepted 



481 

at Rome, and recommended from thence. 
English influence was then very strong at 
Rome ; the Pope was a prisoner in France • 
and it was to the coalition of European 
sovereigns against Buonaparte, that the 
Court of Rome looked for its reestablish- 
ment. A certain Monsignor Quarantotti 
exercised, in the year 1814, the official au- 
thority of the Pope ; and was induced, un- 
der English influence, to recommend submis- 
sion to the veto, in a letter, or rescript, to 
"the Right Rev. William Poynter," Vicar- 
Apostolic of the Loudon District. As the 
question of veto at that period occupied so 
large a share of public attention, both in 
England and in Ireland, it may be but just 
to let this Monsignor Quarantotti state, in 
his own way, the view which was taken of it 
at Rome ; and, therefore, we give an ex- 
tract from the most material passage of his 
rescript : — 

" As to the desire of the Government to 
be informed of the loyalty of those who are 
promoted to the dignity of Bishop or Dean, 
and to be assured that they possess those 
qualifications which belong to a faithful sub- 
ject ; as to the intention, also, of forming a 
board, for the ascertainment of those points, 
by inquiring into the character of those who 
shall be presented, and reporting thereon to 
the King, according to the tenor of your 
lordship's letter ; and, finally, as to the de- 
termination of Government to have none ad- 
mitted to those dignities, who either are not 
natural-born subjects, or who have not been 
residents in the kingdom for four years pre- 
ceding ; as all these provisions regard mat- 
ters that are merely political, they are enti- 
tled to all indulgence. It is better, indeed, 
that the Prelates of our Church should be 
acceptable to the King, in order that they 
may exercise their Ministry, with his full 
concurrence, and also that there may be no 
doubts of their integrity, even with those 
who are not in the bosom of the Church. 
For, 'it behoveth a bishop (as the Apostle 
teaches, 1 Tim., iii : 7,) even to have a good 
witness from those who are not of the 
Church.' Upon these principles, we, in vir- 
tue of the authority intrusted to us. grant 
permission, that those who are elected to 
and proposed for Bishoprics and Deaneries 
by the clergy, may De admitted or rejected 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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by tlie King, according to the law proposed. 
When, therefore, the clergy shall have, ac- 
cording to the usual custom, elected those 
whom they shall judge most worthy in the 
Lord to possess those dignities, the metropo- 
litan of the Province, in Ireland, or the sen- 
ior Vicar-Apostolic of England and Scot- 
land, shall give notice of the election, that 
the King's approbation or dissent may be 
had thereupon. If the candidates be re- 
jected, others shall be proposed, who may 
be acceptable to the King ; but if approved 
of, the Metropolitan or Vicar-Apostolic, as 
above, shall send the documents to the Sa- 
cred Congregation here, the members where- 
of having duly weighed the merits of each, 
shall take measures for the obtainmcnt of 
canonical institution from His Holiness. I 
perceive, also, that another duty is assigned 
to the board above-mentioned, namely, that 
they are charged to inspect all letters writ- 
ten by the ecclesiastical power to any of the 
British clergy, and examine carefully whe- 
ther they contain anything which may be 
injurious to the Government, or anywise 
disturb the public tranquillity. Inasmuch 
as a communication on ecclesiastical or spir- 
itual affairs with the head of the Church is 
not forbidden, and as the inspection of the 
board relates to political subjects only, this 
also must be submitted to. It is right that 
the Government should not have cause to en- 
tertain any suspicion with regard to the com- 
municatiou between us. What we write 
will bear the eyes of the world, for we in- 
termeddle not with matters of a political 
nature, but are occupied about those things 
which the divine and the ecclesiastical law, 
and the good order of the Church, appear to 
require. Those matters only are to be kept 
under the seal of silence which pertain to 
the jurisdiction of conscience within us ; 
and of this, it appears to me sufficient care 
has been taken in the clauses of the law al- 
luded to. We are perfectly convinced, that 
so wi.^e a Government as that of Great Bri- 
tain, while it studies to provide for the pub- 
ic security, does not on that account wish to 
•ompel the Catholics to desert their religion, 
but would rather be pleased that they should 
be careful observers of it. For our holy and 
truly-divine religion is most favorable to 
public authority, is the best support of 



thrones, and the most powerful teacher both 
of loyalty and patriotism." 

This did by uo means suit the views of the 
Irish Catholics, or their idea of " loyalty 
and patriotism." As they did not them- 
selves " possess those qualifications which be- 
long to a faithful subject," they naturally 
thought that their clergy should not. They 
believed, indeed, and not without reason, 
that loyalty and faithful attachment on the 
part of the Irish Catholic clergy towards 
a foreign and hostile Government, meant 
neither more nor less than a formal aban- 
donment of the people to the mercy of their 
enemies, and a desertion of the cause of 
those faithful and devoted Catholics who 
had stood by their clergy in the worst of 
times, when a price was set upon a priest's 
head. In fact, the sequel proved that the 
Irish clergy of that day were not so base 
as it was hoped they would be. The Bishops 
sent a strong remonstrance to Rome, by 
the hands of Doctor Murray, coadjutor to 
the Archbishop of Dublin ; which, however, 
was not regarded in the least — so powerful 
was the political influence of England in 
the councils of the Holy See. Doctor Mur- 
ray returned to Ireland. At a meeting of 
the Prelates, very energetic resolutions were 
adopted, one of which ran in these terms : 
" Though we sincerely venerate the Supreme 
Pontiff as visible head of the Church, we 
do not conceive that our apprehensions for 
the safety of the Roman Catholic Church 
in Ireland can or ought to be removed by 
any determination of His Holiness, adopted, 
or intended to be adopted, not only with- 
out our concurrence, but in direct opposition 
to our repeated resolutions, and the very en- 
ergetic memorial presented on our behalf, 
and so ably supported by our deputy, the 
Most Rev. Doctor Murray — who, in that 
quality, was more competent to inform His 
Holiness of the real state and interests of 
the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland than 
any oiher with whom he is said to have con- 
sulted." 

This last phrase meant the emissaries of 
the English Catholics, then busy at Rome ; 
and the English Catholics have been at all 
times as zealous and resolute to keep Ire- 
land subject to English domination, in all 
respects, as any " No-Popery " Briton or 



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Orange Grand-Master could be. The reso- 
lutions were signed by all the Catholic Bish- 
ops in Ireland, and transmitted to Rome by 
the same Doctor Murray, accompanied by 
the Bishop of Cork. A vehement agitation 
was aroused in Ireland ; which extended 
to the laity as well as the clergy ; and un- 
der the potent impulse of O'Connell, a reso- 
lute spirit of resistance manifested itself in 
the whole Catholic population, against any 
orders or recommendations coming even from 
Rome itself, teudiug to enchain their nation- 
al Church. 

While this veto commotion agitated the 
Catholics, Mr. Robert Peel, the Irish Secre- 
tary, was engaged in reorganizing and 
greatly increasing the Constabulary force, 
with a view to render it a more efficient in- 
strument in the bauds of the English Gov- 
ernment for the coercion of the country, 
and the detection of seditious proceedings. 
With the same view, Mr. Peel invented and 
established the class of stipendiary or police- 
magistrates, who were to take their instruc- 
tions from the Castle, and whose business 
was to control and direct, as far as possi- 
ble, the proceedings of justices of the peace 
at petty sessions and quarter-sessions, and 
to guard against any movement of inde- 
pendent feeling on the part of country 
gentlemen who were in the commission of 
the peace. The men chosen for this office 
of stipendiary magistrate have been usually 
briefless barristers, or broken-down politi- 
cians in a small way, to whom the salary 
was a desirable livelihood ; and as they 
have at least legal phrases at their com- 
mand, a supposed acquaintance with the 
views of the Castle, and great self-import- 
ance of maimer, it has been found in prac- 
tice that, these paid officials have really to 
a great extent controlled and managed the 
local administration of justice ; which, in all 
conscience, had been bad enough before. 
Mr. Peel's police arrangements were ex- 
tremely unpopular ; and his new constables 
and stipendiaries were popularly termed 
Peelers; but although the Irish, by an in- 
fallible instinct, abhorred the new system, 
thry were yet far from suspecting to what 
a deadlv use Mr. Peel would eventually put 
his new force. 

In the meantime, the grand war of coal- 



ized Europe against the French Empire drew 
to a close. The French armies were driven 
out of Spain by the patriotic efforts of the 
Spanish people, aided by a British force 
under Lord Wellington — for the English 
Government, with the great object of crush- 
ing the French, was willing, in a distant 
country, to ally itself even with patriotism 
The Emperor Napoleon, after the tremend- 
ous slaughter at Leipsie, (in which he fought 
all Europe,) had been obliged gradually to 
withdraw his forces into France ; but though 
he made a most brilliant and fierce resist- 
ance to the advance of the allies, they sur- 
rounded Paris in overwhelming numbers ; 
and the great Emperor was forced, in an 
evil hour, to abdicate at Fontainbleau. The 
coalized kings and oligarchies of Europe 
triumphed ; and the expelled Bourbons came 
back to sit on the throne of France for a 
while. The "Congress of Vienna" was 
called, to settle Europe upon the basis of a 
distinct denial of every human right and 
every national aspiration ; and the fitting 
representative of England in that Congress 
was no other than Lord Castlereagh, the 
artizan of the Irish Union. 

It does not enter within the compass of 
this narrative to detail the wonderful series 
of events which followed — the escape of 
Buonaparte from Elba, the enthusiastic up- 
rising of France in his favor, the tricolor 
flying from steeple to steeple, the reign of a 
Hundred Days, the renewed concentration 
of the forces of the allies, and the sad dis- 
aster of Waterloo — AVaterloo, like every 
other triumph of the arms and policy of 
England, was, of course, a fatal misfortune 
to Ireland. It confirmed the odious rule of 
an insolent oligarchy, both in England and in 
Ireland, and placed it high, as was hoped 
and believed, above all apprehension of rev- 
olution and democracy. Waterloo put an 
end at once to all interest in Catholic claims 
on the part even of the " Liberals," and ad- 
journed for fourteen years all thought 
either of emancipation or of reform. The 
defeat of Waterloo was not, indeed, so much 
a defeat for France, as for other oppressed 
countries of Europe ; for in France, the 
great revolution had been accomplished, 
and its work could not be undone. In 
France, all religious sects were equal, and 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



remained equal, before the law ; all feudal 
privilege was, and remained, abolished ; 
and all men, like all religions, were on an 
equal footing ; in France, the people were 
in possession, and remained in possession, of 
the great confiscated estates, each one of 
which made hundreds or thousands of farms 
for free peasants ; in France, tithes were, 
and remained, abolished ; the highest dig- 
nity of the state was open to the meanest 
mechanic ; the highest grade in the army 
to the humblest private. It was earnestly 
hoped, indeed, by the eoalized allies of the 
Bourbons, that the forcible restoration of 
that family would speedily reverse and abol- 
ish all these dangerous privileges of the 
French people — but that was impossible. 
The sentiment and practice of justice and 
equality had entered too deeply into the life 
and soul of France, to be eradicated even 
by foreign bayonets. But for Ireland, the 
case was very different. The apprehension 
of a triumph of " French principles" — that 
is, principles of equality and justice — which 
had been for twenty-five years a dreadful 
bugbear to the British oligarchy — was now 
at an end ; and privilege, and Church and 
State, and the " Asceudaucy," reigned su- 
preme. 

Of the armies which triumphed on the 
field of Waterloo, about one-fourth consist- 
ed of British troops ; and of these " Brit- 
ish" troops, nearly one-half were Irish. It 
is a shame to be obliged to confess it. Their 
country can take no pride in those Irishmen ; 
Irish history refuses to know their names. 
They fought under a commander who always 
opposed and denied their right to rank on 
an equality with his other soldiers ; they 
fought to perpetuate a domination which 
oppressed and despised them ; fought against 
their own enfranchisement, and their own 
right to land and life on their own soil ; 
and to establish, on an immovable basis, 
that odious British system which has since 
degraded, impoverished, and almost depopu- 
lated their country. While a vestige of 
genuine Irish feeling remains amongst our 
people, Irishmen will speak with pride of 
the Irish Brigade at Fontenoy, and with 
shame ami repugnance of the Irish regi- 
ments at Waterloo. 

There were, indeed, some true Irishmen 



in the service of France at that period ; the 
Irish Legion, the relics of '98, as the old 
brigades were the relics of Limerick. In 
this Legion and its gallant officers, Ware, 
Allen, Byrne, Corbet, Lawless, MacSheehy, 
centred the genuine military renown of the 
Irish race at that day. But the Legion 
was not present at Waterloo ; it had fought 
through the Peninsular campaign, and had 
taken part in some of the last battles of the 
campaign of 1814. It had thus been sadly 
reduced in numbers ; and during the first 
Restoration, (before the Hundred Days,) it 
had been entirely reorganized and reduced 
to a regiment. At the time of the final 
struggle on the plains of Belgium, the regi- 
ment was stationed at Montreuil, on the 
shore of the British Channel ; and after the 
calamity of Waterloo, and the treacherous 
capture of Napoleon, the Irish regiment, as 
well as all the rest of the army, was dis- 
banded ; and the officers were allowed at 
first to retire upon their half-pay to any 
town they might select in France, where, 
says the venerable Miles Byrne, " they 
hoped at least to enjoy their pittance and 
the protection of the law." But it is morti- 
fying to learn that through the paramount in- 
lluence of Castlereagh with the new Govern- 
ment, and through the base compliance of 
Clarke, Due de Feltre, (himself the sou of 
an Irishman,) these forlorn exiles were per- 
secuted with a mean malignity, which only 
the spite of Lord Castlereagh could have 
suggested. Before quitting Montreuil to 
be disbanded, orders had been given to de- 
face and destroy all their insignia and me- 
morials of service — a bitter ordeal for the 
veteran heroes. Colouel Byrne, in his late- 
ly published memoirs, gives some account of 
the affair. He says : — 

"Two beautiful standards were sent to 
Spain by the Emperor in 1810, for the 
second and third battalions of the Irish 
regiment, but they were left at Valadolid, 
as those battalions were then in Portugal. 
These standards were brought to the depot 
of the regiment and were destroyed by Lieu- 
tenant Montague at Montreuil. They were 
green, with a large harp in the centre. Ou 
one side, in gold letters, "Napoleon I. to the 
second Irish Battalion." And on the other, 
" The Iudependeuce of Ireland." The third 






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the snme. The Eagle was carried by the 
first battalion, which, of course, had its colors 
like the others. 

" The officers of the council left at Mon- 
treal] received two-thirds of their pay until 
the February following', and when all was 
finished, they retired on half-pay like the 
oilier officers, hoping, at least, to remain un- 
molested But soon after the battle of 
Waterloo, the brave regiment was disbanded 
by Louis XVIII., and the Irish officers were 
made to feel that Lord Castlereagh and 
English influence prevailed in the French 
councils. 

" Commandant Allen, who had retired to 
Melun, was ordered from that town to 
Rouen, and passing by Paris, was there ar- 
rested by order of the Duke of Feltre, and 
informed he must qnit the French territory 
without delay. Thus, without trial or judg- 
ment, one of those officers, whose gallant ac- 
tions had gained such renown for the Irish 
regiment, both in Spain and Silesia, was to 
be banished from his adopted country, by 
-the orders of General Clarke, the son of an 
Irishman." 

Many others of the officers, including 
Miles Byrne himself, were in like manner 
ordered in the harshest manner to quit 
Fiance ; but long afterwards we find most 
of them again upon active duty in the 
French service. Scarcely one was base 
enough to offer his services to England ; and 
nothing could irritate these gentlemen so 
much as any suggesion of seeking a British 
pardon, or accepting a British favor.* 

Poor Cnrran, when near his last, and in 
great misery of body and mind, had made a 
visit to Paris in August 1S14, and had met 
there some of the Irish officers. In a letter 
to a friend, which afterwards was made pub- 
lic, he had spoken of his wish to see mercy 
and compassion shown them by the English 
Government. Miles Byrne tells ns in his 
memoirs : — 

" I recollect a coincidence. In August, 
1> 14, whilst at Avesnes, Inspector-General 

* The officers of the Legion were almost all re- 
stored afterwards to active service in the armies 
01 their adopted country. Corbet became a Ma- 
jor-General, and for some time commanded at 
Caen. Miles Byrne was commandant of Patras, in 
the war of Greece ; aud died in 18G2 ; his rank 
was that of Chief de Batailloti in the Fifty-sixth 
Regiment of the line. 



Burke was preparing his report to the Min- 
ister of War on the merits and claims of 
the brave Irish officers returning from the 
Russian prisons of Siberia, as well as those 
officers who escaped from Flushing, and 
from the English pontons, Cumin's very ill- 
timed and most silly letters from Paris, in 
August, 1814, to his friend, Counselor Denis 
Lube", were published in the Dublin newspa- 
pers. The following extract is from one of 
them on the Irish exiles : — 

" ' I had hopes that England might let 
them back. The season aud the power of 
mischief is long past ; the number is almost 
too small to do credit to the mercy that casts 
a look upon them. But they are destined to 
give their last recollection of the green 
fields they are never to behold, on a foreign 
deathbed, and to lose the sad delight of fan- 
cied visits to them in a distant grave.' 

" It caused no little indignation amongst 
the Irish officers who had read it, and seve- 
ral of them met at dinner at the Trois 
Freres, in the Palais-Royal, to talk it over. 
These were General Lawless, who came in 
from Saint Germains for the meeting, Com- 
mandant O'Reilly, Captain Luke Lawless, 
Edward Leweus, and John Sweetman, &c'. 
We were a mixture of civil and military at 
dinner. 

" General Lawless asked Arthur Barker, 
as the youngest, (for he was still astuden tat 
the Irish College,) to read those famous let- 
ters. When read, General Lawless, turn- 
ing to Lewens, said : ' You must have told 
Curran that our number was not worth the 
commiseration of Castlereagh.' 'Me, Sir!' 
cried Lewens, in a great passion ; ' how 
could you think me capable of any such 
thing?' General Lawless rejoined: 'Of 
the exiles at Paris, Curran only saw you 
and Corbet.' It would have been better 
had he vented his spleen and ill-humor on 
something else ; he might have let the brave 
Irish officers who have escaped the dangers 
of their various campaigns, be again placed 
on active service." 

Indeed, to the very last, we find the sur- 
vivors of these noble Irish exiles looking 
forward with anxious hope to a renewal of 
war between France and England, that they 
might have one other chance of striking a 
mortal blow at the enemy of their country. 



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We may be excused for giving one other 
characteristic extract from the Byrne me- 
moir. Speaking of Corbet, (who died a 
French Major-General,) Colonel Byrne says : 

" General Corbet was officer of the Legion 
of Honor, Knight of Saint Louis, and Com- 
mander of the Order of the Saviour in 
Greece. He valued those distinctions as 
highly honorable, no doubt, but he would 
sometimes say : ' How much the more valu- 
able would they have been, had they been 
gained in the cause of my native country ! ' 
And to his last moment he lamented that 
her independence was not obtained ; and he 
seemed ever anxious for something to arise 
between the governments of France and 
England, which might prove beneficial to 
his own country. 

" In 1S-10, we frequently consulted about 
the way we could be best employed to serve 
Ireland, in the event of a war between 
France and England, which was then on the 
point of being declared. I remember one 
day, after an audience he had had with the 
Minister of War, on the situation of Ire- 
laud, he told mc that the Minister; Gene- 
ral Schneider, was very desirous to have a 
conversation with me, respecting the reliance 
which could be placed on the then leader 
of the Irish, when a French army should 
land in Inland. When lie saw that there 
was tn be no war with England, lie would 
speak to me of going to the United States 
of America, being sure, he said, that from 
that country, one day or other, Ireland 
would receive ultimate assistance." 

So the wholesome tradition is handed 
down unbroken ; any and every foe of 
England is the Irish exile's friend ; and 
the power of Britain must be, indeed, 
broadly and deeply bused, if it forever with- 
stand the loug-g&therihg tempest of just 
wrath which has been laid up against the 
day of wrath. 

The "lose of the great war on the Conti- 
nent nad certain direct effects upon Ireland. 
The immense demand for agricultural pro- 
duce for victualing of armies and fortresses, 
hud maintained high prices ; and as larce 
numbers of the small farmers then possessed 
leases — granted by landlords in order to 
manufacture voting freeholders — the people 
generally lived with some approach to com- 



parative comfort. Immense contracts for 
the provisioning of the English navy were 
also made at Cork ; and thus the war-prices, 
one way and another, brought money into 
the country, which was not all immediately 
sent out again, but actually circulated, to 
some extent, amongst the people. It is 
true, that landlords, wherever they had ten- 
ants from year to year, steadily raised the 
rents as prices advanced, but still the good- 
natured and kindly people helped one an- 
other ; and, on the whole, there was not 
very much of either extermination or emi- 
gration. In 1815, however, and the few 
following years, prices of grain, cattle, and 
other produce, fell very low, and rents were 
not reduced in proportion. The increase of 
population — for there were now six millions 
of people in Ireland — produced that deadly 
competition for small farms which has en- 
abled Irish landlords to wring the vitals out 
of a helpless peasantry, who had been left 
no other resource but labor on the land. 
Extermination may properly be said to have 
began in good earnest, just after " French 
principles " were crushed at Waterloo ; and 
to facilitate this process for the landlords, 
by recommendation of Mr. Robert Peel, the 
first of the series of cheap ejectment laws 
was passed in this very year, 1815. It 
provided that, in all cases of holdings, the 
rent of which was under £10 — which in- 
cluded the whole class of small farms — the 
assistant barrister, at. sessions, could make a 
decree, at the cost of a few shillings, to eject 
a man from house and farm. Two years 
after, the proceedings in ejectment were still 
further simplified and facilitated by an act 
making the sole evidence of a landlord of 
his agent sufficient testimony for ascertain- 
ing the amount of rent due. By these two 
acts it was rendered very easy to sweep out 
on the highways the whole population of a 
village or a townlnnd ; and this was very 
often done towards tenants-at-will — a race 
of beings which exists in no country of 
Europe save Ireland. As for the possess- 
ors of a forty-shilling freehold, their leases 
and their voting capacity protected them for 
a time. It is about this date that we first 
meet with the expression, "surplus-popula- 
tion in Ireland ;" although, indeed, the idea 
itself had been common enough nearly a 



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hundred years earlier, when Swift published 
his " Modest Proposal" At all events, it is 
evident that from this moment, and for many 
years after, every English statesman, pub- 
licist and political economist, held it as the 
grand fundamental maxim, in treating of 
Irish affairs, that there was a surplus-popu- 
lation in that island ; and the steadiest 
and most earnest aim of every administra- 
tion, of every party, has been to devise 
and execute some sure method of removing 
— that is, extirpating or killing the said sur- 
plus. The young Irish Secretary, Mr. Peel, 
who was destined to become one of Eng- 
land's greatest statesmen, had, of course, 
turned his attention to this momentous ob- 
ject, and had commenced operations, as we 
have seen, by laws providing for cheap and 
easy ejectment ; but he had yet other 
methods in his mind, which were not then 
matured, or for which the time was not yet 
come. 

The effect of the peace upon the pros- 
pects and claims of Catholics was altogether 
adverse and discouraging. England felt not 
only secure, but triumphant ; and, according 
to the invariable rule, it fared ill with Ire- 
land. The English oligarchy, and its de- 
pendant, the Irish Ascendancy, were abso- 
lutely drunken with an insolent aud malig- 
nant pride. Concession of anything, was no 
lunger to be thought of ; and if any person 
presumed to hint that there existed such a 
thing as human rights, he was set down as a 
Jacobin. A "Catholic Board" had main- 
tained its struggling existence until the mid- 
dle of summer, 181 i. But whenever the 
news of the capitulation of Paris and im- 
prisonment of Napoleon arrived in England, 
orders were at once sent to Lord Whitworth, 
the Lord-Lieutenant of Irelaud, to suppress 
the board summarily by proclamation ; 
which was, accordingly, done upon the 3d of 
June, in that year. The board met no 
more ; but, under O'Connell's direction, 
the agitation took the form of " Aggregate 
Meetings ;" thus avoiding all possibility of 
incurring the penalties of the Convention 
act ; while the meetings were even more use- 
ful than the board in arousing the people, dif- 
fusing sound information as to their rights 
and their wrongs, and keeping up a contin- 
ual public commentary upon current events. 




There ensued, however, differences and dis- 
sensions amongst the Catholic leaders, as to 
the most expedient policy to be pursued. 
The veto question had not yet entirely sub- 
sided ; and something of the old jealousy 
between the aristocratic Catholics and the 
mass of the people revived. Lord Fingal, 
in fact, together with some other Catholic 
gentlemen of rank, and others who courted 
rank and position, retired from all partici- 
pation in public affairs for some years. On 
the other hand, O'Connell led and stirred 
the Democracy. But it must he confessed 
that it was a most arduous and difficult en- 
terprize for him, although then in the ftdl 
vigor of his vast powers, to keep alive the 
cause of Catholic Emancipation at all in those 
days of triumphant bigotry and tyranny. 
Richard Lalor Slieil, speaking of this gloomy 
period, scruples not to say : " The hopes of 
the Catholics fell with the peace. A long in- 
terval elapsed in which nothing very import- 
ant or deserving of record took place. A 
political lethargy spread itself over the great 
body of the people ; the assemblies of the 
Catholics became more unfreqnent, and their 
language more despondent and hopeless 
than it had ever been." * And never be- 
fore, for half a century, had the " Protest- 
ant interest " shown itself so aggressive ami 
so spiteful towards the Catholic people. 
O'Connell, by his activity and audacity, 
concentrated upon himself the greater part 
of this Protestant wrath. For he made no 
scruple, whether in a public harangue to 
the people, or in a speech to a jury, (where 
the trial had anything of a political charac- 
ter,) to denounce, with a rough and rasping 
tongue, all kinds of injustice aud bigotry, 
packed juries, church-rates — in short, the 
most cherished principles and practices of 
" our glorious Constitution in Church and 
State." In the celebrated speech for John 
Magee, proprietor of the Evening Post, 
who was prosecuted for a seditious libel 
upon the Government, O'Connell had not 
only adopted and repeated the " libel," but 
aggravated it a thousand fold. With a 
fierce and vindictive energy he laid bare the 
whole atrocious system which in Ireland 
passes for government. He thundered into 

* Notice of " Catholic Leaders and Associati'. ns," 
in Slielclies of the Irish Bar 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




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the ears of the judge, that he had first ad- 
vised this prosecution, which he was now 
pretending to try ; — and as for the twelve 
pious Protestants in the jury-box, (all 
" saints," and members of the "Society for 
the Suppression of Vice,") he told them, 
with cruel taunts, that they knew they were 
fraudulently packed, that they should find a 
man guilty (so help them God!) for stat- 
ing what they knew to be true. 

Mr. Sheil, in his admirable sketch of 
O'Connell, says : " The admirers of King 
William have no mercy for a man who, in 
his seditious moods, is so provoking as to 
tell the world that their idol was ' a Dutch 
adventurer.' Then his intolerable success in 
a profession where many a staunch Protes- 
tant is condemned to starve, — and his fash- 
ionable house in Merrion Square, — and a 
greater eyesore still, his dashing revolution- 
ary equipage, green carriage, green liveries, 
and turbulent, Popish steeds, prancing over 
a Protestant pavement, to the terror of Pro- 
testant passengers — these and other provo- 
cations of equal publicity, have exposed 
this learned culprit to the deep detestation 
of a numerous class of His Majesty's hating 
subjects in Ireland. And the feeling is duly 
communicated to the public ; the loyal 
press of Dublin teems with the most as- 
tounding imputations upon his character and 
motives." The provocation of the "Popish 
horses prancing over a Protestant pave- 
ment," was more serious than it may now 
appear ; for the pavement was strictly Pro- 
testant ; and so were the street-lamps. No 
Catholic, though he might drive a coach- 
and-four, could be admitted upon any pav- 
ing or lighting board in that sacred strong- 
hold of the Ascendancy, the Corporation 
of Dublin.* O'Connell was in the habit of 
speaking with supreme contempt of the lit- 
tle municipal close-borough ; and in one of 
his speeches of this year, 1815, he termed 
it " a. beggarly Corporation." " One of its 
most needy members," says Sheil, " was Mr. 
D'Esterre"; and he, thinking the epithet 

* It was at the height "f the Catholic agitation 
that a Town-Councillor, who was a tailor, said at a 
Corporation Dinner: "My Lord, these Papists may 
get their emancipation— they may sit in Parliament 
— they may preside upon the Bench— a Papist may 

become Lord Chancellor, or Privy Councillor ; but 

never, never shall one of them set foot in the an- 
cient and loyal guild of tailors. 




" beggarly " too scurrilous, and too closely 
personal, at. once sent a challenge to the 
speaker. O'Connell committed his conduct 
as to the reception of the challenge, to the 
decision of his friends. The parties met ; 
fought with pistols, and D'Esterre was 
killed, to the very great and lasting sorrow 
of his slayer. Mr. Shiel does not say ex- 
pressly — but says "it is understood" — that 
'D'Esterre was induced to attempt O'Con- 
nell's life, by the expectation that if he 
should rid the Government of so formidable 
an agitator, he would be rewarded with a 
place ; and he adds : " His claims would 
probably not have been overlooked by the 
patrons of the time." On what precise evi- 
dence Mr. D'Esterre was charged with un- 
dertaking the base job of a mercenary as- 
sassin, we have not been able to satisfy our- 
selves. At any rate, no dishonorable prac- 
tice in the conduct of the affair was ever 
imputed. 

In the year 1816, Sir John Newport 
moved in Parliament for a committee to in- 
quire into the state of Ireland, which was 
then suffering greatly from scarcity of fo«d. 
Sir Robert Peel steadily and successfully 
resisted the proposed inquiry. That prudent 
-talesman had not been several years Chief 
Secretary of Ireland for nothing. He had 
no need of inquiry, being quite well awaro 
of what was passing in Ireland, where he 
knew that things were falling out exactly 
according to his calculations. If there was 
some extermination of starving wretches, it 
was because his cheap ejectment laws were 
working well. If there was some distur- 
bance, and "agrarian crime," he had his 
new police ready to repress it. Better than 
all, he had procured the renewal of the 
"Insurrection act" in 181-1 — had caused it 
to be continued in 1815, and it was now 
(1816) in full vigor, filling the jails with 
persons who could not give a good account 
of themselves, and transporting men for pos- 
sessing a fowling-piece. He felt that an as- 
siduous Irish Secretary could do no more ; 
and naturally, resisted Sir John Newport's 
meddling motion for inquiry. 

But, in truth, the low price of produce 
had made thousands of farmers unable to 
pay the rent ; then they had been ejected ; 
and then that lowness of price could uot en- 



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DISTRESS IN IRELAND FAMINE OF 1817. 



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able them to procure food, because they had 
no money. Then there was an occasional 
murder, or attempt at murder. Magistrates 
wonH meet, and write to the Castle for im- 
mediate proclamation of the county, under 
the Insurrection act. It is useless to go 
through the unvarying detail of torturing 
oppression which lias continued and repeated 
itself year after year, and will never end 
while the British Empire stands. But in 
sad earnest, this year, IS 17, was a season 
of dreadful famine and suffering ; and, of 
course, the Coercion act of the year before 
was carefully renewed. The potato-crop 
had failed ; and although Ireland was then 
largely exporting grain and cattle to Eng- 
land,* yet this good food was not supposed 
to lie sent by Providence, for the nourish- 
ment of those who sowed and reaped it on 
their own soil. It is instructive to remark 
the constant similarity of the circumstances 
attending the series of Irish famines — the 
wholesale export of the Irish crops to Eng- 
land — the wholesale disappearance, also, of 
the money received as the price of those 
crops, in the shape of absentee rents, of " sur- 
plus revenue," &c. — and the never-failing Co- 
ercion acts. If in the famine cf 1847-8, 
there was a much greater destruction of the 
people — and, at the same time, a much larger 
export of their food and their money to 
England, it is only because the British sys- 
tem was then more fully perfected in all its 
details, than in 1817. 

In that year, however, the suffering from 
famine and typhus fever was already dread- 
ful enough ; and in the most fertile counties 
of Ireland, multitudes of people fed upon 
weeds of various sorts — some boiled nettles ; 
others subsisted upon the wild kail, called in 
Irish, prashogh. All political movement 
was suspended for several years, both in Ire- 
land and in England, and in 1819, Lord Sid- 
niouth introduced and carried his celebrated 
" Six acts," principally to quell the " sedi- 
tions" aspirations of the English people. 
These acts imposed heavy penalties upon the 
possession of arms, and upon " blasphemous 
and seditious libels " — meaning all plain and 
truthful comments upon the proceedings of 

* In this year, 1S17, the export to England, of 
grain alone, was G95.651 quarters.— Thorn's Official 
'fables in Directory. 

62 



Government. A horrible military massacre 
was perpetrated this year at Peterloo, near 
Manchester, by the onslaught of a body of 
troops upon a perfectly peaceable mjeting 
of the people to demand reform. This 
bloody day was the 16th of August, 1819, 
and one of the " Six acts," passed immedi- 
ately after, prohibited, under cruel penalties, 
the assembling of more than fifty persons 
together, unless at a meeting called by the 
magistrates. In short, it was the British 
" Reign of Terror," not inaugurated, as in 
France, by the people, to rid themselves of 
their oppressors, but by the oppressors, to 
crush the people and their French principles 
into the earth. 

On the 2Sth of February, 1821, Mr. 
Plunket brought up in Parliament a bill for 
Catholic Emancipation. It was at an un- 
favorable time ; all the governing and con- 
trolling opinion of England was averse to 
any kind of claim for rights. The bill was 
vehemently opposed by the Tory party, and 
especially by ' Sir Robert Peel. In the 
House of Lords, the Duke of York, heir 
presumptive to the throne, made a furious 
speech against it ; saying, amongst other 
things, that " there is a great difference be- 
tween allowing the free exercise of religion, 
and the granting of political power " — as if 
there could be any freedom without poli- 
tical power, or as if freedom and politi- 
cal power were things to bo allowed and 
granted, by persons who might lawfully 
withhold them. It was in the same year, in 
the month of August, that King George 
IV. condescended to make a triumphal visit 
to Ireland ; and that Mr. O'Conuell, with 
certain views of " policy," which will not be 
universally appreciated, testified an enthu- 
siastic loyalty to that individual, and drank 
at a public dinner the " Orange Charter 
toast." Overpowered by the cordiality of 
his reception, the King quitted the soil of 
Ireland with tears of emotion in his eyes. 
On the spot where he embarked stands a 
granite monument, surmounted by a crown ; 
and Dunleary changed its name to Kings- 
town. It would be agreeable not to record 
these incidents ; but they form, unhappily, 
part of the history of Ireland. 

Touching this royal visit — not to insist in 
this place upon the savage comment of Lord 



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Byron, we may give the more moderate 
prose of Richard Lalor Sheil : " Sir Ben- 
jamin Bloomfield arrived in Dublin l)efore 
his master, and intimated the royal anx- 
iety that all differences and animosities should 
be laid aside. Accordingly, it was agreed 
that a public dinner should be held at Mor- 
rison's, where the leaders of both parties 
should pledge each other in libations of ever- 
lasting amity. This national festivity took 
place ; and from the vehement protestations 
on both sides, it was believed by many that 
a lasting reconciliation had been effected. 
Master Ellis and Mr. O'ConncIl almost em- 
braced each other. The King arrived ; the 
Catholics determined not fa obtrude their 
grievances upon him. Accordingly, onr gra- 
cious sovereign passed rather an agreeable 
time in Dublin. He was hailed with tumul- 
tuous hurrahs wherever he passed ; and in 
return for the enthusiastic reception which 
he had found, he directed Lord Sidmouth to 
write a letter recommending it to the people 
to be waited. His Majesty shortly after- 
wards set sail, with tears in his eyes, from 
Kingstown. For a little while the Catholics 
continued under the miserable deception un- 
der which they had labored during the royal 
sojourn, but when they found that no inten- 
tion existed to introduce a change of system 
into Ireland — that the King's visit seemed 
an artifice, and Lord Sidmouth's epistle 
meant nothing — and that while men were 
changed, measures continued substantially 
unaltered, they began to perceive that some 
course more effective than a loyal solicitude 
not to disturb the repose of His Majesty 
should be adopted." 

In short, the Irish Catholics were once 
more cheated ; and it is not saying much 
for their perspicacity — for they were twice 
cheated by the same cheat. Neither can 
we ever look back with pleasure on the 
scenes of "loyal" servility enacted at that 
period by leading Irishmen — O'Connell 
toasting the glorious, pious, and immortal 
memory of the " Dutch adventurer," and 
presenting a huge bunch of shamrocks to 
the discreditable being who then represented 
the desolating British domination. Doubt- 
less these hypocritical demonstrations of 
"loyalty" to an enemy, were transacted 
with an idea that it was a cunniug policy to 



conciliate tyrants in England, and to disarm 
animosities at home. In these views they 
failed utterly, and have their place in history 
only as a signal example of gratuitous 
crouching and crawling. 

The senseless gala of 1821 passed away ; 
the horrible famine of 1822 immediately fol- 
lowed.* . 



CHAPTER LIII. 

1822—1825. 

Famine of 1822— Its Causes — Financial Frauds npon 
Ireland— Horrors of the Famine— Extermination — 
Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act— Castlereagh 
Cuts his Throat— Marquis Wrllesley Viceroy — Sir 
Haroourt Lees — The Bottle Riot— Catholic Associ- 
ation Formed— Dr. Doyle; " J. K. L."— Progress 
of Catholic Association— " Catholic Rent"— May- 
nooth Professors " Loyal "—Rage of the ( h-angemen 
— "O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil "— Passive- 
iicss of the Dissenters — O'Connell's Appeals to 
Them — Intellectual and Literary Power of the 
Movement — Act to Suppress " Unlawful Associa- 
tions" — First Attempt to Cheat the Catholics— A 
Relief Bill, with "Wings"— Defeated— Catholic De- 
putation in London— O'Connell and the Whigs — 
Strong Feeling in Ireland against " Wings." 

BEFORE proceeding to the details of this 
dreadful famine of 1S22, it is needful to 
consider the financial relations of the two 
islands since the period of the "Union." 

In 1816 was passed the act for consoli- 
dating the British and Irish Exchequers — it 
is the 56th George III., chap. 98. It be- 
came operative on the 1st January, 1817. 

The meaning of this consolidation was, 
charging Ireland with the whole debt of 
England, pre-union and post-union ; and in 
like manner charging England with the 
whole Irish debt. 

Now the enormous English national debt, 
both before and after the Union, was con 
traded for purposes which Ireland had not 
only no interest in promoting, but a direct 
and vital interest in contravening and resist- 
ing — that is, it had been contracted to 
crush American and French liberty, and to 
destroy those very powers which were the 
natural allies of Ireland. 

* John Philpot Civrran died in 1817, on the Hth of 
October. His remains were buried lirst in London; 
afterwards removed to the cemetery of tilasnevin. 
(■rattan died three years after, and had the very doubt- 
ful honor ofa tomb in Westminster Abbey. These two 
great Irishmen left the country they loved in one of 
the gloomiest periods of her gloomy story 





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FAMINE IN 1822 ITS CAUSES FINANCIAL FRAUDS UPON IRELAND 





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But this is not all : we have next to see 
the proportions which the two debts bore to 
each other. It will be remembered that by 
the terms of the so-called " Union " 

I. Ireland was to be protected from any 
liability on account of the British National 
Debt contracted prior to the Union. 

II. The separate debt of each country 
being first provided for by a separate 
charge, Ireland was then to contribute 
tu o seventeenths towards the joint or com- 
mon expenditure of the United Kingdom 
for twenty years ; after which her contribu- 
tion was to be made proportionate to her 
ability as ascertained at stated periods of 
revision by certain tests specified in the act. 

III. Ireland was not only promised that 
she never should have any concern with the 
then existing British Debt, but she was also 
assured that her taxation should not be 
raised to the standard of Great Britain un- 
til the following conditions should occur : — 

1. That the two debts should come to 
bear to each other the proportion of 
fifteen parts for Great Britain to 
two parts for Ireland ; and, 

2. That the respective circumstances 
of the two countries should admit 
of uniform taxation. 

It must be further borne in mind, that 
previous to the Union the National Debt of 
Ireland was a mere trifle. It had been 
enormously increased by charging to Ire- 
land's special account, first, the expenses of 
getting up the rebellion ; next, the expenses 
of suppressing it ; and, lastly, the expenses 
of bribing Irish noble lords and gentlemen 
to sell their country at this Union. Thus 
the Irish Debt, which before the Union had 
been less than three millions sterling, was set 
down by the act of Uniou at nearly twenty- 
seven millions. 

On the 20th of June, 1804, (four years 
after the Union had passed,) Mr. Foster, 
Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, observ- 
ed, that, whereas, in 1194 the Irish debt 
did not exceed two millions and a half, it 
had in 1!S03 risen to forty-three millions; 
and that during the current year it was in- 
creased to nearly fifty three millions. 

During the long and costly war against 
France, and the second American war, it 
happened, by some very extraordinary spe- 



cies of bookkeeping, that while the English 
debt was not quite doubled, the Irish debt 
was more than quadrupled ; as if Ireland 
had twice the interest which England had 
in forcing the Bourbons back upon France, 
and in destroying the commerce of America. 

Thus, in 1816, when the consolidation act 
was passed, the whole funded debt of Ire- 
land was found to be £130,561,031. By 
this management the Irish debt, which in 
1801 had been to the British as one to six- 
teen and a half, was forced up to bear to 
the British debt the ratio of one to seven 
and a half. This was the proportion re- 
quired by the Act of Union as a condition 
of subjecting Ireland to indiscriminate taxa- 
tion with Great Britain — a condition equally 
impudent and iniquitous. Ireland was to be 
loaded with inordinate debt ; and then this 
debt was to be made the pretext for raising 
her taxation to the high British standard, 
and thereby rendering her liable to the pre- 
union debt of Great Britain I 

By way of softening down the glaring in- 
justice of such a proposition, Lord Custle- 
reagh said that the two debts might be 
brought to bear to each other the prescribed 
proportions, partly by the increase of the 
Irish debt, but partly also by the decrease 
of the British. To which Mr. Foster thus 
answered, on the 15th of March, 1800 : 
"The monstrous absurdity you would force 
down our throats, is that Ireland's increase 
of poverty, as shown by her increase of 
debt, and England's increase of wealth, as 
shown by diminution of debt, are to bring 
them to an equality of condition, so as to be 
able to bear an equality of taxation." 

But bad as this was, the former and worse 
alternative was what really befel. The 
given ratio was reached solely by the in- 
crease of the Irish debt, without any de- 
crease of the British. 

We take from the excellent pamphlet of 
Mr. O'Neill Daunt,* already quoted in a 
former chapter, a passage presenting a sum- 
mary of the financial dealings of England 
with Ireland : — 

" The following facts stand unshaken, 
and should become familiarly known to 
every man in Ireland : — 

* " Financial Grievances of Ireland.*' Publica* 
tions of the irisk National League. 



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" 1. Tlie British Debt iu 1801 was about 
sixteen and a half times as large as the 
Irish Debt. 

" 2. It was promised by the authors of 
the Union, and the promise was embodied 
in the Seventh Article, that as Ireland had no 
pari in contracting tbat debt, so she should 
be forever preserved from all concern with 
the payment of its principal or interest. 

" 3. Iu order to give effect to this prom- 
ise, Great Britain was to be separately 
taxed to the extent of her separate pre- 
union debt-charge. But Great Britain is 
not thus separately taxed ; and Ireland is 
consequently made to contribute to the pay- 
ment of a purely British liability, from which 
she was promised perpetual exemption. 

"4. Ireland has never received from 
Great Britain one farthing, by way of com- 
pensation or equivalent, for being thus sub- 
jected to the pre-union British Debt. 

"5. By the fifth clause of the Seventh 
Article of the Union, Ireland was guaran- 
teed the benefit of her own surplus taxes. 
She has never, during the sixty-four years 
of Union, received one farthing in virtue of 
thai clause. Her taxes, after defraying her 
public domestic expenses, have been uni- 
formly abstracted by England ; and the 
clause that professes to secure to Ireland the 
use of them has been rendered a dead let- 
ter by the Parliamentary management I 
have described. 

" 0. The amount of Irish taxes annually 
drawn from this kingdom is a very large 
item in the general pecuniary drain. Mr. 
Dillon, in his able and carefully-compiled 
Report to the Dublin Corporation, shows 
that the Irish taxes expended out of Ire- 
land in the year 18(10, amounted to £4,- 
095,453 ; and that in 1861, they amounted 
to £3,970,1 15." 

But even this direct drain of Irish money 
into England, under pretence of paying 
interest on a debt, represents very small 
part of the systematic plunder of the coun- 
try. When to this is added the absentee 
rental, the interest paid out of incumbered 
estates to .lews in London, and the cost of 
manufactured articles and colonial produce 
which Ireland ought to manufacture — or 
import — for herself, we may begin to under- 
stand why the mass of the Irish people is 



A 




always on the verge of starvation, and why 
the failure of the meanest kind of food 
throws them at once into the pangs of fa- 
mine. 

This is what befel in 1822. Alison, the 
Scotch historian of modern times, attributes 
the dreadful havoc of the Irish iu this year 
entirely to " the contraction of the currency, 
and consequent fall of the prices of agri- 
cultural produce fifty per cent." But the 
Scotch historian does not meution that the 
grain-crop of 1821 had been carried off to 
England, to the amount of nearly two mil- 
lion quarters, (1,822,816,) and that of 1822, 
to the amount of more than one million 
quarters,* not to speak of countless herds 
of cattle, sheep, and swine. No wonder, 
then, if we see iu Ireland perennial misery 
and beggary, with occasional paroxysms of 
murderous famine. 

On the 27th of June, in this year, Sir 
John Newport, of Waterford, in his place 
in the House of Commons, endeavoring to 
awaken that assembly to some sense of the 
horrors which were to be seen in Ireland, 
described one parish in his neighborhood, 
where fifteen persons had already died of 
hunger ; twenty-eight more, he said, were 
past all hope of recovery, and one hundred 
and twenty (still in the same parish) were 
prostrated by famine-fever ;— and the same 
speaker mentioned another parish where 
the priest had gone round and administered 
extreme unction to every man, woman, and 
child, all iu artiado mortis by mere star- 
vation.! 

* Thorn's Official Directory, for 1853. 

■fin Cobbett'e " Register" we lind that writer's 
contemporary comment upon the debate in the 
House. He Bays: •• Money, it seems, is wanted iu 
Ireland. Now, people do not eat money. No, but 
the money will buy them something to eat. What! 
The food is there, then Pray, observe this; and let 
the parties get out of the coucern if they can. Tlie 
food is there ; but those who have it in their posses- 
sion will not give it without the money. And we 
know that the lend is there; for since this famine 
has been declared in Parliament, thousands of quar- 
ters of corn have been imported every week from 
Ireland to England."— Register, July, 1822. Mr. 
Cobbett, however, was not placing " the parties" in 
so embarrassing a position as he imagined, when he 
defied them to get out of it if they could. It has al- 
uavs been a matter of congratulation with Englisji 
Ministers, that whether the Irish be starving or not, 
England can still draw from the country her full 
tribute of grain and cattle. In reading of all these 
transactions of 1822, oue might almost imagine that 
he is reading of what befel twenty -nve years later. 



sSSiVWJiNavS, 




CASTLEREAGH CUTS HIS THROAT MARQUIS WELLESLET VICEROY. 



A certain Colonel Patrickson was quar- 
tered that season in Gal way, with his 
regiment. Tie reports to his superior ,of- 
ficer : " Hundreds of half-famished wretch- 
es arrive almost daily from a distance of 
fifty miles, many of them so exhausted by 
want of food that the means taken to re- 
store them fail of effect, from the weakness 
of the digestive organs, occasioned by long 
fasting.''* Official statistics were not then 
so much attended to as they have since 
been ; but certain returns, such as they 
were, stated, that in the month of June, 
there were in Clare County alone, 99,039 
persons subsisting on daily charity, and in 
Cork, 1 22,000. f We have no record of 
the estimated number of deaths in this hid- 
eous famine ; and if we had any such esti- 
mate, compiled as it would be under the 
direction of the Irish authorities, by aid of 
their police, it would not be trustworthy. 
Neither are there any census-tables, show- 
ing the decrease of the population. In 
T/wm's Official Directory, the population of 
ijthe island in 1821, is given at 6,801,827; 
and there is no statement of the population 
afterwards for ten years. 

Of course, there was again a good deal 
of extermination of tenantry ; and some des- 
perate men did certainly kill here and there 
an ejecting landlord or agent. It appears, 
also, that there were "nocturnal outrages ;" 
men with faces blackened, and wearing 
shirts more or less white, did come to some 
houses in search of arms, to defend their 
lives, or to avenge their wrongs ; but in all 
this there was no trace or tittle of political, 
seditious, or revolutionary movement. Nev- 
ertheless, the first thing that occurred to the 
British Government, to meet this great cala- 
mity, was a new and improved Insurrection 
act. This new act, together with another, 
for the suspension of the writ of Habeas 
Corpus, was introduced and at once carried 
by Lord Castlereagh, then Marquis of Lon- 
donderry. It was almost the last public act 
of his evil life. On the 12th of August, in 
that same year, he executed justice upon 
himself by cutting his own throat with a 
knife. Never lived a more deadly foe of the 

* Letter of Sir D. Baird to Sir H. Taylor, Memoirs 
of Lord WeUesley. VIII. 
f Alison History of Europe, Bince 1815. 



human race, and especially of the country 
which gave him birth. He was almost as 
much hated in England as in Ireland ; for 
he had been a warm supporter of the " Six 
acts," and of every measure of despotism. 
The body of the suicide, instead of being 
staked at Cross-Roads, was borne in solemn 
pomp to Westminster Abbey (where the 
bones of Henry Grattan must have shrunk 
aside,) and the Duke of Wellington and the 
proudest Peers in England were his pall- 
bearers ; — but as the cofiln was removed 
from the hearse to be carried into the Ab- 
bey, the multitudes around could not re- 
press a hoot of execration, a long, loud and 
hideous yell of horror and hatred. The 
Tory historian, Alison, reluctantly record-; 
that " savage miscreants raised a horrid 
shout ;" but future ages will probably pro- 
nounce, that in all the mob of London was 
no such dreadful miscreant as the man then 
borne to his grave. 

It must not be omitted to state, that the 
Parliament of 1822 — in addition to a Coer- 
cion act and Habeas Corpus Suspension act, 
voted an appropriation of £500,000 for re- 
lief of Irish distress, by employing destitute 
people on public works. It by no means 
amounted to one-tenth part of the Irish 
money annually drained from Ireland into 
England, and applied to English purposes ; 
and even this appropriation was, as usual, 
corruptly and absurdly expended by English 
officials, principally upon useless and unpro- 
ductive works, like the unmeaning obelisk 
upon Killiney Hill. The British press, 
and speakers in Parliament at that period, 
as at a later date, spoke of this appropria- 
tion out of the Consolidated Exchequer, as 
so much alms given by England, and as- 
sumed immense credit for the generosity of 
the gift. Under this form and color, the 
transaction has passed into history. Sir Ar- 
chibald Alison, of course, glorifies the mag- 
nanimity of England upon this occasion — ■ 
" England no longer remembered the crimes 
of Ireland — thought only of her sorrows," 
and so forth. The Marquis WeUesley was 
Lord-Lieutenant this year ; but although 
invested with terrible powers for the sup- 
pression of outrage and .insurrection, he is 
not charged with exercising too savagely t lie 
extra legal authority with which the 




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Parliament was so prompt to clothe him. 
Indeed, the Marquis, from the conciliatory 
and mild way in which he spared the suffer- 
ing people, and from Ins courtesy towards 
the Catholic leaders, some of whom he en- 
tertained at the Castle, soon became unpop- 
ular with the Orange faction. The most 
prominent Orange agitator was then a cer- 
tain Sir Harconrt Lees. He was a clergy- 
man by profession, and held preferment in 
the Church ; but occupied himself chiefly in 
discovering Popish plots for the massacre of 
Protestants, denouncing, in the newspapers, 
" O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil," and 
sending petitions to Parliament, praying to 
"put down Popery," and send O'Connell to 
the Tower. Sir Ilarcourt was slightly in- 
sane ; but his morbid visions of Jesuit con- 
spiracies, and wild stories from " Fox's Book 
of Martyrs," were well enough suited to 
excite the ignorant Orangemen of Dublin. 
These pestilent people soon began to sus- 
pect that Lord Wellesley was in league with 
"O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil ;" and 
the city resounded with their imprecations. 
At length, on the night of the 14th of De- 
cember, their rage broke out in the form 
of a riot at the theatre. Some ruffians 
threw a bottle and a piece of wood at the 
Vice-regal box, but failed to strike the Mar- 
quis. Three Dublin tradesmen were arrest- 
ed, charged with participating in the riot, 
and indicted. The Grand Jury of Dublin, 
(all Orangemen,) ignored the bill. The 
Attorney-General, Mr. Plunket, then pro- 
ceeded, ex officio, and sent them up for trial. 
As might have been anticipated, the jury 
would not convict ; and in short, no person 
was ever punished for the " bottle riot." 

The year 1S'23 is notable for the forma- 
tion of the "Catholic Association." lis 
foundations were laid by Mr. O'Connell, in 
conjunction with Air. Shiel, then a very 
young barrister, but already remarkable for 
a certain kind of polished, figurative, and 
antithetical rhetoric. These two gentlemen 
met at the house of a common friend in the 
Wicklow mountains; "and after exchang- 
ing their opinions," .-ays Mr. Shiel, "on the 
deplorable state to which the Catholic mind 
had been reduced, and the utter want of or- 
ganization in the body, it was agreed that 
they should both sigu an address to the 



Irish Catholics," and inclose it to the prin- 
cipal people of that religion. The result of 
this procedure was for a time not very en- 
couraging. " A very thin meeting," says 
Mr. Sheil, "which did not consist of more 
than twenty individuals was held at a tavern 
in Sackville street ; and it was there deter- 
mined that something should be done." 
The work, in truth, was difficult. The old 
alienation between the Catholic Peers and 
the democratic masses still subsisted. Old 
Lord Fingal, Lord Gormanstown, and 
others of the highest rank and influence, 
who would have been glad to accept eman- 
cipation even on the terms of the veto, were 
somewhat scandalized at the violence with 
which O'Connell and the famous Dr. Droin- 
goole repudiated that project of enslaving 
the Church. Yet a combination of all the 
sections and elements of the Catholic com- 
munity, however difficult, was precisely the 
indispensable condition of effecting any very 
notable good to the cause. To this, then, 
O'Connell bent all the energies and resources 
of his mind. Happily the Earl of Fingal 
had a son, Lord Killeen, who not only did 
uot share all the prejudices or apprehensions 
of his father, but louged to throw himself 
heart and soul into the movement by the 
side of O'Connell. Lord Killeen had good 
abilities, and was free from those habits of 
submission which the Catholic aristocracy 
had contracted at the period of their ex- 
treme depression. His example was soon 
followed by Lord Gormanstown, a Peer of 
ancient descent, and hitherto of retiring 
habits, so far as political agitation was con- 
cerned, lie conceived that the course of 
the aggressive agitators had the effect oidy 
of irritating enmity ; and, therefore, had 
very much secluded himself amongst his 
woods near Balbriggan. Next came in the 
Karl of Kenmare ; who, though he did not 
formally join the association, (having an 
aversion to public appearance,) — sent in 
the authority of his name and his pecuniary 
contribution. Prom this time the union of 
the aristocracy with the rest of their coun- 
trymen was assured. Another and still 
more powerful element in the confederacy 
was the Catholic priesthood. The celebrat- 
ed and very able and energetic Doctor 
Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighliu, was 



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DOCTOR DOYLE ; *' J. K. L. 



the first Prelate who openly joined the as- 
sociation — bis potent pen was devoted to its 
service ; and the whole world was long fa- 
miliar with the signature "J. K. L., (the 
initials of his Episcopal office,) signed to 
many a vigorous pamphlet and letter. 
Other Bishops and the great body of the 
clergy soon became members of the associa- 
tion, and the movement which had begun so 
humbly swelled into a puissant and appar- 
ently-irresistible torrent of public opinion. 
O'Connell was at last in his element ; and 
ably supported by Sheil and Wyse, labored 
continually to give a practical character to 
the meetings ; and to bring under calm and 
well-considered discussion all great questions 
arising in the state. 

In structure, the Catholic Association 
much resembled all the other political soci- 
eties instituted by Mr. O'Connell. It con- 
sisted of members paying a guinea each 
year, and of associates paying one shilling. 
The executive consisted of a standing com- 
mittee. The regular meetings were weekly 
each Saturday ; and the proceedings con- 
sisted in the reading of correspondence, per- 
fecting organization, the discussion of public 
questions which bore any relation to the 
cause, and deciding on petitions. There 
was little or no oratorical display at these 
Weekly meetings ; the members rather ap- 
plying themselves to treat subjects of dis- 
cussion with a moderate and business-like 
calmness, so as to develope facts and diffuse 
sound information. Still the proceedings 
attracted little attention during the first 
year. Indeed, Mr. Shiel informs us that 
" the association in its origin was treated 
with contempt, not only by its open adver- 
saries, but Catholics themselves spoke of it 
with derision, and spurned at the walls of 
mud which their brethren had rapidly thrown 
op, which were afterwards to become alia, 
viaiiia Roma" It was only in the course 
of the following year, that Mr. O'Connell 
instituted the new system of monthly sub- 
scriptions of one penny (which he called 
" Catholic Rent,") when it became evident 
both to friends and enemies how deep a hold 
the cause had upon the hearts of the Catho- 
lic masses, and how wide-spread was their 
determination to achieve their liberties. The 
Ministry began to take some alarm. The 





Cabinet at that time was extremely Anti- 
Catholic ; Lord Liverpool being still First 
Lord of the Treasury and Premier ; the 
Duke of Wellington, Master-General of the 
Ordnance ; Lord Eldon, (an extreme ex- 
ample of the narrowest bigotry,) was Lord 
Chancellor ; and Mr. Peel, (not yet Sir 
Robert,) was the Home Secretary. It is 
true that Canning, well understood to be a 
friend of the Catholic claims, was in the 
Ministry, but his place was that of Foreign 
Secretary, so that he could have little special 
influence upon that great question which 
was now agitating the three kingdoms, and 
at length disquieting seriously His Majesty's 
advisers ; for, in truth, no phenomenon like 
this had ever been seen in Ireland before ; 
within two years after its origin, the penny 
subscriptions to the rent averaged £500 a 
week, which represented half a million of 
enroled associates, and produced a fund 
quite sufficient to pay the expenses of de- 
fending men unjustly accused, to prosecute 
Orange violators of the law, (but this was 
generally a hopeless enterprise,) — to pay 
the expenses of Parliamentary and election 
agents, and even to afford considerable ap- 
propriations for the support of Catholic 
schools for the poor. 

But not even these evidences of imposing 
numbers and close organization so much 
alarmed the Government, as the determined 
attitude taken by some of the clergy, and 
the bold writings of Doctor Doyle. He 
broached doctrines which not only startled 
the "Protestant Ascendancy," but even af- 
fected the nerves of some of the Maynooth (7i 
Professors. In his letter to Mr. Robertson, 
alter speaking of the possibility of a rebel- 
lion and a French invasion, he says : "The 
Minister of England caunot look to the 
exertions of the Catholic priesthood ; they 
have been ill-treated ; and they may yield 
for a moment to the influence of nature, 
though it be opposed to grace. The clergy, 
with a few exceptions, are from the ranks 
of the people ; they inherit their feelings ; 
they are not, as formerly, brought, up under 
despotic governments ; and they have im- 
bibed the doctrines of Locke and Paley 
more deeply than those of Bellarmine, or 
even of Bossuet, ou the divine right of kings. 
They know much more of the principles of 



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496 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



the Constitution than they do of passive 
obedience. If a rebel/ion were raging from 
Carrickfergus In Cape Clear, no sentence of 
excommunicativn would ever be fulminated by 

a Catholic Prelate'' 

This announcement produced some con- 
sternation ; and to counteract the effect of 
such perilous declarations from a Bishop, 
Lord Wellesley, it was said, applied to May- 
nooth ; and from Maynooth (which receives 
money from the Treasury,) was, in fact, is- 
sued a protest ; from which it was known 
that the students and Doctor Crotty, the 
President, dissented altogether. It bore, 
however] the nanus of five professors of 
theology ; and the persons who were chiefly 
instrumental in getting it up were two old 
French doctors of the Sorbonne ; who had 
belonged, in their own country, to the old 
regime ; " and, with a good deal of Learning, 
imported into Ireland a very strong relish 
for submission."* The publication of the 
live professors produced no effect whatever; 
the people and clergy DOW saw the mosl 
eminent of their Prelates in the ranks of the 
association ; and Doctor Murray, Areh- 
bishopof Dublin, not onlyjoiued thai body, 
but Sometimes used very energetic language, 
tending to excite his people to be zealous 
in the cause. "The contemplation of the 
wrongs of my country,"— he exclaimed, ill 
his stately cathedral in Marlborough street 
— " the contemplation of the wrongs of my 
country makes my soul burn within me." 

It is needless to say that the progress and 
power of the Catholic Association excited 
the Orangemen of Ireland to frenzy ; Sir 
Harcourt Lees saw visions, and dreamed 
dreams; and many petitions were sent to 
Parliament " to put down Popery," and save 
the Protestant State from O'Counell, the 
Pope, and the Devil. Ministers, indeed, be- 
gan to perceive that they must yield; and that 
emancipation could not be far off. It had, in 
its favor, not only the entire Catholic popu- 
lation of Ireland, but also in England, a small 
but very wealthy and influential group of 
nobles and gentry of that ancient faith, who, 
of course, expected their own restoration to 

* Shell's Sketches : Catholic leaders. Mr. ShHI 
pives at full length what In- oalls " the Sorbonne 
manifesto;" ami adds, that "it waa laughed at by 
the Irish priesthood." 



civil rights from the success of the move- 
ment, then in such rapid progress. Tho 
Dissenting population of the North of Ire- 
land, it must be said, to their credit, were 
favorable to the claims of the Catholics, al- 
though their grandfathers had gladly sub- 
milted to the Test and Corporation acts, 
which excluded Nonconformists from most 
offices, rather than make common cause witli 
their fellow-sufferers, the Catholics, to shako 
off the yoke of the Ascendancy. O'Cou- 
nell had often appealed to them to give him 
their moral aid in his struggle ; represent- 
ing to them that the great reform he sought 
was a breaking down of all barriers of ex- 
clusion under pretext of men's religious be- 
lief ; that if the last penal laws which op- 
pressed the Catholics were dashed to the 
earth, the last penal laws which injured 
and insulted Dissenters, must come down 
along with them ; and if the Catholics and 
Nonconformists of Ireland were once united 
in the assertion of their rights, there would 
soon be an end of tithes, and church-rates, 
and Minister's money, and every other paltry 
imposition which bolstered up the " Aseond 
auey." Language like this had its effect , 
a large proportion — and that the most edu- 
cated and enlightened — of the Presbyteri- 
ans, gave their entire sympathy to the Cath- 
olic movement ; and if but few amongst 
them aided it actively, they at least remain- 
ed passive, and left all the fanatical howl- 
ing, all the pious imprecations and vaticin- 
ations of wrath to come, lo the Orange 
Grand Masters, and raving rectors and 
curates. 

But amongst the forces which were now 
giving impetus to the Catholic cause, must 
also be classed the English Reformers, and 
their powerful organs at the press. Indeed, 
during this whole controversy, nothing was 
more observable than the great literary su- 
periority of the advocates of the Catholics, 
and the utter nullity of anything which 
was attempted on the other side, in the shape 
either of argument or satire. Most of the 
wisest and wittiest pens of the two islands, 
were wielded in favor of emancipation. 
Trenchant reasoning from Jeffrey, in the 
Edinburgh Review — the piquant humor of 
Sidney Smith, in " I'eter Plvmley's Letters" 
— the brawny might of William Corbett, 



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who wherever tyranny and intolerance show- 
e<l their head smote it amain with his knot- 
ted club ; — the exquisite satire of Moore, 
like a rapier of the finest edge, that cut 
clean and drew blood, and often with the 
lightest and most graceful movement, as if 
in play, searched the very vitals of some 
villain in high places and made him howl ; 
— Shed's brilliant shafts of wit shot from 
the JVcio M<ivt/i/ii Magazine; — all these were 
aimed at the monster called Protestant As- 
cendancy in Church and .State ; and there 
was nothing of the kind to oppose them 
— nothing but the raving letters of Sir Har- 
COUlt Lees and his friends, or the bitter 
spite of the Tories in Blackwood and Fraser 
and the Quarterly. 

However, if the Government had but 
little to say for itself in the literary way, it 
could still produce acts of Parliament and 
compose indictments. Early in 1825, Mr. 
Goulburn, then Secretary for Ireland, 
brought into Parliament and carried through 
both Houses a bill for suppression of "Un- 
lawful Associations in Ireland." This law 
was, of course, aimed against the existing 
Catholic Association, which was not at all 
"unlawful." Immediately when it passed, 
the association, under the legal advice of 
O'Connell, dissolved itself — it was no longer 
in existence — the law was satisfied— and 
then immediately constituted itself again, 
under the title of the New Catholic Asso- 
ciation. This was an usual expedient of 
O'Connell, through his long scries of agita- 
tions, in avoiding the penalties of penal 
enactments. He boasted that he conld 
"drive a coach and six through an act of 
Parliament ;" and the practice of evading 
or practically annulling such tyrannous laws 
cannot certainly be condemned, seeing that 
the Irish people would at any time have 
been justified (if they had the needful 
force) in openly breaking, defying, and re- 
sisting them. This law against the Catholic 
Association was never in fact enforced, nor 
any enforcement attempted ; and it continued 
its proceedings precisely as before, until 
emancipation was secure. 

J'.ut while the Government thus made a 

show of coercion on the one hand, they had 

on the other prepared a bill for granting the 

Catholic claims in a certain stinted and very 
63 



guarded manner ; and the bill for this pur- 
pose — which happily never became law — is, 
indeed, an instructive sample of British 
statesmanship with respect to Irish affairs. 
It proposed to admit Catholics, both in Eng- 
land and in Ireland, to Parliament and to 
municipal corporations ; but provided for 
Ireland two very important safeguards for 
the perpetuation of English supremacy in 
that island. In the first place, the entire 
class of county voters having freeholds worth 
forty shillings, were to be disfranchised. 
These made the great bulk of the rural 
voters. The other measure was to pension 
the Catholic clergy. The bill was prepared 
under the inspiration of Sir Robert Peel — . 
this shrewd statesman had perceived when 
in Ireland, that the large increase of the 
Regium Donum. to Presbyterian ministers 
had had the effect of quieting down the re- 
publican aspirations and quelling the "French 
principles " which had made those clergymen 
nearly all rebels in 1798 ; and that what- 
ever influence they exercised over their flocks 
was now exerted in favor of "loyalty," that 
is, of British dominion. And as for the 
Catholic clergy, we have in fact seen that the 
only members of that body who came to the 
rescue of British loyalty against Dr. Doyle's 
audacious declaration, were five professors 
of an institution endowed by the State. He 
prudently calculated that to salary them all 
would buy them away from their people, and 
give England an efficient corps of clerical 
detectives in the interest of the British Gov- 
ernment. Accordingly, this bill provided, 
that they were to be paid out of the Trea- 
sury at the rate of £1,000 to each bishop ; 
£300 to a dean ; £200 to a parish-priest, 
and £60 to a curate. It was a scale some- 
what in proportion to the tariff of rewards 
which had been offered for the discovery of 
Catholic clergymen, and which had kept the 
" priest-hunters" in good business for many 
years. It may be thought that times had 
greatly altered for the better ; yet the in- 
tention, in the latter case, was quite as dead- 
ly hostile to the Irish people ami their clergy 
as it had been in the former — and so they 
felt it ; for both priests and people were res- 
olutely opposed to this bribe, and most 
desirous for the defeat of the bill. It was 
defeated. After passing the Lower House. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



it encountered most infuriated opposition in 
1 1n- Lords; and the Duke of York made a 
speech of the intensest malignity, which had 
the more serious effect, as lie was heir pre- 
sumptive to the Crown of England. lie 
declared in the most solemn manner that he 
never would consent to allow the claims of 
the Catholics — " ncrer, so help him Hod!" 
On the second reading in the House of 
Lords the bill was defeated. 

There was at this time in London a verv 
imposing deputation of Irish Catholics. 
O'Counell and Shei] had been requested 
by the Catholic Association to go over and 
demand to be heard at the bar of the House 
of Commons ngainst the bill for suppression 
of the " Unlawful Associations in Ireland." 
The motion that they should lie heard was 
made by Mr. Brougham ; bat was rejected; 
and that part of their mission failed. Sever- 
al distinguished gentlemen had been asso- 
ciated with the deputation ; amongst others, 
Mr. O'Ciormnn and Sir Thomas Esmonde. 
They were very warmly Welcomed and 
courteously entertained by many leading 
Whigs, Brougham, Burdett, the Duke of 
Norfolk, and the Duke of Sussex, the " Lib- 
eral " member of the royal family. 

An incidenl occurred during the discussion 
upon Mr. Brougham's motion to hearO'Con- 
nell and Sheil at the bar, which pave occa- 
sion to one of the very few imprudent things 
which Peel committed in his Parliamentary 
life. He was opposing the motion with 
much vehemence, and denouncing the asso- 
ciation as a treasonable body; alluding to a 
friendly address which it had presented to 
the venerable patriot Archibald Hamilton 
Rowan ; "he became heated with victory," 
says Mr. Sheil, "and cheered, as he was re- 
peatedly, by his multitudinous partizans, 
turned suddenly towards the part of the 
House where the deputies were seated, and 
looking triumphantly at Mr. O'Counell, with 
whom he forgot for a moment that he had 
been once engaged iu a personal quarrel, 
shook his hand with scornful exultation, and 
asked whether the House required any bet- 
ter evidence than the address of the associ- 
ation ' to an attainted traitor.' " This lan- 



guage was held to be in very bad taste ; and 
Mr. Brougham made a fierce and damaging 
reply. The incident, however, showed in 
very strong light the bitter feeling of Sil 
Robert Peel towards the Catholics. 

Before the deputation quitted London, 
the other bill for emancipation, with pay- 
ment of the clergy and disfranchisement of 
forty-shilling freeholders, was pending. 
These two conditions were called the 
"wings" of the bill; and the deputies, 
especially Mr. O'Counell, had much conver- 
sation with leading Whig politicians upon 
the terms of the proposed measure, and 
upon the way in which it might, probably, be 
received in Ireland as a final settlement. 
Those Whig politicians were naturally de- 
sirous that the measure should pass, wings 
and all — for they cared nothing about the 
independence of the Church, or the rights 
of electors. What they thought of was, 
that some Irish Catholic members coming 
into Parliament would be an accession of 
force to their party, and might carry them 
into office. Mr. O'Counell did not then, 
probably, so fully know as lie afterwards 
came to know — that British Whigs regard all 
Irish questions solely with a view to the in- 
terests of the Whig party. The courtesies 
also, and the persuasive phraseology of those 
courtly "Liberals," and of the English Cath- 
olics, who were all for the bill, certainly im- 
posed somewhat upon O'Connell's mind ; 
insomuch that he is known to have signified 
to some principal Whig statesmen his wil- 
lingness to take the bill as it stood, with 
the two offensive "wings." The fortunate 
loss of the measure in the House of Lords 
prevented any evil consequences arising from 
this unaccountable weakness ; and when the 
deputation returned to Ireland, and found 
what was the state of feeling amongst the 
Catholics; and when O'Counell found that his 
complying disposition was very likely to injure 
his popularity and his power for good, he 
very promptly and frankly retracted, and 
took his position again with his countrymen. 
It had been well, indeed, if he had firmly 
held his grouud against both those Wings 
to the last. 



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'•■^Tine .couinsiiS.}, 







ELM 1 



ACTION OF THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. 






CHAPTER LIV. 

182')— 1829. 

Action of the Catholic Association— Waterford Elec- 
tion— Louth Election— Change of Ministry — Can- 
ning Premier— Lord Anglesea Viceroy — The "New 
Reformation "—Pope and Maguire— Death of Can- 
ning— Godoricb Cabinet — Catholic Petition for Re- 
peal of Test and Corporation Acts — Acts Repealed 
— Clare Election— O'Connell Returned — Its Results 
— Suppression of Catholic Association — Peel and 
Wellington Prepare Catholic Relief Hill— tiage of 
the Bigots — Reluctance of the King — O'Connell at 
the Bar of the House — Passage of the Emancipa- 
tion Act — Disfranchisement of the Forty-Shilling 
Freeholders — Abstract of the Relief Act — The New 
Oath— Meaning and Spirit of the Relief Act. 

The Catholic Association continued its op- 
erations and extended its organization, with 
even greater vigor and success than before. 
It had a machinery which extended not only 
into every county but into every parish. 
Its funds were given to employ lawyers to 
protect the people in cases of extreme op- 
pression ; and in such cases as the wrecking 
of a chapel, or an Orange riot in the North 
— cases which the magistrates at petty and 
quarter-sessions had been in the habit of 
treating upon the general principle that Pa- 
pists had no rights which Protestants were 
bound to respect, their worships were now 
sometimes thunderstruck by the apparition 
of clever barristers or attorneys from Dub- 
lin, who not only knew more law than the 
whole bench of justices, but were attended 
by newspaper reporters, sure to publish 
abroad to the world any too-outrageous in- 
stance of magisterial partizanship. But 
the machinery of the association, both cen- 
tral and provincial, was capable of being 
employed with more striking effect in the 
elections of representatives in Parliament ; 
and its efficiency began to be proved in the 
general election of 1826. It was resolved 
in the association that all its efforts should 
be concentrated upon favoring the return of 
certain liberal Protestants (seeing that 
Catholics were not eligible,) for some coun- 
ties which had been up to that time con- 
trolled absolutely by a few great families of 
the old colonial aristocracy. The Beres- 
fords, for example, had long represented 
Waterford in the person of some member of 
their family ; the idea of opposing the 





Beresford interest in that county seemed the 
wildest dream ; and the Beresford, who was 
Marquis of Waterford, naturally thought 
that he did not more clearly own the de- 
mesne of Curraghmore than he owned tlio 
representation of his county. At the elec- 
tion of 1826, Lord George Beresford was 
boldly opposed by Mr. Villiers Stuart, an- 
other large proprietor of the county, and a 
friend to the Catholic claims. The latter 
was supported by the parochial organizers 
and by the Catholic clergy, and won his 
election, to the intense mortification of the 
house of Curraghmore, and perfect conster- 
nation of the whole Protestant interest. 

AYliile society in Dublin was much agi- 
tated by the progress of this contest in the 
South, news arrived in that city of a still 
more stirring nature : Louth County was in 
like manner, held to be an apanage of the 
two noble houses of Foster and Jocelyn ; 
their titles were Oriel and Rodeu. Lord 
Oriel was that John Foster, Speaker of the 
Irish House of Commons at the time of the 
Union, with whom this history has already 
had much to do ; all his life a high place- 
holder, and bitter opponent of the Catholics. 
The politician of the family was now John 
Leslie Foster, who had long sat in Parlia- 
ment as one of the members for the county, 
and consistently on every occasion, resisted 
the slightest concession to the Catholics. 
The Jocelyns had as their nominee for the 
other seat, Mr. Fortescue, a politician of the 
same deep Orange hue. At the election in 
1826, there presented himself to the people 
to ask their suffrages, a Mr. Dawson, a re- 
tired barrister of some fortune, who was 
favorable to the enfranchisement of six mil- 
lions of his countrymen. He was attended 
to the polls by immense multitudes of the 
worthy forty-shilling freeholders, who march- 
ed with him into Dundalk with green ban- 
ners flying in the wind. The contest was 
close ; for the influence of the great land- 
lords was nearly irresistible, unless at mortal 
peril. It needed all the energy of the local 
managers of the association to bring up the 
voters, and get them to defy those potent 
despots. Mr. Sheil went down from Dublin 
as counsel for Dawson ; in short, at the close 
of the poll, Dawson was declared duly elect- 
ed ; Mr. Foster was the second mcmbei, 






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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 




tH35 



aud Fortcscue, nominee of Lord Roden, 
stood defeated. 

Some few other successes of a similar 
character, showed what the association could 
do. The effect of such events upon the pub- 
lic mind in England was very great. As 
for the " Ascendancy" Faction in Ireland, it 
was as usual in a foam of rage ; the great 
family interests — the mighty Orange houses 
winch had been long a rock and strong 
tower to Protestant monopoly and religion, 
were now, as it seemed, to be assailed, not 
by sap or mine, but by open storm and esca- 
lade. The Protestant mind of that day 
could not help believing that there was some 
Jesuit conspiracy at work in this matter, 
and that the Waterford election was won 
virtually by the Tope of Rome. Sir Har- 
court Lees demanded of Parliament whether 
his vaticinations would be at length listened 
to — Popery "put down," aud O'Counell sent 
to the Tower. 

Early in the first session of the new Par- 
liament, Lord Liverpool, the Premier, was 
struck with paralysis. He was a helpless 
and timorous creature ; afraid to read his 
letters in the morning, lest they should bring 
news of an insurrection in some part of the 
country ; anil his only idea of government 
was to disturb nothing, to reform nothing, 
(sufficient unto the day being the evil 
thereof,) and only praying that all mankind 
might remain precisely as it was, for his day. 
In short, he was a " Conservative " of the stu- 
pidest sort.* On his death, which followed 
very soon, Mr. Canning, who had been For- 
eign Secretary in his administration, was 
sent for by the King, and received his com- 
mands to form a Cabinet. But Mr. Cau- 
uing, only a month before, had made a pow- 
erful speech in favor of Catholic Emancipa- 
tion ; the King, therefore, must have known 
that in making this statesman his Prime 
Minister, he was taking an almost irrevoca- 
ble step towards that clearly-inevitable con- 
summation. Accordingly, Sir Robert Peel, 
the Duke of Wellington, Lord Eldon, and 
other Tory members of the outgoing Cabi- 
net, refused to serve with Mr. Cannim 

* His order of Conservatism is admirably charac- 
terized by Pan] Louis Courier, who, speaking of one 
of Lord Liverpool's character, said : " If he had been 
present on the morning of the creation he would 
have cried : Mun Dieu .' vcmservoits le chaos .' 



who, thereupon, formed a Ministry which was 
generally in favor of concession. Lord 
Wcllesley was succeeded in the Viceroyalty 
of Ireland by the Marquis of Anglesea, 
formerly Earl of Uxbridge, a very brilliant 
cavalry officer, but not much of a statesman. 
The Chief Secretary was Lord Francis 
Leveson Gower. 

When Lord Anglesea arrived in Ireland, 
lie found the Ascendancy faction in high ex- 
citement, The very Orangemen began to 
perceive the ominous signs of the times. They 
were making preparations to celebrate with 
great pomp the grand Orange anniversary of 
the 12th of July ; being resolved, if they 
could not much longer trample on their fellow- 
countrymen, to insult them to the last. As 
the time approached, however, Lord An- 
glesea prohibited by proclamation the cus- 
tomary procession in Dublin, and the gar- 
landing with Orange lilies the statue of King 
William in College Green. In Ulster, how- 
ever, the anniversary was celebrated with 
even more than the usual show of insolent 
triumph. In every town and village the 
brethren assembled in great numbers, march- 
ed from town to town, all flaunting with 
purple and orange sashes, generally halting 
in the midst of districts inhabited by Catho- 
lics, firing a volley over their houses, and 
playing " The Protestant Boys," aud " Crop- 
pies Lie Down." 

The prohibition of the Dublin procession, 
and other alarming signs of an approaching 
compromise with Jezebel — for such was held 
to be the meaning of the threatened admis- 
sion of Papists to Parliament and the Cor- 
porations — aroused all the " No-Popery " an- 
imosities of their hereditary oppressors ; 
ami the clerical agitators projected a " New 
Reformation." If the Catholics could but 
be convinced of their idolatry aud supersti- 
tion, (which seemed so manifest to those 
clerical persons,) it was thought that they 
could no longer persist in their audacious 
pretensions. In general, this new scheme of 
proselytism was carried on by mere ribald 
abuse of everything held sacred in the an- 
cient, religion, and by repeating the old 
stories out of " Fox's Martyrs ; " but certain 
of the new reformers challenged public dis- 
cussion with the most learned Catholic the- 
ologians in every diocese ; aud at first some 



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of these challenges were promptly met by 
Catholic clergymen, who thought, on their 
Bide that their religion could lose nothing, 
and might gain much by public exposition 
and defence of its tenets. Several oral dis- 
cussions took place accordingly, of which the 
most notable was that between a Rev. 
Mr. Pope, an English clergyman, and Father 
Maguire, a parish priest of Leitrim County. 
The bold acceptance of the challenge by 
"Father Tom," was thought by his own 
partisans rather unfortunate, as he had never 
debated in public, though known to be a 
learned theologian, while Mr. Pope was a 
practiced controversialist. The discussion 
was to take place in Dublin; each champion 
to defend three articles of his own and assail 
three of his adversary's faith. The occasion 
excited intense interest. Not only the pub- 
lic room where the meeting took place, but 
all Sackville street was thronged with eager 
sympathizers. As the two disputants ar- 
gued within the building, thousands of minor 
" oral discussions" were taking place on the 
'streets, and the talk of Dublin carmen was 
of Two Sacraments and of Seven. This 
scene lasted many days : the debate was 
carried on with sufficient courtesy : Father 
Maguire proved himself a master of theolo- 
gical learning, and Mr. Pope of controver- 
sial declamation : and the affair ended, as 
might have been expected — that is, Catho- 
lics were convinced that Mr. Maguire had 
demolished the Protestant religion, and 
Protestants were satisfied that Mr. Pope 
had not left Popery a leg to stand on. 
Nobody was converted on cither side. 

Many other similar discussions, in which 
laymeu sometimes bore a part, raged in each 
province of the islaud, aud generally rather 
inflamed intolerance than advanced any 
good cause ; the Plight Rev. Dr. Doyle dis- 
approved of them,- and soon interdicted the 
clergy of his diocese from engaging in them. 
So did the Archbishop of Armagh, and then 
the other Bishops. Soon not a priest could 
be found to accept a challenge — and their 
opponents took this as a plain proof that the 
Catholic religion was afraid of the light of 
day. They eagerly pressed their invitations, 
Dut in vain. They urgently offered to their 
Catholic friends to prove the Mass a plain 
idols, and Purgatory a lamen- 




table infringement on the prerogatives of 
Hell — the Catholic priests would no longer 
strip for this polemical prize-ring ; although 
still ready and willing to expound their faith 
by the old methods of theological argument. 

The year 1827 was remarkable for the 
first great example of the emigrant Irish in 
every foreign country, and in every colony 
taking an active part in the struggle for 
liberty of their friends at home. And the 
sympathy and substantial aid were not con- 
fined to Irishmen alone ; nor even to Catho- 
lics alone. The bold attitude of O'Conncll; 
the mighty power he had created aud direct- 
ed ; the vigor and wisdom of that agitation 
now so evidently shaking the deep-rooted 
and broad-based structure of the British 
Empire, attracted the admiration of the 
world. The powerful French press occupied 
itself warmly in the struggle ; and from 
French Catholics, as well as from Americans 
of all religions, came addresses and subscrip- 
tions to the Catholic Association. Multitu- 
dinous meetings of " Friends of Ireland " 
were held in all considerable American 
cities ; and a large part of the business of 
the association began to be reading foreign 
correspondence, aud receiving addresses from 
not only France aud America, but from va- 
rious German States, from Italy, from Spain, 
even from British India. All these things, 
while they violently irritated the national 
pride of the English, suggested to them at 
the same time the impossibility of continued 
resistance, in so very bad a cause. 

Mr. Canning died in August, after a very 
short tenure of office. lie had to contend 
with a compact and very acrimonious oppo- 
sition, consisting not only of the Tories, but 
of the aristocratic party of the old Whigs, 
headed by Lord Grey — a party which was 
jealous of Canning, because it sincerely 
believed him an interloper upon the pre- 
scriptive right of a few great families to 
govern the country.* 

* Canning was a man of strong passions and high 
spirit, with great talent for satire ; and of course had 
made many enemies — and without enemies, no man 
is entitled to have friends. He had been a. Tory too. 
and had written pungent squibs in the " Anti-Jaco- 
bin" against " French principles ; " n>r example the 
very clever satire of the " Xeedy Knife-Grinder " 
In one of these jeux d' esprit, lie had contrasted the 
statesmanlike qualities of certain Tory Lords with 

" The temper of Grey 

And treasurer Sheridan's promise to pay."' 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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But the head and tlie heart of this ven- 
omous opposition was Sir Robert Peel, who 
saw that Carmine: was destined, if his gov- 
ernment lasted, to carry the great measure 
of Catholic Emancipation, and who was 
determined, if possible, to supersede him 
and carry that inevitable measure himself — 
a policy not unfamiliar to this prudent 
statesman, which lie afterwards pursued in 
the <il her signal case of the repeal of the 
Corn laws. Mr. Canning, too, was in failing 
health, and had lost most of the original en- 
ergy of his nature. Peel, therefore, " hound- 
ed him to death," as Lord George Bentinck 
long afterwards bitterly declared in Parlia- 
ment. 

Mr. Canning was succeeded by Lord 
Goderich, a statesman of little talent or in- 
fluence, who did not succeed in forming a 
Ministry which Could hold together; and 
in January lS'JS, this feeble administration 
gave place to the Duke of Wellington as 
Premier Minister, and Sir Robert Peel as 
Secretary for the Home Department — both 
of them avowed and inveterate enemies of 
the liberties of Catholics. The Duke, also, 
was still sincerely and consistently res- 
olute to refuse all concession ; while his 
prudent colleague had already determined to 
lie converted at the right moment, and to 
have the credit of effecting a revolution 
which he saw to be inevitable. In this new 
Cabinet was Lord I'ahncrston ; a man who 
never cared for Whig or Tory, Catholic or 
Protestant, or the rights or wrongs of any 
class, sect or nation, but was always ready 
to bear a hand, and that efficiently, in the 
current events which were for the time be- 
ing the order of the day. 

On the opening of the session of 1828, the 
Catholic Association was prepared with a 
petition, signed by 800,000 ( 'at holies, pray- 
ing — not for any rights of their own or re- 
lief for themselves, — but for repeal of the 
Test act and Corporation act, which had 
excluded Protestant Dissenters from office 
for a century and a half. This idea was 
O'Connell's ; but the petition — as he long 
afterwards delighted to proclaim — was 
drawn up by the hand of Father L'Estrange, 
aCarmel tn friar. This was an incident well 

It woe generally believed that fjord I'.icy <liil not 
forget this; and thai It contributed very much to en- 
venom his opposition to Canning's Ministry. 



calculated to produce a fine dramatic effect 
— the proscribed and oppressed Catholics 
petitioning for the rights of the much less 
proscribed and oppressed Nonconformists 1 
but it is fair to add that many petitions 
poured in this session from Protestants of 
all sects ill favor of the Catholic claims — 
so that there was, at least, an appearance 
of mutual good will, and an universal aspi- 
ration towards liberty, equality, and frater- 
nity. The picture was somewhat marred, 
however, by multitudes of petitions vehem- 
ently deprecating all concession to Catholics; 
and these latter came from the most influ- 
ential quarters in the three kingdoms of Ire- 
land, England, and Scotland. The British 
Universities were especially stirred by ap- 
prehension and alarm for the Protestant in- 
terest ; and the corporations, particularly 
that of Dublin, felt that all was lost if a 
man of Seveu Sacraments became alderman 
or town councillor. 

In that session the Test act and Corpo- 
ration act were in fact repealed. The 
measure was introduced by Lord John lUis- 
sell, a statesman who, then and always, pro- 
fessed "Liberal" principles, and aspired to 
had the party of what is called " Progress," 
but being essentially narrow-minded has 
often shown himself actuated by the blind- 
est bigotry and intolerance. His measure 
was carried, chiefly on account of the lan- 
guid opposition made to it by Sir Hubert 
Peel, who was then in a transition state, 
and was making up his mind to be convert- 
ed himself to Liberal principles, and even 
to snatch from Lord John Russell and the 
Whigs, the credit of carrying the grand 
Whig measure of that age. The act re- 
pealing the Test and Corporation acts be- 
came law in April ; and a few weeks after, 
on the secession of several members from the 
Cabinet, Mr. Yesey Fitzgerald, then mem- 
ber for Clare County, was brought in to till 
a vacancy in the administration, as Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trade. This vacated 
his seat for Clare, until he should be reelect- 
ed ; and he immediately issued his address 
to the Clare electors, nothing doubting that 
he would be at once replaced in his seat ; 
having large influence in the county, and 
most of the larger landed-proprietors being 
his political and personal friends. Mr. Fit» 



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CI.ARE ELECTION O CONNEIX RETURNED. 



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gerald was a highly honorable and liberal 
gentleman, and a warm friend to Catholic 
Emancipation. He was, moreover, the son 
of that steady Anti-Union patriot, Mr. 
Prime-Sergeant Fitzgerald, who had spoken 
at the bar meeting against the Union, anil 
had been thereupon degraded from his office 
by the Government. He was, therefore, in 
some sort, a martyr to patriotism ; and his 
son had good reason to count not only on 
his own possessions and influence in his 
county, but also on his personal merit and 
the traditions of his family, for a warm sup- 
port in Clare. 

The celebrated Clare election followed ; 
one of the most momentous transactions in 
the modern history of Ireland, and, indeed, 
of the other island also. It was no merely 
local contest for one seat in Parliament ; it 
was the making up of a decisive issue be- 
tween the millions of oppressed Catholics, 
and that potent and insolent " Ascendancy," 
which had so long trampled upon them in 
their own land. 

At first, however, it was not foreseen what 
a sharp turning point this Clare election was 
destined to prove in history. The Catholics 
had passed a resolution at one of their ag- 
gregate meetings, to oppose the election of 
every candidate who should not pledge him- 
self against the Duke of Wellington's ad- 
ministration. Now here was a proven friend 
to those Catholics, who had always voted in 
their favor, actually a member of that ad- 
ministration, and seeking election at the 
hands of an Irish constituency. The ques- 
tion was, should that worthy gentleman be 
opposed by the whole power of the associa- 
tion ? And whom could they hope to put 
in his place who would be a better friend to 
them than Yesey Fitzgerald 1 An incident 
now occurred, which gave much additional 
importance to this question. Lord John 
Russell, charmed with his own success in 
repealing the Test and Corporation acts, 
swelling with self-confidence, as usual, and 
never doubting that he was about to be the 
great "Liberal" leader, wrote a letter to 
Mr. O'Conuell, suggesting that the conduct 
of the Duke of Wellington in the case of 
the repeal of Test and Corporation acts, 
had been so fair and noble, as to entitle his 
grace to the gratitude of " Liberals ; " and 



that they, the said Liberals "would con- 
sider the reversal of the resolution which 
had been passed against his Government, na 
evidence of the interest which the Irish peo- 
ple felt, not only in the great question pecu- 
liarly applicable to that country, but in the 
assertion of religious freedom throughout the 
empire. 1 "* That is to say, the Whig parly 
of the "empire" would take it very kind, if 
Mr. O'Connell and the Catholic Association 
would put aside the consideration of their 
own country and their own rights, and use 
(heir power so as to benefit that parly. 
This resembles extremely the many other 
occasions on which the Whigs of the " Em- 
pire " have endeavored to stifle Irish ques- 
tions, and turn Irish organizations for na- 
tional purposes to the service of an English 
faction, which always courted the Catholics 
when out of office, and always spurned and 
oppressed them when in power. 

And Mr. O'Connell's greatest weakness, 
(as we have seen in the last chapter,) both 
then and since, was his too-credulous reli- 
ance upon the fair professions of that treach- 
erous party, which he had so often occasion 
to describe as "the base, brutal, and bloody 
Whigs." On the present occasion, Mr. 
O'Connell can scarcely be censured for lend- 
ing an ear to the suggestion of the Whig — 
that Mr. Fitzgerald's election should go un- 
opposed ; for O'Connell himself did not yet 
foresee what a potent engine this Clare 
election would become in his hands. There- 
fore, he proposed in the association, that 
the resolution should be suspended. 

But O'Connell did not fully appreciate 
how deeply his countrymen abhorred both 
Wellington and Peel, of both of whom, 
in the capacity of Chief Secretary, Ireland 
had bitter experience. His motion was ve- 
hemently and successfully opposed. After 
some debate, the original resolution was 
left standing ; and the association remained 
committed to oppose the return of Mr. 
Vesey Fitzgerald. Mr. O'Connell had rea- 
son to rejoice in his failure to rescind that 
resolution. 

Clare, then, was to be contested ; and 
the next question was, who was to be put 
forward against Fitzgerald ? The associa- 
tion pitched upon Major Mac Namara, ono 

*See Shiel's Sketches— Tlie Clare Election. 



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of the proprietors of the county, a Protest- 
ant, tif course, but descended of ancient 
Irish stock, very friendly to the Catholics; 
a mail of but little weight of character, 
whose principal care and ambition, seem to 
have been to dress and wig himself after 
the pattern of George IV., whom he 
personally resembled ; for the rest, a good 
landlord, an excellent magistrate, and pro- 
tector of the poor and oppressed. But this 
personage, though a friend to his Catholic 
countrymen, was still more a friend, as it 
turned out, to his neighbor Vesey Fitzger- 
ald, lie allowed many days to elapse, 
without sending an answer to the associa- 
tion ; and as Clare was at a great distance 
from Dublin, in those days of slow traveling, 
much anxious delay was thus created. 
Doubts and rumors began to prevail, not 
only as to the acceptance of the candidacy, 
but as to the disposition of the priests of 
Clare, to act warmly with the association 
against so estimable and popular a gentle- 
man. Mr. O'Qorman Mahon and Mr. 
Steele were sent post to Clare, to inquire 
into the dispositions of priests and people, 
and to bring an answer, if possible, from 
Major Mae Namara. O'Qorman .Malum 
came back in two days ; the Major's family 
lay under such obligations to Mr, Fitzger- 
ald, that he could not think of opposing him. 
Meanwhile, the " Ascendancy " party, as well 
as the Liberal Protestants of Clare, were 
actively engaged in working for the candi- 
date already in the field ; and boasting that 
no gentleman in the county w ould sloop so 
low as to accept the patronage of the Cath- 
olic Association. Those gentlemen of the 
county, was soon to receive a lesson. 

There was earnest consultation one night 
at O'Connell's house, in Merrion Square ; 
next day Dublin City was startled, and soon 
all Ireland was aroused, by an address from 

O'Connell himself, to the electors of Clare, 
soliciting their suffrages, affirming that he 
was qualified to be elected and to serve 
them in Parliament, although he would 
never take the oath, (that the Mass is idol- 
atrous,) "for," continued he, "the author- 
ity which created those oaths, (the Parlia- 
ment, J can abrogate them; and 1 entertain 
a confident hope that if you elect me, the 
most bigoted of our enemies will see the ne- 




cessity of removing from the chosen repre- 
sentative of the people, an obstacle, which 
woidd prevent him from doing his duty to his 
King and to his country," At last all the 
world, friends and foes, saw in one moment 
what was to be the meaning of the Clare 
election. 

Several members of the association were 
at once sent down to Clare, in order to ex- 
cite the people, and prepare them for the 
great event ; also to arouse the spirit of the 
priests, and induce them to use their influ- 
ence with the tenantry. The great family 
" interests," the O'Briens, the Ynudeleiirs, 
the Fitzgeralds, the .Mae Namaras had, as 
they thought, organized and drilled their 
numerous tenantry into proper discipline. 
They considered the people who lived on 
their estates almost in the light of serfs; 
and it was a principle then in Ireland, that 
if any gentleman interfered with another's 
tenants, by canvassing them, in order to in- 
duce them to vote against their landlords, 
the interference was to be resented as a 
personal affront. But a power was now 
moving these masses, on which those respect 
able gentlemen had not calculated — the pro- 
found and sweeping passion of a highly im- 
pulsive and imaginative people, thoroughly 
aroused by every feeling that could appeal 
either to their manhood, or their religious 
enthusiasm — stimulated by the exhortations 
of priests whom they loved, and inspired by 
the name and renown of the redoubtable 
champion who promised to deliver them. 
All this together, made up such a mass of 
concentrated power as was sure to test sev- 
erely the discipline of the great estates, ami 
the traditionary deference paid by tenants 
to their landlords. 

Mr. Steele and O'Qorman Mahon un- 
dertook to canvass the county ; and Steele 
intimated beforehand, his readiness to light 
any landlord who should feel himself ag- 
grieved by interference with his tenants. 
Then they traversed the county, making 
the most, earnest and impetuous appeals to 
the people ; addressing them at all hours, 
and in all places— in the chapels after Mass, 
on the hill-sides, in the village markets, by 
day and by night, until it was clear that 
the generous and gallant people, were fully 
resolved to brave this one good time, the ut- 



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most vengeance of landlord-wrath, and carry 
the " Man of the People" triumphantly to 

the door of Parliament. 

The famous Father Maguire traveled all 
the way from Leitrim, that lie might help to 
swell the excitement. John Lawless, (or 
as he was usually named honest Jack Law- 
less,) was then editor of a newspaper in Bel- 
fast, called the Irishman ; he left his news- 
paper to other hands, and hurried to Clare, 
to put his fiery leading articles, into the 
form of fiery speeches. The town of Ennis, 
which had a population of eight thonsand, 
contained thirty thousand human beings, on 
the day when O'ConncIl's green carriage 
was expected in that place. Green flags 
waved from the windows ; priests and agi- 
tators addressed multitudes from a balcony 
or a flight of steps ; and the excitement of 
expectation was at its highest. Yet there 
was not. the slightest appearance of turbu- 
lence or disorder. On the contrary, through- 
out all the exciting canvass, and still 
more exciting days of the actual poll, eld 
family feuds were suspended, or terminated 
forever. There was no drunkenness, no 
angry language, and no man ventured (so 
strong was public opinion) to raise a hand 
against another upon any provocation. 
O'Connell, at length, appeared, with two or 
three friends ; and there was one continu- 
ous shout from thirty thousand throats. 
Women cried and laughed ; strangers who 
had never seen one another, wrung each 
other's hands ; and from every window 
ladies (Mr. Shicl says, " of great beauty,") 
waved hands and handkerchiefs. No won- 
der that such a tempest of patriotic zeal, 
whirled away Mr. Fitzgerald's own tenants 
out of the hands of their marshaling bailiffs • 
nor that one wave of O'Connell's arm, left 
Mr. Vandelenr deserted by his whole army 
of freeholders. Sir Edward O'Brien's feu- 
dal pride was mortally hurt by the defec- 
tion of his people, and he shed tears of vex- 
ation ; but his son, William Smith O'Brien, 
then member for Ennis, though his family 
pride may have been hurt by such a result, 
was not inconsolable, being, indeed, a con- 
tributor to the "Catholic Rent," and one 
who at all times, valued justice and fair 
dealing more highly than the broad acres 
and high towers of Drumoland. 
t;t 



The details of an election contest, even 
that of Clare in 1828, need not be related 
at length. Sir Edward O'Brien proposed 
Mr. Fitzgerald, who was seconded by Sit 
Augustus Fitzgerald. O'Connell was pro- 
posed by O'Gorman Mahon and Mr. Steele, 
both proprietors in the county. The speeches 
were made ; the poll proceeded ; and at 
its close the numbers stood, for O'Connell, 
two thousand and fifty-seven ; for Fitz- 
gerald, one thousand and seventy-five. After 
an argument before the assessor, Mr. Keat- 
ing, in which it was contended that a 
Catholic could not be legally returned, the 
objection was overruled, on the ground that 
it rested with the Parliament itself, on the 
oath being tendered and refused, to exclude 
a representative, and O'Connell was pro- 
claimed duly elected. 

It is somewhat difficult, at this day, fully 
to comprehend the profound impression 
which this event produced throughout Ire- 
land, as well as in the other island. Mr. 
Vesey Fitzgerald, though deeply mortified, 
took his defeat with a gentlemanlike calm- 
ness ; but the great proprietors of Clare 
County, who had supported.him, could not con- 
ceal their ominous apprehensions. "Where 
is all this to end ?" was a question frequently 
put in his presence ; to which he replied 
otdy by looks of gloom and sorrow. In 
fact, the worthy Protestant "Liberals," dis- 
ciples and followers of Grattan and Pon- 
sonby, had accustomed themselves to regard 

the Catholic claims as their affair they 

were the Parliamentary patrons of the Irish 
Catholics, and had never dreamed of the 
possibility of their clients taking the case 
into their own hands ; not only throwing off 
all dependence upon them, but even flinging 
aside, so decisively one of the most dis- 
tinguished of their advocates, and coming in 
their proper person to thunder at the doors 
of Parliament. Still more fearful and ter- 
rible to them was the example of independ- 
ence now set by the voting tenantry — the 
hereditary family "interests" were no longer 
omnipotent ; and the end of the world 
seemed at hand. The exultation of the 
Catholic people of Inland was unbounded. 
O'Connell traveled back to Dublin in the 
midst of one continued triumphal procession. 
Mr. Lawless, the Belfast editor, was escort- 



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ed, on his return to Belfast, by enormous 
multitudes of the peasantry. Through the 
plains of Meath they passed in peaceable 
triumph, and through the southern part of 
Monnghan ; but in this region the Orange- 
men were strong, armed, resolute, and 
infuriated ; and a vast concourse of armed 
Protestants, excited by the harangues of 
^r^i their preachers, and prayerfully determined 
to resist this triumph of "Jezebel," at least 
in their county, were assembled at Ballybay, 
and showed a stern purpose of opposing the 
passage of Mr. Lawless and his followers. 
It needed all the exertions of the Catholic 
clergy, and the friendly expostulations of 
General Thornton, military commandant of 
the district, to prevent a collision, and induce 
the multitudinous escort of Mr. Lawless to 
disperse and go to their homes. For a 
week or two there were serious apprehen- 
sions of collision, and of civil war ; and large 
numbers of troops were hastily sent over 
from England. It was even formally pro- 
posed in the Catholic Association that a run 
should be made on the banks, with a view 
of disorganizing society and opening the 
way for armed revolution ; but these coun- 
sels were rejected. 

The actual results of this election are well 
known, and may be shortly summarized. 
The Duke of Wellington, who had a few 
mouths before declared that " he could not 
comprehend the possibility of placing Roman 
Catholics in a Protestant Legislature with 
any kind of safety; as his personal knowledge 
told him that no King, however Catholic, 
could govern his Catholic subjects without 
the aid of the Pope ;" this Duke, the 
consistent and conscientious opponent of 
Catholic liberties, and who had taken office 
expressly to defeat their claims, became 
suddenly converted, and felt that the choice 
lay between Catholic Emancipation and 
civil war. As for Sir Robert Peel, he had 
*t& W already divined the course of events — his 

policy was clear ; and his conscience pre- 
sented no serious difficulty. Lord Anglesea, 
the Lord-Lieutenant, though he had come 
)ver to Ireland with no friendly feeling 
towards the Catholics, had greatly altered 
his views, and now made no secret of his 
opinion that the time was come to settle the 
vexed question in the only way it could be 



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settled — for which expression of opinion he 
was summarily removed from his govern- 
ment. 

The Parliament met in February, 1829. 
The King's speech, prepared, no doubt, by 
Peel, recommended the suppression of the 
Catholic Association, and the subsequent 
consideration of Catholic disabilities, with a 
view to their adjustment and removal. As 
for the Catholic Association, there could be 
no difficulty about that ; it had done its 
work, and not wailing for the law to sup- 
press it, dissolved itself at ouce — that is, 
nominally, for substantially the organization 
still subsisted, and could easily resume its 
usual business in case of necessity. 

It was Sir Robert Peel who, on the 5th 
of March, moved for a Committee of the 
Whole House, " for consideration of the civil 
disabilities of His Majesty's Roman Catholic 
subjects ;" and the motion was carried, 
after warm debate, by a large majority. 

And now arose the most tremendous 
clamor of alarmed Protestantism that had 
been heard in the Three Kingdoms since 
the days of James II. — -the last King 
who had ever dreamed of placing Catholics 
and Protestants on something like an ap- 
proach to equality. Multitudinous petitions, 
not only from Irish Protestants, but from 
Scottish Presbyteries, from English Univer- 
sities, from corporations of British towns, 
from private individuals, came pouring into 
Parliament, praying that the great and 
noble Protestant State of England should 
not be handed over as a prey to the Jesuits, 
the Inquisitors and the Propaganda. Never 
was such a jumble of various topics, sacred 
and profane, as in those petitions ; vested 
interests — idolatry of the Mass — principles of 
the Hanoverian succession— the Inquisition 
—eternal privileges of Protestant tailors, or 
Protestant lightermen — our holy religion- 
French principles — -tithes — and the Beast of 
the Apocalypse — all were urged, with vehe- 
ment eloquence, upon the enlightened legis- 
lators of Britain. 

What may seem strange, one has to ad- 
mit that a great number of these frightened 
petitioners were truly sincere and conscien- 
tious. The amiable Dr. Jebb, Protestant 
Bishop of Limerick, for example, writes an 
earnest letter to Sir Robert Peel, on the 1 1th 



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RELUCTANCE OF THE KINO. 



of February, 1829, (so soon as he saw the 
course that matters were taking:,) and says 
to him : " Infinitely more difficulties and 
dangers will attach to concession than to 

uncompromising resistance In 

defence of all that is dear to British Pro- 
testants, I am cheerfully prepared, if neces- 
sary, as many of my order have formerly 
done, to lay down life itself." On the other 
hand, the good Dr. Doyle, Catholic Bishop 
of Kildure and Leighlin, had uttered this 
prayer for O'Connell when he started for 
the contest in Clare : " May the God of 
truth and justice protect and prosper you 1" 
What Very different — what very opposite 
ideas of truth and justice had these two 
excellent Prelates ! 

Sir Robert Peel, however, had taken his 
part — the Catholics were to be emancipat- 
ed ; and by him. But the King would not 
yield, save at the last extremity. To assent 
to an act of justice, seemed to George 
IV., like the loss of his dearest heart's 
blood. He endeavored even to get rid of 
the Wellington Cabinet, and to form a new 
Ministry, which would pledge itself not to 
do justice. But in this he failed. Sir 
Robert Peel tells us : " At a late hour on 
the evening of the 4th of March, the King 
wrote a letter to the Duke of Wellington, 
informing him that His Majesty anticipated 
so much difficulty, in the attempt to form 
auother administration, that he could not 
dispense with our services ; that he must, 
therefore, desire us to withdraw our resigna- 
tion, and that we were at liberty to proceed 
with the measures, of which notice had been 
given in Parliament."* 

Mi-. O'Connell, who had arrived in Lon- 
dun, to claim his seat for Clare, as a Cath- 
olic, finding that there was now a Govern- 
ment pledged to emancipation, having carte 
llanche fur that purpose, decided not to 
present himself for the present, lest it should 
embarrass the administration. 

The Emancipation act was forthwith in- 
troduced ; it was prepared by Sir Robert 
Peel ; it contained neither the provision for 
veto, nor that fur bribing the priests ; but it 




* Memoirs. By the Right Honorable Sir Robert 
Peel, Bart. Published by the trustees of his papers, 
Lord Mahon and Right Honorable Ed. Cardwell, M.' 
P. London: 1856. 



was accompanied by a certain other act, as 
fatal, perhaps, as either of those, namely, 
for disfranchisement of all the forty-shilling 
freeholders in Ireland. Sir Robert was de< 
termined at least, not to yield this point. 
It was the forty-shilling freeholders, who 
had humbled the Beresford domination in 
Waterford, and destroyed the Foster mo 
nopoly in Louth ; it was the forty-shilling 
freeholders who had carried O'Connell tri- 
umphantly to the head of the poll in Clare ; 
and by destroying that whole class of voters, 
Peel, hoped very reasonably, not only to 
render the remaining voters more amenable 
to corrupt influences, but also to take away 
the motive, which had heretofore existed, for 
granting leases to small farmers, and thus in 
good time, to turn those independent far- 
mers into tenants-at-will. He had his own 
profound reasons for this— which will fully 
appear hereafter. 

The debates on the Relief bill were, as 
might have been expected, very violent and 
bitter. The fanatical section of English and 
Irish Protestantism, was deeply moved. In 
the mind of those people, all was lost ; and 
Sir Robert Peel and the Duke, were almost 
directly charged with being agents of the 
Pope of Rome. However, the bill passed 
through its two first readings iu the Com- 
mons ; and the third reading was passed on 
the 30th of March, by a majority of thirty- 
six. Xext day it was carried to the House 
of Lords ; and on the 2d of April, its sec- 
ond reading was moved by the Duke of 
Wellington, who made no scruple to urge 
its necessity, iu order " to prevent civil war." 
Sir Robert Peel, in his arguraeut for the 
law, had been less explicit and straightfor- 
ward than the Duke — he had only said 
the measure was needful, to prevent great 
dangers and "public calamity." f 

After violent debates in the House of 
Lords, lasting several days, the bill was 
passed a third time, and passed by a major- 



"S 



tSir Robert Peel, in his letter to Doctor Jebb, 
Bishop of Limerick, in February, said : " It is easy 
to blame the concessions that were made in 1782, 
and in 1793 ; but they were not made without an in- 
timate conviction of their absolute necessity in order 
to prevent greater dangers." Sir Robert says again: 
|' I can with truth affirm, that in advising and promot- 
ing the measures of 1S29, I was swayed by no fear, 
except the fear of public calamity."— Memoirs by Sil 
Robert Peel. 




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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



ity of one hundred and four. It then re- 
ceived the royal assent ; and what is called 
Catholic Emancipation, was an accomplish- 
ed fact. 

O'Connell, in the meantime, presented 
himself at the bar of the House of Com- 
mons, claiming to take his seat as member 
for Chue. This was before the passage of 
the bill into a law. But an election petition 
was pending, sent forward by certain elec- 
tors of Clare, against the validity of his re- 
turn. The investigation of this petition con- 
sumed time ; but, at length, the committee 
reported Mr. O'Connell duly elected. The 
Emancipation act was now passed, and was 
the law of the land. O'Connell, thereupon, 
held himself entitled to go in and take his 
seat, subject only to the new oaths. For 
this purpose, he repaired to the House, on 
the 15th of May, was introduced in the usu- 
al form by Lords Ebrington and Duncan- 
non, and walked to the table to be sworn by 
the Clerk. But Sir Robert Peel, had pru- 
dently provided against this in the new law ; 
which admitted only those who should, 
" after the commencement of that act be re- 
turned as members of the House of Com- 
mons," to take their seats under the new 
oaths. It was a mean piece of spite ; and 
its special object was, to give Sir Robert 
an opportunity of snubbing O'Connell one 
lust time, before yielding Gnally to his im- 
perious demand. 

Accordingly, the Clerk of the House ten- 
dered to the new member the now-abrogated 
oaths — one being the oath of Supremacy, 
(namely, that the King of England is head 
of the Church,) and the other, "that the 
Sacrifice of the Mass is impious and idola- 
trous," and so forth. He refused to take 
these oaths : he was then heard at the bar 
of the House, where he claimed his right to 
sit and vote : his claim was dissallovved by 
a vote : the old oaths were once more ten- 
dered to him : he read over the stupid trash 
in an audible voice ; then said, raising his 
head, that he declined to take that oath, 
because " one part of it he knew to be false, 
and another he did not believe to be true." 
A new writ was then issued to hold an elec- 
tion for the County Clare. 

The series of measures called " Emanci- 
pate " consisted of three acts of Parlia- 



ment. The first, an act for suppression of 
the Catholic Association, as an illegal and 
dangerous society ; the second an act for 
the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling 
freeholders in Ireland (not in England, 
where that qualification was retained) — and 
third, the Relief act proper, abolishing the 
old oaths against transubstantiation, &C., 
and substituting another very long and in- 
genious oath (for Catholics only) testifying 
allegiance to the Crown ; promising to main- 
tain the Hanoverian settlement and succes- 
sion ; declaring that it is no article of the 
Catholic faith " that Princes excommuni- 
cated by the Pope may be depose'd or mur- 
dered by their subjects ; that neither the 
Pope nor any other foreign prince has any 
temporal or civil jurisdiction within the 
realm ; promising to defend the settlement 
of property as established by law ; solemnly 
disclaiming, disavowing, and abjuring ' any 
intention to subvert the present church estab- 
lishment as settled by law;' and engaging 
never to exercise any privilege conferred by 
that act ' to disturb or weaken the Protes- 
tant religion or Protestant government.' " 

The act admitted Catholics, on taking 
this oath, to be members of any lay body- 
corporate, and to do corporate acts, and vote 
at corporate elections ; but not to join in a 
vote for presentation to a benefice in the 
gift of any corporation. 

The act farther most formally affirmed 
and preserved the great principle of Protes- 
tant Ascendancy, by specially excluding 
Catholics from the high offices of Lord-Lieu- 
tenant and Lord Chancellor ; the former 
being the officer who makes nearly all ap- 
pointments in Ireland, and exercises the royal 
power to pardon— or not to pardon ; the 
latter being the person who decides on the 
guardianship of minors, and orders in what 
religion they are to be brought up, in the 
absence of express directions from their pa- 
rents. The Lord Chancellor also has con- 
trol over the commissions of magistrates, 
and cancels them at his pleasure, thus con- 
trolling, in a very great degree, the admin- 
istration of justice. 

Bearing in mind these important provis- 
ions and exceptions — and, further, that the 
Anglican Church still continued the estab- 
lished religion of the land, and still devoured 



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the Catholic people by its exactious — it 
is tolerably clear that by the Relief bill 
Catholics were not quite half emancipated. 

But the most fatal blow to the liberties 
of the Irish people was the contemporaneous 
act for disfranchisement of the forty-shilling 
freeholders ; and for raising the county 
qualification to £10 a year — five times the 
qualification required in England. Only 
seventeen members of the House of Com- 
mons voted against this grievous injustice. 
It was introduced by Sir Robert Peel, on 
the ostensible ground that there was too 
great a disposition on the part of Irish 
landlords to divide their land into minute 
portions ; that the franchise was a mere in- 
strument with which the landed aristocracy 
exercised power aud control over the elec- 
tions ; and that this control had lately passed 
into the hands of the priests, (which was 
worse,) and he cited as an example what had 
lately taken place in Louth and Monaghan 
and Waterford. In other words, he would 
disfranchise those small farmers because they 
->bad shown themselves capable of defying 
landlord control and acting independently. 
Amongst those who opposed this measure 
were Lord Duncannon, Lord Palmerston, 
and Mr. Huskisson. Their argument was, 
" If the forty-shilling freeholders had been 
corrupt, like those of Penrhyn, their dis- 
franchisement might be defended ; but the 
only offence of the persons against whom the 
bill was directed had been that they exer- 
cised their privilege honestly and independ- 
ently, according to their conscience."* 

It is singular that O'Connell said not a 
word at any meeting, nor wrote any letter, 
protesting against this wholesale abolition 
of the civil and political rights of those to 
whom he owed his election for Clare. He 
thus consented by his silence to see cut away 
from under his own feet the very ground- 
work and material of all effective political 
action in Ireland; and often, afterwards, had 
occasion, as Ireland also had, to lament the 
impotence and futility of all patriotic effort 
"or the real advancement of their country, in 




MEANING AND SPIRIT OF THE BELIEF ACT. 



consequence of the destruction of the forty- 
shilling freeholders. Many thousands of 
these freeholders, and of their children, are 
now working on canals and railroads in 
America. The new and cheap ejectment 
laws were in full force ; and were soon to 
act with fatal effect. 

We can now appreciate in some measure 
the true spirit in which " Catholic Emanci- 
pation " was effected. It was "to avert 
civil war" said the Duke of Wellington ; it 
was " to avoid greater dangers " said Sir 
Robert Peel. It was emphatically not to do 
justice, nor to repair a wrong. In the 
words of an eminent French writer on Irish 
affairs f nothing is more certain, than that 
neither the King nor his Ministers intended 
to do an act of justice and reparation to- 
wards the Catholics ; the bill of 1829 was 
nothing else than a concession wrested from 
them by circumstances; which the King would 
never have consented to, if he had found 
Ministers decided— even at the cost of a 
civil war, to perpetuate an iniquity of three 
centuries, and which his Ministers would never 
have proposed if they had not apprehended 
that civil war, in the interest of the Protest- 
ant establishment itself. Now when a con- 
cession has been extorted by force, and is 
not a spontaneous homage to truth and jus- 
tice, those who grant it may, perhaps, respect 
it as to its mere letter ; but certainly tiny 
will not loyally comply with its spirit. When 
we see their practical application of it, it is 
evident that they desire to hold back' with 
one hand what they have been obliged to 
bestow with the other ; and that deeply re- 
gretting the necessity they have had to 
obey, when that necessity becomes less ur- 
gent, they observe only so much of their 
engagement as is needful to save them from 
the charge of perjury. Hence comes 
it also that there is so little gratitude 
manifested for this concession — and in 
truth, those may dispense with gratitude 
who owe only to fear, " a little justice 
and a little freedom." 

t Le Pere Perraud. Eludes sur VIrlande con- 
temporaine. 



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CHAPTER LV. 
1829—1840. 

Results of the Relief Act— O'Connell Reelected for 
Clare— Drain of Agricultural Produce — Educated 
Class Of Catholics Kought— The Tithe War -Lord 
Anglcsea Viceroy — O'Connell's Associations — 
— Anglesea's Proclamations — Prosecution of O'- 
Connell— National Education — Tithe-Tragedies — 
Newtownbarry — Carrickshock — Change of Dynasty 
in France — Reform Agitation in England— What 
Reform Meant in Ireland — Cholera — Resistance to 
Tithe— Lord's Grey's Coercion Act — Abolition of 
Negro Slavery — Church Temporalities Act — Re- 
peal Debate — Surplus Population — Surplus Pro- 
duce Titlie-Cain;iL'c at liatheuriuack— t^ueen Vic- 
toria's Accession — Three Measures Against Ireland 
Poor Law — Tithe Law — Municipal Reform — Castle 
Sheriffs. 

Imperfect and stinted and guarded as the 

Catholic Emancipation act was, it was, 
nevertheless, fell in Ireland to be a great 
triumph and noble achievement of O'Connell, 
who at once rose to the highest pinnacle of 
popular favor. The Catholics almost wor- 
shipped him, as their Heaven-sent deliverer ; 
and the partizans of the good old tradition- 
ary Protestant Ascendancy thought the end 
of the world was at hand. The sword 
brandished in the hand of Walker's statue, 
standing upon a lofty column on a bastion 
of Derry walls, fell down with a crash, and 
was shivered to pieces, upon the very 
day when His Majesty, George IV., 
placed his signature on the Emancipation 
net ; which lie did not do, however, without 
having first broken ami trampled upon a 
pen which was handed to him for that pur- 
pose, in a highly dramatic manner, and with 
the most perfect mimicry of deep feeling. 
Sir Hareourt Lees, for his part, thought the 
time was now at last surely come to " put 
down Popery " by act of Parliament, and to 
send the " A rch- Agitator " to the Tower. 

As for O'Connell himself, and the more 
thoughtful amongst his friends and support- 
ers of the Catholic Association, they saw 
too well that little or nothing was gained. 
Not only was their civil and political in- 
feriority maintained and formally reasserted ; 
bill the great, body of brave farmers, who 
had frightened tint "empire" by their inde- 
pendence, was swept out of civil existence 
at a blow. It at once became evident to 
0"Couuell that there was no salvation for 



Inland but in a repeal of the odious and 
fraudulent Union. On his return to Ireland, 
as if sensible that what had been already 
effected for his country was rather apparent 
than real, he declared openly that the next 
victory to be achieved must be the repeal 
of the Union. Both at Ennis and at 
Youghal he made speeches enforcing the ne- 
cessity of this great measure, and promising 
never to rest until it should be accomplished; 
a pledge which, indeed, he labored all his 
life to redeem. 

On the passage of the law disfranchising 
the forty-shilling freeholders, orders had 
been at once sent to Ireland to commence a 
"registration" of those who still retained 
the franchise, possessing a freehold of £10 
yearly value. This haste was for the pur- 
pose of acting as soon as practicable upon 
Irish elections, and, if possible, defeating 
O'Connell when he should again present 
himself in Clare under the new writ, lie 
was not opposed, however, on his second 
election at Clare, and was again sent back 
to Parliament, with all the qualifications re- 
quired even by the new law. He did* not 
at once take his seat, as Parliament was 
prorogued on the 24th of June. 

This year, Ireland was said to be in an 
"alarming" state — there was "crime and 
outrage" in several counties, and especially 
in Tipperary. In fact, the old exaction of 
tithes not only continued to be enforced, 
but was pressed with even increased rigor, 
seeing that Papists had become so insolent. 
The consequence was the most natural in the 
world — some tithe-proctors were forced to 
cat their processes, and also had their ears 
cut off. The Tipperary magistrates as- 
sembled in great alarm, and demanded the 
immediate application of the " Insurrection 
act," for they could not understand how 
people should thus resist payment of their 
lawful tithes, unless there were a conspiracy 
to subvert the Protestant government and 
bring in the Pope. 

In truth, there was throughout the is- 
land, a very unsettled and uneasy condition 
of the popular mind. Men were told that 
they were " relieved " and " emancipated," 
but they felt no advantage from it whatso- 
ever. They tried to feel pride in the vic- 
tory, which they were assured they had 






I 



1 1 



mm 




•jftNG .CVUNIilii.il, 



EDUCATED CLASSES OF CATHOLICS BOUGHT. 



511 



\i 



ESfeea 



won over a British Ministry ; but in the 
meantime, they found themselves very gen- 
erally disfranchised ; and what was worse — 
landlords were refusing to make new leases 
of farms, and were breaking the existing 
leases where they could ; having no longer 
the motive to rear up a small freehold pop- 
ulation for the hustings. The chairmen 
of quarter-sessions, and the sheriffs and 
bailiffs, were busy with their ejectments ; 
and pauperism began extensively to prevail. 
The seasons, indeed, had been for some 
time rather favorable ; and grain and cattle 
were abundant ; but the British system had 
now been so well established in our island, 
that all this wealth of bounteous nature 
flowed off instantly to England, and the 
price of it also. All went the same way. 
The export of agricultural produce to Eng- 
land out of Ireland, had grown so enor- 
mous within the past few years, that it had 
been judged expedient in 1820, to place 
that trade " on the footing of a coasting 
trade." In other words, no cnstom-house 
accounts were to be kept of it ; and the 
amount of it was thus concealed for many 
years. In that year, 1826, however, the 
exports to England, had been to the value 
of almost eight millions in corn and cattle. 
It was but small benefit to the Irish people 
to have favorable seasons and plenteous 
harvests ; their wealth not only made itself 
wings and flew to England ; but as tenancy- 
at-will now became the fashion, landlords 
increased rents in proportion to increased 
produce ; and then went to England — the 
centre of political action and fashionable 
life, to spend those improved rents. Por 
all this there was no remedy in emancipa- 
tion. 

It soon became evident also, that the ef- 
fects of the Relief act would be disastrous in 
another respect. Parliament and the Judicial 
Bench being now opened, (always with the 
exception of the place of Lord Chancellor,) 
to aspiring Catholics of the educated class, 
their interests and sympathies became separ- 
ated from those of their countrymen. Un- 
doubtedly, this result had been calculated 
by the prudent statesman who accomplished 
the Belief measure ; and his plan succeeded 
but too well. That plan may by described 
in general terms, as a plan for corrupting 



the higher classes, and extirpating the 
lower ; and emancipation, disfranchising the 
latter, and offering bribes to the former, 
was admirably calculated to buy over to 
the British interests, such as aspired to the 
offices and emoluments dispensed by Eng- 
land, and to make them forget the duty 
they owed to their own countrymen, and 
the honor and welfare of their native land. 
Since that day, therefore, we have seen 
constantly more and more of the higher 
class of Catholics, in various positions hdjt- 
ing England to govern — that is to pillage 
and depopulate — this ill-fated island. Since 
that day, have been many Catholic members 
of Parliament ; — they have solicited places 
for useful constituents — Catholic Attorney- 
Generals — they have packed juries to "do 
the King's business." Catholic judges — 
they have sat complacently on the bench, 
and permitted those juries to be packed, 
and pretended to try their fellow-country- 
men before those packed juries, to glut the 
vengeance of a government, which cannot 
bear to be disquieted while clearing off its 
" surplus population." In other words, 
those members of Parliament, attorney- 
generals and judges, have sold themselves 
for money and station, to a Government 
which they know to be the mortal euemy 
of their countrymen and kinsmen, and have 
abandoned those countrymen and kinsmen 
to certain slaughter and extermination. 

Such have been the substantial results of 
the "Relief Measures" of 1829; and 
O'Connell had good reason for his conclu- 
sion, that no effectual service could be ren- 
dered to the country, short of annulling the 
union with England. 

The discontent and disappointment of the 
people, (who found that emancipation did 
not save them from starvation,) found vent 
in occasional deeds of violence ; and, always 
for the old reasons — ruthless seizures for 
tithe, and wholesale ejectment of tenants. 
Many thousands of farmers, now found 
themselves emancipated, but disfranchised, 
and in imminent danger of being ejected 
and thrown out on the highways. They 
were capable by law of holding high office, 
but exposed, in fact,- to see their children 
perishing by hunger and hardship. The 
crimes committed iu Ireland, have nearly 






Rs 



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m 




512 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



, v , 1 




always one specific character, and one ob- 
vious motive and provocation ; their victims 
have been almost uniformly tithe-proctors, 
who seized upon the small store of the poor 
— or landlords or agents who cleared estates 
— or incoming tenants, who rented farms 
from which others had been ejected. Mur- 
ders for money, from jealousy, or in person- 
al quarrel, have been at all times, much 
more rare in Ireland than in England ; and, 
indeed, the lamentable acts of violence 
which did occur, were generally perpetrated 
by men who had not previously known the 
doomed victim ; and in obedience to the de- 
cree of a secret society. The hapless peo- 
ple of the country had long felt and expe- 
rienced that the laws were made not for 
them but agaiust them ; they had long been 
accustomed to see law at one side, and jus- 
tice at the other ; they could not perceive 
why there should be any law, compelling 
them to pay clergymen whom they never 
saw, and at whose services they would shud- 
der to assist ; nor why there should be a 
law to fling them out from the little farm, 
which they had improved and rendered fer- 
tile by the sweat of their brows. Hence 
the series of secret combinations, with their 
own judicial sentences and desperate execu- 
tions. Tliese proceedings, however, always 
drew down upon the peasantry of the neigh- 
borhood, a most ferocious and disproportion- 
ate vengeance, and formed the excuse for 
keeping Arms acts and Iusurrectiou acts 
almost iu permanence. 

The grievance of tithes, and the whole of 
that monstrous iniquity, called the Establish- 
ed Church, seemed to be felt by the people, 
with even more intensity of irritation, since 
they were told that they were now " eman- 
cipated," and that there was an end of Pro- 
testant Ascendancy. What this emancipa- 
tion might be, they did not well understand, 
and knew no other result from it, than that 
they were deprived of their franchise, and 
could, therefore, get no more leases. And 
they thought that they saw Protestant As- 
cendancy all around them as rampant as 
ever. Protestant Ascendancy was always 
at their doors ; it entered their cabins, and 
carried off their pans and pots, their calves, 
and pigs, to satisfy a Protestant rector ; 
Protestant magistrates (who were in the 



great majority,) were always ready to brow- 
beat them from the bench, and to send po- 
licemen to search their beds for concealed 
arms ; Protestant jurors always met them 
in the courts of justice, and proved to them 
that the laws of the land were not for 
them. If sometimes, therefore, these pec- 
pie desperately took the law into their own 
hands, or even associated together, to be a 
kind of law unto themselves, and executive 
also — dismal as such a state of society cer- 
tainly is, the whole blame of it rests upon 
that unjust and savage system of dealing 
with Ireland, which was called " govern- 
ment," aud of which, a faint outline ouly 
has been traced in these pages. 

King George IV. died in 1830 ; and 
was succeeded by his brother King Wil- 
liam IV. ; — an event of little or no interest 
to Ireland. 

The next year was occupied in England, 
by a most energetic agitation for a Reform 
in Parliament ; — an affair which also con- 
cerned Ireland extremely little. The Re- 
form was to consist chiefly in disfranchising 
old boroughs, which had become ruinoiurand 
almost uninhabited ; and giviug the franchise 
to large centres of population, which had 
never returned members of Parliament be- 
fore. Excitement on this question ran very 
high throughout the other island, but did not 
extend iu any great measure to Ireland, 
whose proportions of representation had 
been fixed by the act of Union. O'Counell 
aud the other Catholic and Liberal Irish 
members, all supported the "Reform" Min- 
istry, and helped to carry the measure in 
1832 ; imagining, probably, that Ireland 
would thereby establish a claim upon the 
popular party in England, for support and 
friendly sympathy iu asserting her own 
rights — an expectation which was signal- 
ly disappointed. 

On the 4th of February, 1830, Parlia- 
ment opened, but was soon dissolved, and a 
new election took place. This time, O'Cou- 
nell abandoned Clare, aud achieved another 
brilliant victory over the Beresford interest 
at Waterford. A considerable number of 
Catholics now entered Parliament for the 
first time ; O'Gorman Mahon for Clare, 
Richard More O'Ferrall for Kildare, Lord 
Killeen for Meath, &c. Mr. Smith CBrieu 





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continued to represent Ennis ; and was a 
most atteutive and industrious member of 
Parliament ; acting on most questions 
with the Whig party, and sincerely cherish- 
ing the delusion, (which he afterwards had 
to give up,) that Whigs were more friendly 
to right and justice in Ireland, than Tories. 
In the beginning of 1830, the Duke of 
Northumberland was Lord-Lieutenant. On 
the change of Ministry, the Marquis of An- 
glesea, was again sent over as Viceroy ; and 
Lord Plunket was made Lord Chancellor, an 
office which he discharged with great abil- 
ity for many years. He had by this 
time forgotten that the Union was a nullity 
and a fraud, which his sons were to be sworn 
to resist and annul. One of his sons became 
a Bishop by the gracious appointment of the 
King. Yet Mr. Plunket was right in de- 
nouncing the Union as a nullity and a fraud ; 
and if he had been thoroughly honest, he 
would now have been found by O'Connell's 
side, demanding the restoration of an inde- 
pendent Irish Legislature. 

During the course of this year, there was 
established a " Society of the Friends of 
Ireland." It was nothing but the Catholic 
Association under another name ; and its 
object was to agitate the repeal of the 
Union. But the course pursued by Mr. 
O'Conncll, since the Relief act had occa- 
sioned violent irritation in England, amongst 
both Whigs and Tories. That, after so 
generous and noble a concession as emanci- 
pation was represented to be — which was to 
have fully satisfied the Irish people, and 
filled them with rejoicing " loyalty " — that, 
instead of gratitude and loyal contentment, 
there should immediately spring up a new 
and acrimonious agitation, openly aiming at 
the " dismemberment of the empire," seem- 
ed to those Whigs and Tories, an example 
of the basest ingratitude. O'Connell, too, 
whose deportment in Parliament was per- 
fectly dignified and business-like, when he 
came to Ireland, and found himself the cen- 
tre of a great meeting of his countrymen, 
often used violent and denunciatory lan- 
guage concerning political opponents ; and 
even sometimes turned into ridicule, some 
grave and reverend Tory, or some sneaking 
and intriguing Whig. 

In short, it was decided by the adminis- 
65 



tration, all liberal as it was, to put a stop 
to the "Arch-Agitator's" exciting proceed- 
ings ; and as the " Friends of Ireland" fell, 
undoubtedly, under the former act, for sup SD ii 

pressing illegal associations, the Viceroy was 
instructed to "proclaim it under that act, 
and threaten prosecution." The society 
was, as usual, at once dissolved, and was at 
once succeeded by the "Anti-Union Asso- 
ciation." O'Connell omitted no opportuni- 
ty of insisting upon a restoration of the 
Irish Parliament, and demonstrating the 
necessity of that measure — which made him 
more popular and powerful in Dublin, than 
he had ever been before. For it was in 
Dublin chiefly that the repeal spirit then 
existed ; the country-people, and the pro- 
vincial towns, were not yet aroused on that 
question ; but the metropolis appreciated it 
at once. There was to be held on the 27th 
of December, a great assembly and proces- 
sion of the trades of Dublin, with the ex- 
press object of complimenting Mr. O'Con- 
nell for his advocacy of an Irish Parliament. 
The bands were to form at Phibsborough, 
in the suburbs of Dublin, and march with 
their banners and insignia into the city, to 
O'Connell's house ; where they were to pre- 
sent him with an address. This procession 
of peaceful and unarmed meu, appeared to 
Lord Anglesea, too perillous a thing to be 
permitted, with due regard to the peace of 
the city ; and he issued a proclamation 
absolutely forbidding the assembly. This, 
of course, implied an intention of dispersing 
it by force. By O'Connell's advice, there- 
fore, the meeting was not held. 

This was but the beginning of a long 
contest between the Arch-Agitator and the 
Marquis of Anglesea, the former, using 
every legal device and contrivance, to make 
for the people some occasion of meeting, 
and expressing their sentiments, and the 
Marquis regularly laying on the heavy 
hand of power, and menacing unarmed citi- 
zens with military violence. Mr. O'Connell 
was uumeasured enough in the terms of 
very natural resentment, which he applied 
to Lord Anglesea, and the whole Whig 
government, whom he characterized, as 
"base, brutal, and bloody Whigs." But 
while he could use indignant language, the 
Lord-Lieuteuaut had all the practical advan- 






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514 



HISTORY OP IRELAND. 



tagcs in such a contest ; he had his sheriffs 
and juries at hand, and the court of King's 
Bench always open— so that anything was 
an •' illegal and dangerous association " 
which he might choose to prosecute ; — he 
had the garrison of Dublin constantly ready 
tor action ; and besides these things, the 
noble Marquis opened O'Connell's letters in 
the Post Office, as well as letters addressed 
to him, in order that he might know who 
were his correspondents, what were his de- 
signs, and what were his resources. The 
Marquis had the letters always resealed 
with the utmost care, with counterfeited 
Beak, so that the persons receiving the let- 
ters should not. suspect they had been open- 
ed and so be put on their guard.* 

The next name under which Mr. O'Con- 
nell made his association appear was the 
Irish Volunteers, for repeal of the Union ; 
but this had no better fate than the rest. 
When it was " proclaimed," however, and 
commanded not, to meet, Mr. O'Connell, for 
once, did not. submit. lie said -and this 
was true — that a proclamation could not 
make law ; and pledged himself, as a 
lawyer, that his organization was perfectly 
legal, as it was. lie, therefore, and many 
of his usual attendants, went and held the 
meeting. Thereupon, O'Connell, together 
with Mr. Lawless, Mr. Steele, Mr. Barrett, 
Mr. Redmond, Mr. Olooney, and two or 
three others, were forthwith arrested, and 
brought before magistrates, where they were 
required to give bail. On issuing from the 
magistrate's Office, the Arch-Agitator found 

* The Marquis of Anglesea is first, on the list of 
letter-spies, winch was hiiil liefore Parliament ia 
1844, lint that list extends ever a period of only 
eleven years, it was avowed by Ministers that the 
Post Office espionnage hail existed long before Lord 
Anglesea's time— as it certainly existed long alter 
tlr.it .of Earl cle liny, in 1st.'.. Earl de (trey is the 

last of the letter-spies mentioned in the return. 
That return, however, has taken care not to inform 
as whose letters wire thus opened ami oopled. It 

only Rives a list of tlie Viceroys. Chancellors, Arch- 
bishops, ami Lord-Justices, who did order such man- 
ipulations of letters, ami the years in which tlicy so 
ordered it. It. appears that such warrants were con- 
stantly in existence for ten years oui of the eleven; 
hut we arc not informed as to the numbers of the 
persons whose correspondence was thus investigat- 
ed ; nor any of their names. O'Connell was, of 
course, one ; ami it was in the very height of the 
contest waged with O'Connell to put down his 
several associations that the Marquis of Anglesea is 
first returned as a letter-spy. 



a grent crowd in the streets ; made them 
a speech, of course — " Yesterday," he ex- 
claimed, " I was only half an agitator — 
to-day 1 am a whole one. Day and night 
will 1 now strive to fling off despotism, to 
redeem my country, to repeal the Union." 

The prosecution proceeded ; and as Mr. 
O'Connell knew perfectly well that he could 
have no chance before a Castle jury properly 
arranged, which would be sure to liud him 
at once guilty of whatever he should be 
charged withal, he dexterously delayed the 
striking of the jury, and gained time. The 
Orange party was in vehement excitement ; 
and it. need scarcely be. added that in 
England all parties were charmed with the 
idea of having the loud-tongued agitator 
locked up in a jail for a misdemeanor. After 
some ingenuity in pleading, O'Connell 
allowed judgment to go by default upon 
several of the counts ; that is, substantially 
pleaded guilty on those counts. lie knew 
lie might as well do so, as he would be 
arraigned before a sure jury ; and all the 
world waited till he should be called up 
for sentence. Hut he was never«called 
up for sentence. It happened just then that 
llie Whig Ministry was straining every 
nerve to secure a good majority for their 
Reform ; and O'Connell, and those others 
whom he could influence, or. who would be, 
revolted by any severity exercised towards 
him, were not allies to be thrown away for 
the sake of gratifying the Orangemen. For 
I hat. time, therefore, legal proceedings 
against the agitator went no further. 

The year 1S31 was marked by the estab- 
lishment of the national system of education 
in Ireland, in pursuance of a bill introduced 
by Lord Stanley. Two years after, (1833,) 
the grants of public money for the educa- 
tion of the poor, which had previously been 
enjoyed by the Kildare Place School So- 
ciety and other proselytizing institutions, 
were intrusted to the Lord-Lieutenant, to 
be expended on the instruction of children 
of all sects, under the superintendence of 
commissioners appointed by the Crown, and 
called "Commissioners of National Educa- 
tion.'' Two years afterwards, ( 1835,) these 
commissioners were incorporated with power 
to hold lands. The ostensible principles of 
this new establishment were " Liber 







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there was to be no interference with the 
religious creed of any pupil ; and clergymen 
of each denomination wen; to be allowed 
the opportunity of giving religious instruc- 
tions to the children of their respective 
faiths. 

But practically the Government took 
good care that, both on the first establish- 
ment of the board and ever since, the great 
majority of the commissioners should be 
Protestants. The scheme was intended to 
take into the bauds of the British Govern- 
ment the formation of the minds of young 
Irishmen, and the moulding of their first im- 
pressions, in such a way that they might 
forget they were Irish, and feel and think 
ns like English children as possible. Their 
reading lessons have been carefully edited to 
this end ; most of them by Dr. Wheatley, 
nn Englishman, and others by Mr. Carlisle, 
a Scotchman. The intention was not so 
much to convert Catholic children as to de- 
nationalize them. 

It had been for long ages prohibited to 
the Irish Catholics to be educated at all, 
under heavy penalties. When these penal 
laws had disappeared, and the British 
Government found that the Irish were very 
desirous to educate their children, that 
Government resolved, if they must be taught, 
to teach them itself, and especially to keep 
them as much as possible ignorant of the 
history of their own country — a very pru- 
dent and politic design, if it could only have 
been accomplished. 

For the rest, these national schools have 
been tolerably well conducted ; but in dis- 
tricts where the population is of mixed 
religions, Catholic children, for the most 
part, have received no benefit from them, 
on account of the objections of the Catholic 
clergy against mixed education. In other 
districts, where Catholics form the whole 
population, these objections did not practi- 
cally apply. 

In 1850, there were nearly five thousand 
schools under this board, and five hundred 
and eleven thousand two hundred and thirty 
nine scholars. 

The tit lut war raged violently this year — 
the people were becoming more and more 
indisposed to pay Protestant rectors, especi- 
ally in the South of Ireland, where those 




NATIONAL EDUCATION— TITHE TRAGEDIES. 



rectors often have no flocks. On the banks 
of the Slaney, on the very border between 
Wexford and Carlow County, and at the 
foot of the stately Mount Leinster, stands 
the little town of Newtownbarry. Ou the 
18th of June, 1831, this usually quiet vil- 
lage was the scene of a bloody tithe-tragedy. 
The Rev. Mr. McClintock would have his 
tithe ; and by aid of the police and yeoman- 
ry, he had seized the crops and goods of 
several persons in the neighborhood. These 
things were to be auctioned in Newtown- 
barry market-place on the market-day. Be- 
fore that day anonymous written notices 
were sent to many persons in the country, 
requesting them to come in and attend the 
sale of their neighbors' pigs, beds and ket- 
tles. Considerable numbers of people at- 
tended in consequence, but not armed : their 
object being only to keep all persons back 
from bidding at this auction. It was known 
that large crowds had come in and that the 
forced sale must almost certainly produce a 
collision. But the Ilev. Mr. McClintock 
would have his rights. The property seized 
was brought into town guarded by a large 
force of constabulary, who were to be su|>- 
ported, if needful by another large force of 
yeomanry. The sale opened ; the people 
pressed forward, and kept away, by a show 
of intimidation, the few who might have 
been disposed to purchase. At last, the 
police attacked the unarmed multitudes ; 
were seconded with great alacrity by the 
yeomanry ; and very soon thirteen slain men 
and twenty wounded were lying in their 
blood on the street of Newtownbarry. No 
person was ever brought to punishment for 
this slaughter. Indeed, it was felt by the 
Orange party, that the Rev. Mr. McClin- 
tock had only shown proper spirit iu vindi- 
cating his right — that this course of intimi- 
dation had gone too far — and that it was 
lime an example should be made ; more 
moderate persous, however, even of the Es- 
tablished Church, could not but think it 
unfortunate that ministers of religion should 
so often have to wring their blood-stained 
dues out of the very vitals of parishioners 
who hate them and all their works 

Six months after the affair of Newt 
barry, befel the other tithe- slaughter 
Carrickshock. Certain moneys were due 



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M¥f| g %l 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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tithe to the Rev. Hans Hamilton, rector of 
Knocktophcr, in the County Kilkenny ; a 
jirocess-server was sent out to serve the 
needful documents, and this functionary was 
protected l>y a large force of armed police. 
The people assembled in considerable and 
still-increasing numbers, their object being 
to get hold of the bailiff and force him to 
"eat the latitats" — papers of that nature 
being supposed in those parts to be the na- 
tural food of process-servers. Menacing 
crowds of country-people gathered around 
the line of march of the officer and his 
'escort ; and when they arrived at a bare 
and descilate tract called the Common of 
Carrickshock, traversed by a lane which 
is bordered by a low wall, iu most places 
broken down, the demands of the people to 
have the process-server delivered up to them 
became pressing and loud. At length, a 
young man sprang into the lane, seized the 
process-server, and endeavored to carry him 
off, out of the hands of his protectors. He 
was instantly shot dead. Then there was a 
general onslaught — the people had armed 
themselves with a species of short pikes, and 
they fell upon the police with fury. Eleven 
of the constables were killed, and a good 
many of the people also ; but the legal doc- 
uments were not served that day. It was 
fast becoming evident that some measures 
must be adopted to prevent these sanguin- 
ary collisions. 

In England the resistance of the Irish to 
levies for tithes was, as usual, represented as 
the evidence of a deep Popish conspiracy to 
overturn the Protestant Church ; and the 
Whigs were almost as much excited by this 
idea as the Tories. The voluminous Tory 
historian, Alison, discovered indeed, for once 
that "the Pope's influence in Ireland" was 
on the present occasion beneficial : inasmuch 
as " The Vatican threw off the mask, and 
measures were commenced evidently intend- 
ed to destroy the Protestant Establishment 
iu Ireland, and open the door to the re- 
placing of the Catholic faith in these 
realms." Thus, English Whigs drew off in 
some measure from their association with 
the Irish Catholics ; and this weakened the 
party of reform. The Cholera, also, raged 
all through the summer of 1832 ; and this, 
according to the same historian, was another 



beneficial event, as it sensibly abated the 
reform mania. 

The King, however, in a speech from the 
Throne, recommended attention to the 
question of tithes ; and a committee of the 
Lords was appointed to investigate and re- 
port upon it. They reported in favor of 
commuting the tithe to a charge upon land. 
In the debate on reception of this report, it 
was stated that the arrears of tithes due 
but not recoverable in the four dioceses of 
Ossory, Leighlin, Cashel, and Ferns, were 
computed at £84,954. A law was, in the 
meantime, proposed and carried by Govern- 
ment, authorizing an issue from the consol- 
idated fund of a large sum of money fir 
relief of those clergymen who could not 
collect their tithes. A part of the county 
Tipperary was also proclaimed under the 
Coercion act then pending ; and Lord Grey 
was preparing a still more stringent Coercion 
act for the next year. 

Mr. O'Connell vehemently opposed the 
grant from the consolidated fund, which was 
accompanied by an authority to levy the 
amount due, in order to repay the aiTvance. 
This was, in fact, the Government assuming 
upon itself the function of the tithe-proctor 
and the bailiff, with the aid of all the troops 
and police ; and it was plainly intended to 
make a few salutary examples of slaughter. ■ 
Throughout the Parliamentary discussions 
on these questions, there does not appear 
to have been the slightest intention on the 
part of either party to relieve Ireland from 
the burden of the Established Church ; all 
their anxiety was how to insure to the 
clergy their income out of the pockets of the 
people in some way which it would be im- 
possible to resist or evade. On the other 
hand, O'Connell declared in Parliament — 
"The Irish people are determined to get 
rid of tithes, and get rid of them they will." 

l>ut the resistance of the farmers was 
carried on peacefully ; and generally consist- 
ed in deterring purchasers at tithe-sales by 
the demonstration of a resolute public 
opinion. The same force operated to pre- 
vent neighbors from aiding to remove crops 
or other things, even in case they should have 
been nominally sold. It cannot be denied 
that this force was nothing but a very 
manifest intimidation, and would have been 



I 




quite unjustifiable if the claim for tithe had 
been just. 

The next year Lord Grey brought for- 
ward his CBercion bill, and the Tories not 
[j/\ , only supported it with alacrity, but hailed it 
with joy, as a proof that the most "liberal" 
of English reformers had eome round to 
their poliey for the government of Ireland ; 
and, in fact, since that day English Tories 
and English Whigs have generally been in 
the most gratifying accord upon coercion 
bills for Ireland. However, they may differ 
upon other matters, they are an unit 
whenever it is a question of dragooning 
the Irish. 

The Coercion acts are all very /like one 
another ; but this one contained the new 
y provision that the Viceroy might suppress 
and disperse any meeting which he should 
deem dangerous to the public peace. The 
bill contained the usual powers and penal- 
tics — the Lord-Lieutenant might "proclaim" 
any district — all persons in proclaimed dis- 
tricts to remain within doors from one hour 
'after sunset until sunrise, and also to 
abstain from attending any meeting whatso- 
ever. No meeting was to be held, even to 
petition Parliament, without ten days' 
previous notice to the Lord-Lieutenant, and 
his sanction to hold such meeting. The 
proclaimed districts were to be subject to 
martial law ; every offender was to be tried 
before a court-martial ; and all officers of 
justice and military on duty were (in such 
proclaimed district,) to have authority to 
enter houses at any hour and search for 
arms. The writ of Habeas Corpus was to 
be suspended for three months after the 
arrest of any person, as respected that 
person. 

These atrocious provisions for torturing 
the people, and for repressing even all 
open and peaceful expressions of opinion, 
continued to be the law of the land for 
five years. This law was then succeeded 
by another law of the same kind ; and that 
by another and another. It might be sup- 
plied that the British Parliament might as 
Well pa^s a perpetual Coercion act for 
Ireland at once, and take away altogether 
the writ of Habeas Corpus ■ but such a 
measure as this would be supposed to be 
too abhorrent to the spirit of the British 



Constitution. The Coercion acts, therefore, 
are all proposed for a limited time, and a 
hope is regularly expressed, by the member 
of the Government who introduces one 
of them, that the time is approaching when 
these "exceptional" measures will be no 
longer needful to the good-government and 
well-being of Ireland. 

In the same session, Parliament passed 
the act for abolishing negro slavery in tho 
British West Indies, and appropriated 
twenty millions sterling to compensate the 
planters. Of course, the money was bor- 
rowed, and added to the national debt ; a"hd 
England and Ireland have been paying the 
interest on it ever since. 

" The Church Temporalities act " for 
Ireland, was passed in the year 1833. It 
was introduced by Lord Althorpo, and be- 
came law on the 30th of July. His 
lordship stated the entire revenue of the 
Irish Church at £T32,000 sterling. The 
new act abolished ten Bishoprics, by con- 
solidating their sees with sees adjoining. 
The consolidation was to take place gradu- 
ally, on the death of Bishops. " Church- 
rates " were abolished. The revenues of the 
sees which were to cemain in existence were 
diminished ; and the Church property of the 
suppressed sees, together with the saving 
by diminished revenues, were estimated as 
creating a fund of £3,000,000, to be vested 
in a board of " Ecclesiastical Commissioners," 
to be expended for strictly ecclesiastical 
purposes ; the principle being that no 
Chnrch property could be alienated from 
its legal owners, and that the country was 
not to be relieved of any part of the burden 
of this enormous establishment. Accord- 
ingly, the people were not at all benefited 
by this act ; even the abolition of " Church- 
rates" was only a boon to the landlords, 
who immediately raised the rents to their 
tenants-at-will. 

Next was introduced and passed another 
bill, appropriating one million sterling to 
the parsons, in compensation for the tithes 
due and unpaid for three years. 

In 1834, O'Conuell commenced seriously 
the work of repeal of the Union, in Par- 
liament. 1 1 is first move was a proposal to 
appoint a committee to inquire into the 
conduct of Barou Smith, one of the 



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judges, whom he accused of introducing pol- 
itics into his charges from the bench. The 
committee was refused ; because it was 
held that an Irish judge could not avoid the 
subject of politics in his judicial addresses, 
seeing that Irish "crimes" were almost 
wholly of a political character. On the 
23d of April, O'Connell formally brought 
forward in Parliament, the question of re- 
pealing the Union. There followed a de- 
bate of four days. ITis chief opponent was 
Mr. Spring Rice, (afterwards Lord Mon- 
teagle,) who labored to prove that Ireland 
had largely profited by the Union ; and 
was at that moment enjoying exemption 
from several specific taxes which pressed 
upon Great Britain. In truth, according to 
his statistics, Ireland was growing rich, or 
at least ought to be, in consequence of the 
generous forbearance of the English people 
and Government, in burdening the other 
parts of the empire with imposts, which she 
had not to pay. 

But, notwithstanding statistics, the noto- 
rious truth was, that England was becoming 
always richer, and her people more luxu- 
rious in their style of living, while Ireland 
was fast sinking into destitution. The 
Irish rents spent by absentee-proprietors 
now amounted to more than four mil- 
lions. Manufacturers in Ireland, (with the 
single exception of linen,) no longer ex- 
isted. Extermination of tenantry, (or as 
the people were now always termed, "sur- 
plus population,") had increased to a dread- 
ful extent ; and those who had means to 
emigrate were flying from the country in 
wild terror. A writer in Blackwood's I\Jag- 
azint for January, 1833 — the writer being 
no other than Sir Archibald Alison — states 
that the emigration in 1831, from Ireland, 
amounted to eighteen thousand. The 
writer adds : " J\o reason can be assigned 
why it should not be one hundred and 
eighty thousand." From this time the 
leading idea of English statesmen and econ- 
omists was, to devise some way of getting 
rid ot the "surplus" people. 

Vet while the people were said to be sur- 
plus, the island in which they lived was 
steadily and rapidly increasing her export 
of provisions ; the export of grain and cat- 
tle into England, which had amounted in 



1826, to nearly eight millions sterling, had 
now been augmented by about one-half ; 
and this wasting process — shipping off men 
in one direction, and the food they had 
raised in another — went on developing itself, 
as we shall see, until the export of the sur- 
plus people reached three hundred thousand 
a year, and the export of the surplus food 
amounted to at least twenty millions ster- 
ling — Ireland being the only country known 
in ancient or in modern times, which had 
these two kinds of " surplus " for export at 
one time. It was so plainly demonstrated, 
however, in Parliament, by Mr. Spring 
Rice and other speakers, that the country 
was prospering under the Union, that 
O'Connell's motion was at once voted down. 
On the same occasion, the House of Peers 
not only rejected the proposition unanimous- 
ly, but addressed the King, declaring their 
firm resolution to maintain the " integrity 
of the empire." 

Various efforts were made in this and the 
following year to force upon Parliament 
some just measure for the reduction of the 
Irish Church Establishment. Mr. WariT, an 
English member, was especially zealous iu 
this cause ; but as these proposals were 
steadily resisted, and came to nothing 
whatever for several years, we need not oc- 
cupy ourselves with them here. The Church 
bill of Mr. Ward, contained what was called 
the " Appropriation clause," for devoting to 
state purposes, and the general improvement 
of the country, the funds to be curtailed 
from the wealth of the Church. This was 
the great stumbling-block to the, Tories, 
and to the House of Lords ; and the mea- 
sure was abandoned, 

The last scene of tithe-carnage, was en- 
acted at Itathcormack, a village in Water- 
ford County. It was on the 18th of De- 
cember, 1834. Seizure had been made 
upon the stackyard of a poor widow, to pay 
the Protestant rector. Her neighbors be 
came strongly excited ; aud assembled in 
crowds, with the apparent purpose of resist- 
ing the abstraction of the property. A 
narrow lane, or boreen, led up from the high- 
road to the widow's place. In this lane, the 
people had overturned a wagon to block up 
the way, and seemed resolved to defend 
their barricade. The officers of the law op- 






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proached, well supported by armed men, both 
police and military. There was some parley ; 
stones were thrown ; the Riot act was read ; 
and then orders were given to Are. A de- 
structive volley was poured in upon the un- 
armed crowd, many of them fell, killed and 
wounded ; and his reverence carried off, over 
the bleeding corpses, his tithe of the widow's 
sheaves. The excitement and indignation 
aroused by this " Rathcormack massacre," 
were profound and wide-spread. The com- 
binations amongst the peasantry to resist 
tithe-sales, and to prevent all persons from 
purchasing, at their own proper peril, be- 
came more organized and formidable. Doc- 
tor Maellale, Archbishop of Tuam, writing 
a public letter at this time to the Duke 
of Wellington, thus expresses himself : " All 
the united authorities, and the Senate, can 
never annex the conscientious obligations of 
law to enactments that are contrary to 
right, reason, and justice. And hence, the 
stubborn and unconquerable resistance of 
the people of Ireland to those odious acts — 
I will not call them laws — which have forc- 
ed l hem to pay tribute to the teachers of an 
adverse creed. I shall freely declare my 
own resolve. I have leased a small farm, 
just sufficient to qualify me for the exer- 
cise of the franchise. After paying the 
landlord his rent, neither to parson, proctor 
nor agent, shall I consent to pay, in the 
shape of tithe, or any other tax, a penny 
which shall go to the support of the great- 
est nuisance in this, or any other country." 
It may well be supposed, that such a declar- 
ation as this, coming from a reverend digni- 
tary of the Catholic Church — affirming that 
the Church laws were no laws, and that he 
himself would deny and defy them, greatly 
aggravated and encouraged the organized 
resistance of the people. If an attempt 
had been made to levy tithe from the Arch- 
bishop's farm, no man in the diocese would 
have dared to bid for his corn-sheaves. 

King William IV., died in June, 1831, 
and Queen Victoria reigned in his stead ; 
a disastrous reign to Ireland. 

Within the first three years of this 
Queen's reign, three measures of great im- 
portance were passed for Ireland ; all 
brought forward under pretext of Conces- 
sion aud Liberalism ; but all marked 




reality with the invariable, inevitable stamp 
of mortal enmity towards the people of our 
country. These were, the Poor Law, the 
Tithe Law, and the I,aw for Municipal Re- 
form. 

Poor laws had become at once necessary 
in England, on the supression of the mon- 
asteries in the reign of Dlcnry VIII. In 
Catholic times, and according to Catholic 
ideas, alms-giving was a Christian duty; from 
that moment it had to become a tax. Those 
monasteries had been endowed by charitable 
and religious people mainly for the relief of 
the poor ; but when their lands came into 
possession of King Henry's courtiers, the 
poor immediately began to be regarded as 
public enemies to be suppressed. The poor 
man had been a brother, whom it was a 
privilege and duty to console ; he became 
one of the " dangerous classes," to be well 
watched, to be- often punished, and to bo 
forever degraded and disgraced. The first 
English Poor law (27 Henry VIII.,) 
prohibited alms-giving under heavy penal- 
ties ; and as for "sturdy beggars" — "a 
sturdy beggar is to be whipped the first 
time, and if he again offend, he shall suffer 
death as a felon and an enemy of the com- 
monwealth." The fourteenth of Elizabeth 
provided that these terrible sturdy beggars 
" should for the first offence be grievously 
whipped, and burned through the gristle of 
the right ear with a hot iron of the compass 
of an inch about ; for the second, be deemed 
as felons ; and for the third, suffer death as 
felons without benefit of clergy." Innu- 
merable amendments and alterations have 
been made since those days in the English 
system of Poor laws, by which, although 
these ferocious punishments were mitigated, 
the principle was maintained, of treating the 
poor as enemies, and making charity a com- 
pulsory tax. 

All this system had been hitherto un- 
known in Ireland — as it is still unknown in 
France and Spain. Poor men had been al- 
ways with us, and that in plenty; but no 
" able-bodied paupers," by profession. If a 
third of the population was sometimes in a 
half-starving condition fur half the year, the 
others, who had more comforts around them, 
shared generously with their suffering neigh- 



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vice. Christian charity was not yet worked 
by machinery, nor exacted by sheriff's offi- 
cers. In short, poor as the Irish were — 
and they were only poor because the Eng- 
h ate them out of house and home — their 
whole nature and habits were totally abhor- 
ent to the idea of Poor laws. But it was 
now the settled 'design of the British Gov- 
ernment to fasten upon them this plague ; 
and for two principal reasons — first, to ob- 
tain absolute control, through their own offi- 
cials, of the great mass of the poor, who 
might otherwise be turned into elements of 
revolutionary disturbance ; second, to aid 
and encourage the extermination of the 
"surplnpos pulation" — thus coming in aid 
of the new code of cheap and easy eject- 
ment — for when there should be great poor- 
houses in every district to receive the home- 
less people, landlords would have the less 
hesitation in turning out upon the highways 
the population of whole townlands at once. 
Besides, the immense patronage which the 
new system would place in the hands of the 
Government — a patronage to be chiefly ex- 
ercised amongst the class a stage or two re- 
moved above the very poor themselves, 
would give to that Government, in every 
" Poor-Law Union," a very extensive con- 
trol over the interests and whole way of life 
of the farming class. 

A person named Nicholl, a Scotchman, 
was sent to make a tour in Ireland, and to 
report on the distresses of the poor. After 
a journey of a few weeks, in a country 
quite unknown to him, this man made a re- 
port. He saw much suffering and privation ; 
and reported that during half the year, 
there were five hundred and eighty-live 
thousand persons, with two millions three 
hundred thousand more depending on them, 
in a slate of utter destitution. He took 
care to report nothing of the reason of this 
destitution ; namely, the drain of Irish pro- 
duce to England. Upon the report of this 
Scotchman, a measure was prepared and in- 
troduced by Lord John Russell, to estab- 
lish an universal system of Poor laws ; a 
board of commissioners, and distribution of 
the island into "Unions." It was in vain 
that O'Connell, many Catholic Bishops, 
many Protestant Irishmen, even, opposed 
readful law. It was carried by large 



majorities, and became law in July, 1838. 
Two years later there, were one hundred and 
twenty-seven Unions marked out and consti- 
tuted ; fourteen immense Poor Houses, 
built like prisons, had been built, and the 
others were in rapid progress. Ireland has 
been blistering and festering under this 
British pestilence ever since that day. One 
of the first consequences of it was a large 
increase in the number of ejectments. The 
ejected people, when they had no money to 
emigrate, could only take refuge in these 
Toor law jails, bid adieu to all decency and 
independence, and become paupers forever, 
cursing the cruel " charity " that prolonged 
their miserable existence. 

The second of these measures was the 
Tithe bill ; passed in May, 183S. It abol- 
ished Church tithes in Ireland ; that is to 
say, it converted them into a charge upon 
the land ; called tithe rent-charge, payable 
in the first place to the parsons by the land- 
lords, and then leviable on the tenants by 
distress, along with the rent. Thus, the 
parsons were relieved from the necessity 
of coming into immediate collision witli the 
farmers, aud raising bloody riots to come at 
their tenth sheaf and tenth potato. The 
tithe was, in fact, confounded with the rent, 
and put into a form impossible to be resist- 
ed or evaded. In return for the additional 
security and tranquillity thus assured to the 
clergymen, and for the saving of their heavy 
expenses to proctors aud tithe-farmers, they 
were made to submit to a deduction of 
twenty-five per cent, upon the amount 
claimed by them. On the whole it was a 
profitable change for the parsons, who have 
been better paid since that time than they 
had been for many years before. The people 
were assured that they were relieved from 
the " tithe ;" and the Church was supposed 
to have escaped the odium of this shocking 
imposition ; but, at the same time, many a 
poor family saw its last bed carried off 
by the landlord's bailiffs, to pay " tithe 
rent-charge." Nothing can demonstrate in 
a more offensive manner the savage resolu- 
tion of the British Government and people 
to make us pay for support of that alien 
church, or die. 

The third great measure which signalized 
the first years of Queen Victoria, was the 




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Municipal Reform act. The Emancipation 
act had hern quite inoperative in giving to 
Catholics their rightful place in the corpora- 
tions. A Municipal Reform bill had been 
hitrodnced into Parliament, in 1836, by 
O'Loghlen, then Attorney-General. He 



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| | had stated in his speech, that "although 
the whole number of corporators in Ire- 
land were thirteen thousand, and although 
since 1792, the corporations had been 
nominally open to Catholics, not more 
than two hundred had been admitted." 
The municipal bodies also, being quite free 
from popular control, and all other control, 
had become quite as conspicuous for corrup- 
tion as for Protestantism ; and independ- 
ently of the claims of the Catholics, some 
cleansing process was absolutely needful 
I ingst those dens of iniquity. The prin- 
ciple of the new bill was to give to the in- 
habitants of the towns (subject to a qualifi- 
cation according to rating,) the power to 
elect town councillors, and thus infuse a 
popular element into the little close boroughs 
of municipal jurisdiction. 

A Municipal Reform bill had been within 
a few years enacted for England ; and an- 
other object of the Government was to assim- 
ilate, as far as was prudent, the Irish insti- 
tutions of this kind with the English. One 
great difficulty, however, at once presented 
itself. Some of the functions of municipal 
officers were connected with the administra- 
tion of justice. The mayor is a magistrate. 
What is of still graver importance, the 
sheriff of a corporate city is the officer who 
has charge of the list of qualified jurors in 
that city, and who summons a certain num- 
ber of them to serve at each assize or com- 
mission. If such sheriff should be a Cath- 
olic, there was reason to fear that he might 
not exercise due vigilance in keeping Catho- 
lics off those juries which might have to 
try " political offences "— a large and essen- 
tial department of what is called "govern- 
ment " in Ireland. 

Violent opposition was made to the bill, 
on this and other grounds ; and it was 
thrown out by the House of Lords. The 
agitation, however, was quite vehement on 
the subject in Ireland ; and the demand for 
corporate reform grew loud. While the 
Marquis of jS'ormanby was Lord-Lieutenant 
66 



• 



of Ireland, he did not prevent and repress 
political meetings, as he was invested with 
power to do ; and the Whig Ministry soon 
found they could not calculate on Catholic 
support, (which they needed,) without some 
measure of this character. During the three 
years, 1837-8-9, the bill underwent several 
modifications, and was several times passed 
by the Commons and thrown out by the 
Peers. At last, it took its final shape, and 
was introduced by Lord Morpeth, on the 
Uth of February, 1840. Iu his bill, the 
amount of rating fixed as the qualification 
for voters was £S. When it was sent up to 
the Lords, they insisted upon the qualifica- 
tion of a £10 rating ; and with this change 
it was accepted by the Commons, and be- 
came law* 

The Municipal Reform act would have 
been indeed an invaluable concession of 
right and equity to Ireland ; and we should 
here be called upon to greatly modify or re- 
tract very much of the bitter reflections 
which have been made upon the deadly 
hostility shown by all British Governments 
against the Irish people, but for one circum- 
stance. A clause of the new act, not only 
renders all the rest comparatively worthless, 
but provides with deliberate malignity for 
the subversion of all law and justice in Ire- 
land. It enacts that the sheriff shall not be 
elected by the Town Councils, as in Eng- 
land, but appointed by the Lord-Lieute- 
nant. That is to say, the Town Councils 
were to be allowed to submit certain names 
to that functionary, amongst wdiom they 
should pray him to appoint their sheriff; 
and if none of the names pleased him, the 
nomination was to rest with him — that is 
to say, the officer who had charge of the 
jury-lists, and whose special duty it is to 
take care that his fellow-citizens are fairly 
represented in the jury-box, was to be, not 
an elected servant of the people, but a crea- 
ture of the Castle and the Crown. There 
is no occasion for hesitation or delicacy in 
affirming, that the intention of this clause 
was to enable the Crown to pack its juries 
with the utmost certainty, and to destroy 
a political opponent at any time, under a 
false pretence of law. To what deadly use 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



this provision lias been turned will be but 
too evident throughout tlie later history of 
the country. In the meantime, however, 
the Catholic townsmen of Ireland took their 
place in the municipal bodies, and in such 
municipal business as had no reference to 
the administration of justice. O'Connell 
was elected first Catholic Lord Mayor of 
Dublin ; and took much state in his scar- 
let cloak and gold chain ; but at the same 
moment was nominated a sheriff, whose 
business it was to secure a jury that would 
send this Lord Mayor to jail on the first 
occasion when the Castle might desire to 
imprison him as a criminal. 

These three measures were the first fruits 
of 'Whig legislation for Ireland, in the three 
first years of Queen Victoria. 



CHAPTER LVI. 

1840—1843. 

Spirit of Legislation for Ireland — More Spying in the 
Post Office — Savings' Banks — "Precursor Society" 
Support to the Whigs— Whigs Go Out — Peel Conies 
In— Repeal Association — Export of Food — Exter- 
mination- The Repeal Year — Corporation Debate 
— The Younger Nationalists — New "Arms Bill" — 
O'Brien Moves fur Inquiry — Preparations for Coer- 
cion—All England against Repeal — Monster Meet- 
ings — Mallow — Tara — Mullaghmast — Clontarf — 
Proclamation. 

We can now appreciate, in some mea- 
sure, the spirit and motive of all the legisla- 
tion for Ireland after " Emancipation." 
Catholics having been admitted into Parlia- 
ment and into the Corporations, it became 
necessary, in the interest of British domin- 
ation, to take securities against the employ- 
ment of the new franchises for any Irish 
purpose. By the "National Education" 
system provision was made for stifling all 
national sentiment in the young. By the 
Poor law, the life or death of certain mil- 
lions of the people was placed at the dis- 
posal of British officials. By the Tithe law 
the impositions of the Established Church 
were rendered inevitable. By the Municipal 
law the perpetual packing of juries was 
made certain. Every enactment of the 
British Parliament was expressly designed 
and admirably calculated to nullify alto- 
gether the sentiments and aspirations of the 




Irish people, and to subject their whole way 
of life to the will and the interests of Eng- 
land. The police force had been gradually 
converted into a standing army, under the 
absolute control of the Castle. The Poet 
Office espionnage had been systematized and 
perfected. Government officers were trained 
to open letters and re-seal them, without 
showing any trace of their manipulation ; 
and Her Majesty's Lords-Lieutenant read 
the correspondence of all suspected persons. 
Ill 1834, it was Mr. Secretary Littleton, 
(afterwards Lord Hatherton,) who inspect- 
ed men's letters. In 1835, it was Lord 
Mulgrave, (afterwards Marquis of Nor- 
manby,) who discharged this needful office, 
The next year it was the same noble mar- 
quis, and the Irish Secretary, Mr. Drum- 
mond — the man who scandalized the whole 
British interest in Ireland by a casual obser- 
vation of his, (which, however, he did not 
mean,) that "property had its duties as well 
as its rights." It was this Mr. Drumnioud 
who was the spy upou our correspondence 
both in 1836 and 1837. Iu the same year, 
1837, it appears that both Lord Chancellor 
Pluuket, one of the Lords-Justices, and Doe- 
tor Whateley, Archbishop of Dublin, a 
member of the Privy Council, had a curios- 
ity to know what Mr. O'Connell and others 
might be writing about to their friends. • 
They, therefore, gave directions that the let- 
ters to and from that gentleman, and all the 
other gentlemen named in their orders, (we 
are not told who they were,) should be 
opened in the Tost Office, softening the seals, 
or envelopes, by a cunning application of 
steam, then copied for the study of those 
functionaries, and then sealed up again with 
great skill. In 1838, Lord Morpeth, (after- 
wards Lord Carlisle,) had the opening of 
our letters. In 1839, the Marquis of Nor- 
manby, Lord Ebrington, and General Sir 
T. Blakeuey, one of the Lords-Justices. Iu 
1840, Lord Ebrington again freely indulged 
his curiosity.* 

When to all these methods of inspection 
and control, we add the immense police 
force — about thirteen thousand men, well- 
armed and scientifically distributed over the 
whole island — with their complete code of 

* Parliamentary Retur:. Session of 1815. Papers 
relating to Mazzini. 






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signals for communicating from station to 
station, with blue lights, red lights, and 
other apparatus — when we add the numer- 
ous corps of detectives, (a sort of institution 
in which Great Britain is unmatched in all 
the world,) and when we remember the 
Disarming acts and Coercion acts always in 
force, * it is easy to understand how the 
unfortunate Irish nation, bound hand and 
foot, muzzled, disarmed, and half starved, 
could but writhe helplessly under the lash 
of its greedy tyrant. Yet the pictures of 
these engines of subjugation is not complete, 
without an account of the savings' bunks. 
These institutions were the only means 
left to industrious and frugal people by 
which they could safely invest their savings. 
Manufacturing industry was out of the 
question ; land in small lots was not to be 
had ; even leases for lives or years were no 
longer obtained, (for there was now no use 
fur small freeholders at the hustings,) and 
those who could save a little money could 
do no better than deposit it in the savings' 
bank of the nearest town. The system of 
savings' banks had been introduced from 
Scotland into Ireland in 1810. Soou after 
it had been made a Government institution, 
and the rate of interest was fixed by law : 
the depositors were allowed £o 0s. lOd. 
per cent. ; and the savings' bank was bound 
to invest the whole of the money deposited 
with it in the Government funds. Thus the 
small savings of every industrious artizan 
and of every prudent maid-servant were in 
the hands of the Government ; and their 
value depended upon the value of the 
Government funds — that is, on the credit 
and stability of the existing British system. 
This was a substantial security against revo- 
lution — because every depositor felt that his 
little all depended on the tranquillity of the 
state : in other words, on the peaceful per- 
petuation of the hateful system, which was 
really making beggars of them all. 

It must be admitted that in so very help- 
less a condition of the country, it was a 
difficult task for even the most jjowerful and 
popular agitator to produce any movement 
that would be really formidable to the 

* Lord Grey's Coercion act remained in force till 
183U. It was soou succeeded by another Coercion 
act. 



523 



enemy's Government, or would exert any 
serious pressure upon their action. O'Con- 
nell was, for several years, in a state of 
manifiest perplexity and indecision. He 
always knew and felt, it is true, that the 
repeal of the Union — the destruction of the 
British Empire — was the only salvation for 
his country. But that British Empire was 
now on its guard at all points. Besides, the 
governing faction at that moment was 
Whig ; full of fine, liberal professions ; 
always employed in some fraudulent pretence 
of friendly legislation fur Ireland ; and even 
courting him and his influence for its own 
party purposes. It is not to be wondered 
at, then, that when the Liberal Lord 
Melbourne was Prime Minister, and the 
more than Liberal Lord Normanby and 
Lord Ebrington were Viceroys of Ireland, 
who were willing to distribute a large share 
of the Government patronage on his re- 
commendation, (whilst they inspected his 
letters in the Post Office,) it cannot be 
thought strange that he held in abeyance 
for a time the real and rightful claims of 
Irish nationhood, and gave a certain quali- 
fied support to the " Liberal " administra- 
tion, which bestowed profitable offices on his 
friends. It was at this period that the 
Tories accused the Government of truckling 
to O'Connell, and that the thorough-going 
nationalists of Ireland accused O'Connell of 
trafficking with the Whigs ; and, in fact, 
this was the most questionable part of his 
whole political career. 

Yet, O'Connell was too mnch devoted to 
the cause of his country to sell it to any 
English party. He insisted no longer on 
the restoration of a native legislature, 
but loudly claimed "justice to Ireland,'' 
aud affected to believe that these Whig 
statesmen would consent to such justice. 
Thereupon, he established a new agitating 
association, which he called by the peculiar 
name of " Precursor Society," in the be- 
ginning of 1839. The meaning of the name 
was, that Ireland was now making a last ap- 
peal fur "justice," and that if this were still 
denied, the existing suciety was but the pre- 
cursor of a new and universal agitation for 
repeal of the Union. In the me&uthue, all 
the influence of the organization was to be 
used in support of the Whig administration. 



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" What am I here for ?" exclaimed O'Con- 
nell, at a meeting of the 6th of March, 
1839 ; " What am I here for? To call on 
all Ireland to rally round the Ministry ; to 
call for my two millions of enroled Pre- 
cursors." 

Lord Normanby, while in secret he pried 
into everybody's letters, omitted in public 
none of the usual arts of popularity. He 
procured places for Catholic lawyers ; he 
dismissed from the commission of the peace 
Colonel Verner, and other outrageous 
Orange magistrates, for publicly celebrating 
that ruffianly slaughter called Buttle of 
the Diamond ; he received Catholic nota- 
bilities at the Castle with distinguished 
courtesy ; he made excursions through the 
provinces, and liberated from the jails great 
numbers of prisoners who were either un- 
justly confined, or undergoing punishment 
for trifling offences. At length, English 
opinion became inflamed against him ; and 
Lord Brougham (who had entirely aban- 
doned all pretence to liberalism, when 
Ireland was in question,) moved a vote of 
censure against Lord Normanby in the 
House of Lords, on the express ground of 
an abuse of patronage and of the pardoning 
power. It appeared on the debate that his 
lordship had, between November, 1837, and 
the 3!st January, 1839, released eight hun- 
dred and twenty-two prisoners — but not with- 
out inquiry into their cases, and not without 
rejecting appeals for clemency amounting 
to nearly as large a number. The vote of 
censure passed, however. Lord Normanby 
retired from the Vice-royalty, and was suc- 
ceeded in 1839 by Lord Ebrington, another 
Liberal, who \oA no time in commencing 
his duties as Post Office spy ; which, in- 
deed, he continued faithfully to discharge 
during the whole period of his government. 

The "Precursor" Association continued 
its meetings at the Corn Exchange, on 
Burgh Quay, and Mr. O'Connell, regularly 
once a week, while he demanded justice to 
Ireland, called on the people to sustain the 
Whig Government. 

This anomalous political situation ended 
in November, 1841. The Whig administra- 
tion went out ; and Sir Robert Peel, the 
proved and inveterate enemy of Ireland and 
of the Catholics, became Prime Minister. 



There was to be no more patronage at the 
disposal of the Corn Exchange ; no more 
pretext for affecting to expect justice for 
Ireland at the hands of an English Govern- 
ment ; and the Precursor Society merged 
into the Repeal Association. 

For the next two years, this new organ- 
ization attracted but little attention in 
England, or even at home. The country 
had become so much accustomed to Mr. 
O'ConnelPs successive forms of agitation, 
that it would have surprised nobody if the 
Repeal Association had been upon any 
morning " proclaimed " out of existence — or 
if its versatile author had again changed its 
name and character, and called it the 
" Liberal Association," or "Justice to Ire- 
land Association." But, in truth, no person 
could be more fully sensible than Mr. 
O'Connell that there was no justice for Ire- 
land save in national independence. For 
full thirty years he had constantly avowed 
this creed ; and if he had waived the claim 
lor awhile, it was only to aid and encourage 
the Whigs in granting what he called 
"instalments" of justice, which might 
strengthen the nation to demand and en- 
force all that was due, or in putting "good 
men " into office, who, he said, were certain- 
ly belter than bad men. Now, at last, he 
felt himself standing upon the only plain and ' 
honest principle, engaged in the only agita- 
tion by which his countrymen would be really 
stirred and tired to the very hearts' core. 

Nothing important took place during these 
two years. Mr. O'Connell was now Lord 
.Mayor of Dublin^ and held his levees in state 
at the Mansion House, while the Lord- 
Lieutenant was studying his private letters 
to find matter of accusation against him. 
The people were pleased to see their chosen 
chief adorned with the splendid corporate 
insignia, so long appropriated by the "As- 
cendancy," and did not yet perceive how 
firmly, instead of that old "Ascendancy," 
British domination was fastened upon them. 

In 1843, more than three million quarters 
of grain were exported out of Ireland into 
England ; besides, almost a million head of 
live stock, including horned cattle, sheep and 
swine. * 



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* Thorn's Official Directory. 
estimate. 



This is quite an under- 








EXTERMINATION THE REPEAL TEAR. 



.«s 



Iii 1843, extermination of tenantry was 
sweeping and destructive ; and the emi- 
gration of " surplus population" from Ireland 
reached nearly one hundred thousand. 

From a Londonderry newspaper, of this 
year, we extract an advertisement, signed 
by one M'Mullin, " Emigration Agent," 
which will showwhal was going on through- 
out Ireland better than particular details 
could do : — 



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Notice — A favorable opportunity presents itself, 
in the course of the present month, for Quebec, to 
gentlemen residing in the Counties of Londonderry, 
Donegal, Tyrone, or Fermanagh, who wish to send 

out to the Canadas stock tenantry belonging 

to their estates— as a moderate rate of passage will 
be taken, and six mouths' credit given for a lump 
sum to any gentleman requiring such accommoda- 
tion, &c. 

The mode in which the overstock tenantry 
are persuaded in Ireland to embark for 
America, is ejecting them, and pulling 
down their houses. And in 18-13, and 
many years before, and every year since, 
this process has been going on so extensively 
-and notoriously that there will be no further 
occasion to refer to it, until we arrive at 
what the British call the " Famine." 

In 1843, the rental of Ireland, carried off 
to be spent abroad, amounted (according to 
Mr. Smith O'Brien's estimate,) to five mil- 
lions sterling ; and the peasantry, whose 
industry created all the wealth of the 
country were proverbially known through- 
out the earth as " the worst fed, the worst 
clothed, and the worst housed peasantry in 
Europe." 

The poor-houses, which had been built 
under the new law, were all full ; the far- 
mers were paying their tithes to the land- 
lords, with no possibility of escape ; for the 
bailiffs were always at the door, and the 
tithe was levied along with the rent ; the 
"national schools" were teaching Irish 
children that there is no such thing as 
nationality, and that it is a blessed privilege 
to be burn " a happy English child." Thus, 
the mature and highlj elaborated policy of 
the enemy towards Ireland was in full and 
successful operation at every point, when, in 
the spring of 18-13, O'Connell announced 
that it was the repeal year, and proceeded 
to infuse into that movement an energy and 
power greater thau any of his organizations 




had ever possessed, even in the days of the 
old Catholic Association 

First, he asked for three millions of en- 
roled repealers in the Repeal Association ; 
and confidently promised, and, perhaps, fully 
believed, that no English administration 
would venture to resist that great measure 
so enforced. The more thoroughly to 
arouse the people, he declined to go over to 
London to take his seat in Parliament, 
(many other members following his example,)' 
and resolved to hold multitudinous meetings 
in every corner of the island. 

First, he moved in the Dublin Corpora- 
tion a resolution, for the adoption of a peti- 
tion to Parliament demanding a repeal of 
the union with England — that is to say, de- 
manding back the Irish Parliament, which 
had been extinguished in 1800; so that 
Ireland should once more have her own 
House of Peers and House of Commons ; 
the Sovereign of England to be also Sov- 
ereign of Ireland. His speech was master- 
ly, and covered the whole case. He cited 
the ablest jurists to show that the so-called 
Union was in law a nullity ; reminded his 
audience of what was at any rate notorious 
and never denied — that, supposing the two 
Parliaments competent to pass such an act, 
it had been obtained by fraud and open 
bribery ; an open market of bribery, of 
which the accounts are extant — viz., £1 
275,000 paid to proprietors for the purchase 
of nomination boroughs, at £15,000 per bor- 
ough, (which seats were immediately filled 
by English officers and clerks) — more 
than one million sterling expended on mere 
bribes ; the tariff being quite familiar, £8,- 
000 for an Union vote, or an office worth 
£2,000 a year, if the member did not like 
to touch the ready money ; twenty Peer- 
ages, ten Bishoprics, one Chief Justice- 
ship, six Puisne Judgeships ; not to count 
regiments and ships given to officers in the 
array and navy ; all dispensed as direct 
payment for the vote. He reminded them 
that the right of holding public meetings to 
protest against all this was taken away dur- 
ing the time the Union was in agitation • 
that county meetings, convened by Hi"-h 
Sheriffs of counties, as in Tipperary and 
Queen's County, were dispersed by troops ; 
martial law was in force, and the Habeas 



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Corpus suspended ; that, in 1800, the 
number of soldiers concentrated in that 
small island, was one hundred and twen- 
ty-nine thousand, as "good lookers-on;" 
that, notwithstanding all intimidation, sev- 
en hundred thousand persons had peti- 
tioned against the measure ; and, notwith- 
standing all enticements, only three thou- 
sand had petitioned for it, most of these 
being Government officials, and prisoners in 
the jails. If he had stopped here, most per- 
sons would think it enough — that was a 
deed which at the earliest possible moment 
must be undone and punished. 

liut he did not stop here ; he went into 
all the details of mined trade and manufac- 
tures since the Union — immensely-increased 
drains in the shape of absentee-rents and 
surplus-taxation — frauds in subjecting Ire- 
land to a charge for the English national 
debt, and even charging to Ireland's special 
account the very monies expended in bribes 
and military expenses for earning the 
Union ; which, he said, was about as fair as 
" making Ireland pay for the knife with 
which Lord Castlereagh cut his throat ;" 
— injustice in giving Ireland but one hun- 
dred members in the House of Commons, 
while her population and revenue entitled 
her to one hundred and seventy-five ; and, 
above all, the injustice of fixing the qualifi- 
cation of electors of these members much 
higher in Ireland, the poorer country, than 
in England. 

This is a sketch only of the case for re- 
peal (if the Union ;— the necessity for some 
remedy or other was only too apparent in 
the poverty and wretchedness which moved 
and scandalized all Europe. 

The petition for repeal was adopted by 
a vote of forty one to 6 f teen in the Corpo- 
ration ; and a similar petition, shortly after, 
by th« Corporation of Cork. Hitherto the 
English press, am! Irish press in the English 
interest, looked on with affected or real in- 
difference and contempt. 

O'Connell then left Dublin for the prov- 
inces. Then began the series of vast open- 
air meetings, to which the peasantry, ac- 
companied by their priests, repeal wardens, 
and " temperance bands," flocked in numbers, 
varying from fifty thousand to two hundred 
and fifty thousand — (we take the reduced and 



disparaging estimate of enemies ; but the re- 
peal newspapers put up the Tara meeting to 
four hundred thousand.) Of course, the 
orator always addressed these multitudes, 
but though his voice was the most powerful 
of his day, he could not be heard by a tenth 
of them. Neither did they come to hear ; 
they were all well indoctrinated by local re- 
peal wardens ; had their minds made up ; 
and came to convince their leader that they 
were with him, and would be ready at any 
time when called upon. 

But all was to be peaceable ; they were 
to demand their rights imperatively ; they 
were, he assured them, tall men and strong ; 
at every monster meeting he had around 
him, as he often said, the materials of a 
greater army than both the armies combined 
that fought at Waterloo. " But take heed,'' 
he cried, " not to misconceive rae. Is it by 
force or violence, bloodshed or turbulence, 
that I shall achieve this victory, dear above 
all earthly considerations to my heart ? 
No ! perish the thought forever. I will do 
it by legal, peaceable, and constitutional 
means alone — by the electricity of public 
opinion, by the moral combination of good 
men, and by the enrolment of four millions 
of repealers. I am a disciple of that sect 
of politicians who believe that the greatest 
of all sublunary blessings is ton dearly pur- 
chased at the e.rpense of a single drop of 
human blood." 

Many persons did not understand this 
sort of language. The prevailing impres- 
sion was, that while the Repeal Association 
was, indeed, a peaceful body, contemplating 
only " Constitutional agitation," yet the par- 
ade of such immense masses of physical 
force had an ulterior meaning, and indicated 
that if the British Parliament reinai:>"-d 
absolutely insensible to the reasonable de- 
mands of the people, the association must 
lie dissolved ; and the next question would 
be, how best and soonest to exterminate the 
British forces. Many wdio wire close to 
O'Connell expected all along that the Eng- 
lish Parliament and Government never 
would yield ; and these would hav taken 
small interest, in the movement, if it <vas 
never to go beyond speeches and cheers. 

Meanwhile, nothing could lie more peace- 
ful, orderly, aud good-humored than the 



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L.Ab .^uftllUi.u, 





1 "-: {■''' 



THE YOUNGER NATIONALISTS. 



Father Mathew'a temperance rc- 

inul lately been working its 

and all the people were sober 

; repeal wardens everywhere br- 

inil mi "O'Connell Police," with 

lid any person of the whole im- 



mense multitude who was even noisy, was 
instantly and quietly removed. The Gov- 
ernment, indeed, soon took alarm, or affect- 
ed to do so, for the peace of the country ; 
and they sent large forces of armed con- 
stabulary to bivouac on the ground ; but 
there never was the slightest excuse for in- 
terference. 

The movement of the people, throughout 
this whole summer, was profound and sweep- 
ing ; it carried along with it the Catholic 
clergy, though in many cases against their 
will ; but they were of the people, bound up 
with the people, dependent on the people, and 
found it their best policy to move not only 
with the people, but at their head. The 
Catholic Bishops and Archbishops gave in 
their adhesion, and began to take the chair 
at meetings ; the French and German press 
began to notice the struggle, and eagerly 
watch how England would deal witli it. At 
last, on April 27th, Mr. Lane Fox, a Tory 
member of Parliament, gave notice, "That 
it is the duty of Her Majesty's Government 
to take immediate steps to put an end to 
the agitation for repeal" — and on the same 
day Lord Eliot, Chief Secretary for Ireland, 
gave notice of a bill " for the regulation of 
arms in Ireland." At the same moment the 
funds fell one and a half per cent. 

The first threat of coercion brought im- 
portant accessions to the ranks of the re- 
pealers ; and the monster meetings became 
now more monstrous than ever ; but, if pos- 
sible, even gayer and more good humored. 

Mr. O'Connell affected to treat very light- 
ly all these menaces of violence. 3 lis sar- 
casm was bitter, his reason irrefragable, his 
array multitudinous in its peaceful might ; 
but, in the meantime, Lord Eliot was pre- 
paring his Arms bill ; and on the 9th of 
May. the Duke of Wellington, in the Lords, 
and Sir Robert Peel, in the Commons, de- 
clared that all the resources of tin; empire 
should be exerted t" preserve the Union : 
and Sir Hubert Peel added, quoting Lord 
Althorpe, that, deprecating civil war as he 




did, he should hold civil war preferable to the 
"dismemberment of the empire." Mr. Ber- 
nal, [Osborne,] instantly asked Sir Robert, 
as he cited Lord Althorpe's words, "whether 
he would abide by another declaration of 
that noble lord — namely, that if all the 
members for Ireland should be in favor of 
repeal, he would consider it his duty to 
grant it?" And Sir Robert replied: "I 
do not recollect that Lord Althorpe ever 
made any such declaration ; but, if he did, 
I am not prepared to abide by it." 

At this point, issue was joined. The ma- 
jority of the Irish 'nation desired to undo 
the Union with England ; but England de- 
clared, that if all Ireland demanded that 
measure, England would rather drown the 
demand in blood. 

The new association for repeal contained 
many men of great ability and influence. 
Mr. Sliiel, indeed, though he had publicly 
declared himself in favor of repealing the 
Union, had desisted from all active agita- 
tion after the Catholic Relief bill. He 
never entered at all into this new repeal 
movement, perhaps, because he knew it 
meant war, and knew O'Connell would never 
fight ; perhaps, because he chose to identi- 
fy himself with the higher class of Catholics, 
who thought enough had been done, and 
" called it. freedom when themselves were 
free ;" perhaps, because, he was somewhat 
intolerant of O'Connell's autocratic sway — 
for, like every great leader of a democracy, 
the agitator was a most despotic discip- 
linarian in ruling the movement lie had 
created. Up to the time of the Ministerial 
declaration against, repeal in April, very 
few members of Parliament were actual 
members of the association; but amongst 
them was Henry G rattan, member for 
Meath, wdio brought to its ranks an illus- 
trious name, if nothing else of great value. 
O'Brien still stood aloof. 

But within this same association there 
was a certain smaller association, composed 
of very different men. Its head and heart 
was Thomas Davis, a young Protestant 
lawyer of Cork County, who had been pre- 
viously known only as a scholar and anti- 
quarian ; a zealous member of the Royal 
Irish Academy, and of the Archaeological 
Society. In the autumn of '42, he and his 




I 



friend Dillon had projected the publication 
of a weekly literary and political journal of 
the highest class, to sustain the cause of 
Irish nationhood, to give it a historic and 
literary interest which would win and in- 
spire the youth of the country, and, above 
all, to conciliate Protestants by stripping 
the agitation of a certain suspicion of sec- 
'f^f tarianism, which, though disavowed by 
O'Conntll, was naturally connected with it 
by reason of the antecedents of its chief. 

So commenced the Nation newspaper ; 
which, for several years, was, next to O'Con- 
nell, the strongest power on the national 
side. lis editor was Mr. Duffy, but Thomas 
Davis was its chief writer. By his ardeut 
temperament, amiable character, and high 
accomplishments, he soon gathered around 
him a gifted circle of educated young 
men, both Protestant and Catholic, whose 
headquarters was the Nation office, and 
whose chief bond of union was their warm 
attachment to their friend. It was the one 
grand object of these men — and it was grand 
— to lift up the Irish cause high above both 
Catholic claims and Protestant pretensions, 
and unite all sects in the one character of 
" Irishmen," to put an end to English domi- 
nation. Their idea was precisely the idea 
of the United Irishmen ; although their 
mode of action was very different. Mr. 
Davis and his friends soon received the 
nickname of " Young Ireland," which desig- 
nation they never themselves assumed, nor 
accepted. 

O'Connell knew well, and could count, 
this small circle of literary privateer re- 
pealers ; he felt that he was receiving, for 
the present, a powerful support from them 
y^fa,l ■ — the Nation being, by far, the ablest organ 
of the movement ; but he knew, also, 
that they were outside of his influence, and 
did not implicitly believe his confident pro- 
mises that repeal would be yielded to 
" agitation ;" that they were continually 
seeking, by their writings, to arouse a mili- 
tary spirit among the people ; and had 
most diligently promoted the formation of 
temperance bands, with military uniforms, 
the practice of marching to monster meet- 
ings in ranks and squadrons, with banners, 
and the like ; showing plainly, that while 
they helped the Repeal Association, they 



fully expected that the liberties of the coun- 
try must be fought for at last. O'Connell, 
therefore, suspected and disliked them ; but 
could not well quarrel with them. ' Ap- 
parently, they worked in perfect harmony ; 
and during all this " repeal year" few were 
aware how certainly that alliance must end. 
Personally, they sought no notoriety ; and 
the Nation was as careful to swell O'Con- 
nell's praise, and make him the sole figure 
to which all eyes should turn, as any of his 
own creatures could be. O'Connell accept- 
ed their services to convert the " gentry " 
and the Protestants — they could not dis- 
pense with O'Counell, to stir and wield the 
multitudinous people. 

It has been mentioned that on the same 
day when the Ministers declared, in the 
Queen's name, that the Union must, at all 
hazards, be maintained, Lord Eliot introduc- 
ed a new "Arms bill" for Ireland. This new 
bill was recommended by Lord Eliot, in the 
House of Commons, by the remark, " that 
it was substantially similar to what had 
been the law in Ireland for half a century," 
(June 15th,) and again, (June 26th,) "Jle 
would ask the noble lord to compare it with 
the bill of 1838, and to point out the differ- 
ence. In fact, this was milder." This mild 
act, then provided : That no man could 
keep arms of any sort, without first having 
a certificate from two householders, " rated 
to the poor " at above .£20, and then pro- 
ducing that certificate to the justices at 
sessions, (said justices being all appointed 
by the Crown, and all sure men,) and then 
if the justices permitted the applicant to 
keep arms at all — they were to be reg- 
istered and branded by the police. After 
that they could not be removed, sold, or 
inherited, without new registry. And every 
conversation respecting these arms in which 
a man should not tell truly whatever he 
might be asked by any policeman, sub- 
jected the delinquent to penalties. To have 
a jiike or spear, "or instrument serving for 
a pike or spear," was an offence punishable 
by transportation for seven years. Domi- 
ciliary visits by the police might be ordered 
by any magistrate " on suspicion ;" where- 
upon, any man's house might be broken 
into by day or night, and his very bed 
searched for concealed arms. Blacksmiths 



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were required to take out licenses, similar to 
those for keeping arms, and under the same 
penalties, in order that the workers in so 
dangerous a metal as iron might be known 
and approved persons. And to crown the 
code, if any weapon should be found in any 
house, or out-house, or stack-yard, the oc- 
cupier was to be convicted unless he could 
prove that it was there without his knowl- 
edge. 

Such had been " substantially the law 
of Ireland for half a century." The idea of 
arms had come to be associated in the 
people's minds with handcuffs, jails, petty- 
sessioris, and transportation ; a good device 
for killing the manly spirit of a nation. 

The Disarming act passed into a law, of 
course, by large majorities. It was in vain 
that some Irish members resisted ; in vain 
Mr. Smith O'Brien, then member for Limer- 
ick, moved that instead of meeting the 
discontent of Ireland with a new Arms bill, 
the House should resolve itself into a com- 
mittee "to consider the cause of the discontent 
with a view to the redress of grievances." 
O'Brien, who was afterwards to play so 
conspicuous a part, was not yet a repealer — 
he had been for twenty years one of the 
most industrious members of Parliament, 
and was attached, on most questions, to the 
Whig party. His speech, however, on this 
motion, showed that he regarded it as a last 
effort to obtain any approach to justice in 
a British Parliament ; and that if they still 
resolutely adhered to the policy of coercion, 
and nothing but coercion, he wouhl very 
shortly be found by O'Connell's side. 

He pointed out the facts which justified 
discontent — that the Union made Ireland 
poor, and kept her poor — that it encouraged 
the absenteeism of landlords, and so caused 
a great rental to be spent in England — that 
nearly a million sterling of " surplus 
revenue," over what was expended in the 
government of Ireland, was annually re- 
mitted from the Irish to the English 
exchequer — that Irish manufactures had 
ceased, and the profits on all the manufac- 
tured articles consumed in that island, came 
to England — that the tenantry had no 
permanent tenure or security that they 
would derive benefit by any improvements 
they might make — that Ireland had but 



one hundred and five members of Parlia- 
ment, whereas, her population and revemo 
together entitled her to one hundred and 
seventy-five — that the municipal laws of the 
two countries were not the same — then the 
new " Poor law " was a failure, and was 
increasing the wretchedness and hunger of 
the people — and the right honorable gentle- 
man (Sir R. Peel,) had now declared his 
ultimatum ; he declared that " conciliation 
had reached its limits ; and that the Irish 
should have an Arms bill, and nothing 
but an Arras bill." (Speech of July 4th, 
1843.") 

His facts were not disputed. Nobody iu 
Parliament pretended to say that anything 
iu this long catalogue was overstated ; but 
the House refused the committee of inquiry ; 
would discuss no grievances ; and proceeded 
with their Arms bill. 

It has been said, indeed, that these ex- 
cessive precautions to keep arms out of the 
hands of the Irish people, testified the high 
esteem in which the military spirit of that 
people was held in England ; and in this 
point of view the long series of Arms acts 
may be regarded as a compliment. In 
truth, the English had some occasion to 
know that the Irish make good soldiers. In 
this very month of July, 1843, for example, 
a British general fought the decisive battle 
of Meeanee, by which the Ameers of Scinde 
were crushed. While the bill for disarming 
Ireland was pending, far off on the banks of 
the Indus, Napier went into action with 
less than three thousand troops against 
twenty-five thousand ; only four hundred of 
his men being " British " soldiers ; but those 
four hundred were a Tipperary regiment, the 
Twenty-second — and they did their work 
in such style as made the gray old warrior 
shout aloud, " magnificent Tipperary." 

Along with the new Arms act, several 
additional regiments, mostly of English and 
Scotch troops, were sent to Ireland ; and 
several war-steamers, with a fleet of gun- 
brigs, were sent to cruise round the coast. 
Barracks began to be fortified and loop- 
holed ; and police-stations were furnished 
with iron-grated windows. It was quite 
evident that the English Government in- 
tended, on the first pretext of provocation, 
to make a salutary slaughter. 



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In tlic meantime, the vast monster meet- 
ings continued, with even intenser enthusi- 
asm, but always with perfect peace and 
order. " Whom are they going to light?" 
O'Coniu'U would exclaim : " We arc not 
going to fight them. We are unarmed ; we 
meet peacefully to demand our country's 
freedom. There is no bloodshed, no drunk- 
enness even, or ill-humor. Hurrah for 
the Queen, God bless her !" 

The speeches of O'Connell at these meet- 
ings, though not heard by a fourth of the 
multitudes, were carefully reported, and flew 
over all Ireland, and England too, in hun- 
dreds of newspapers. So that probably no 
gpeechea ever delivered in the world had so 
wide an audience. The people began to ne- 
glect altogether the proceedings of Parlia- 
liament, and felt that their cause was to be 
tried at home. More and more of the Irish 
members of Parliament discontinued their 
attendance in London, and gathered round 
O'Connell. Many of those who still went 
to London, were called on by their consti- 
tuent to come home or resign. 

Sir Edward Sugden was then Lord Chan- 
cellor of Ireland ; and he began offensive 
operations on the British side, by depriving 
of the Commission of the Peace all magis- 
trates who joined the Repeal Association, 
or took the chair at a repeal meeting. He 
had dismissed in this way about twenty, in- 
cluding O'Connell and Lord French, usu- 
ally accompanying the announcement of the 
supersedeas with an insolent letter ; when 
Smith O'Brien wrote to him that fie had 
been a magistrate for many years, that he 
was not a repealer, but could not consent 
to hold his commission on such humiliating 
terms. Instantly his example was followed 
by many gentlemen ; who flung their com- 
missions in the Chancellor's face, sometimes 
with letters as insulting as his own. And 
now O'Connell brought forward one of his 
grand schemes. It was, to have all the dis- 
missed magistrates appointed " arbitrators," 
who should hold regular courts of arbitra- 
tion in their respective districts — all the 
people pledging themselves to make no re- 
sort to the Queen's magistrates, but to set- 
tle every dispute by the award of their arbi- 
trators. This was put into operation in 
many places, and worked very well. 




In reply to questions in Pariiament, as to 
what they were concentrating troops in Ire- 
land for, Peel and Wellington had said they 
did not mean to make war or attack any- 
body, but only to maintain the peace of the 
country. 

It was very obvious that all England, and 
men of all parties and creeds in England, 
were fully resolved to resist, at any cost of 
blood and havoc, the claim for a repeal of 
the Union ; and it must be admitted to have 
been a strange weakness on the part of 
O'Connell, if he really believed that the 
same sort of " agitation" which had extort- 
ed the Relief bill, could now coerce the 
prosperous and greedy British nation to 
yield up its hold upon Ireland. That 
Relief act, it must be remembered, was 
a measure for the consolidation of the "Brit- 
ish Empire ;" it opened high official position 
to the wealthier Catholics and educated 
Catholic gentlemen ; and thus separated 
their interest from that of the peasantry. 
But it was of the peasantry mainly that the 
Government had any apprehension ; and 
British Ministers felt that Catholic Emanci- 
pation would place this peasantry more 
completely in their power than ever. 

Besides, emancipation had a strong party 
in its favor, both amongst Irish Protestants 
and in England ; and in yielding to it Eng- 
land made no sacrifice, except of her ancient 
grudge. To her it was positive gain. O'- 
Connell did not bethink him that when his 
agitation should be directly aimed at the 
" integrity of the empire," and the supre- 
macy of the British in Ireland, it would be 
a different matter. 

One fact showed very plainly that English- 
men, of all sorts, regarded this repeal move- 
ment as a mortal stab aimed at the heart of 
the empire — the. English Catholics were as 
bitterly hostile to Ireland, on this question, 
as the highest " No-Popery" Tories. Thus, 
Lord Beaumont, an English Catholic Peer, 
who owed his seat in the House to O'Con- 
nell, thought himself called upon to denounce 
the repeal agitation. "Do you know who 
this Beaumont is?" asked O'Connell, at his 
next meeting. " Why, the man's name is 
Martin Bree, though he calls himself Staple- 
ton. His grandfather married a Stapleton 
for her fortuue, and then chauged the name. 






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He was a Stapleton when I emancipated 
Lim. I beg your pardon for having eman- 
cipated such a fellow." 

For the last twenty years, the English 
press lias mocked at the whole repeal move- 
ment ; and in Parliament it was never men- 
tioned save with a jeer. In the summer of 
1843, they neither laughed nor jeered. Sir 
James Graham, earnestly appealing to the 
House, to refuse O'Brien's motion of inquiry, 
exclaimed : — 

" Any hesitation now, any delay and irre- 
solution, will multiply the danger an hun- 
dred-fold. If Parliament expresses its sense 
in favor of the course pursued by Govern- 
ment, Ministers have every hope that, with 
the confidence of the House, they will be 
enabled to triumph over all difficulties. 
I appeal, then, to both sides — not to one, 
but to both — I appeal to both sides, and 
say, if you falter now, if you hesitate now 
iu repressing the rebellious spirit which is at 
work in the struggle of repeal, the glory of 
the country is departed — the days of its pow- 
er are numbered ; and England, this all- 
conquering England, must be classed with 
those countries from whom power has dwin- 
dled away, and present the melancholy as- 
pect of a falling nation." 

To refuse a Committee of Inquiry was 
reasonable enough ; because Parliament, 
and all the people — men, women, and child- 
ren — already knew all. The sole and avow- 
ed idea of the Government was, that to ad- 
mit the idea of anything being wrong, would 
make the repeal movement altogether irre- 
sistible. The various projects now brought 
forward in England, showed the perplexity 
of that country. Lord John Russell made 
an elaborate speech for conciliation ; but 
the meaning of it seemed to be merely that 
it was no wonder Ireland was unquiet, seeing 
he was out of power. The grievance of 
Ireland, said he, in effect, is a Tory 
Ministry. Let her be ruled by us Whigs, 
and all will be well. Lord Brougham 
also gave it as his opinion, that "you must 
purchase, not prosecute, repeal." The Morn- 
ing Chronicle, (Whig organ,] in quite a 
friendly spirit, said : "Let us have a perfect 
Union ; let us know each other ; let the 
Irish judges come circuit in England ; and 
let the English judges occasionally take the 



same round in Ireland," and so forth. " Is 
it absolutely certain," asked the Westmin- 
ster Review, " that we can beat this people ? " 
And the Naval and Military Gazette, a high 
military authority, thus expresses its appre- 
hensions : — 

"There are now stationed in Ireland, 
thirty-five thousand men of all arms ; but 
widely scattered over the island. In the 
event of a rebellion — and who can say that 
we are not on the eve of one ? — we feel 
great solicitude for the numerous small de- 
tachments of our gallant soldiers. . . . 
It is time to be up and doing. We have 
heard that the order and regularity of move- 
ment displayed by the divisions which pass- 
ed before Mr. O'Connell, in review order, 
en route to Don ny brook, lately, surprised 
many veteran officers, and led them to think 
that some personal training, in private and 
in small parties, must be practiced. The 
ready obedience to the word of command, 
the silence while moving, and the general 
combinations, all prove organization to have 
gone a considerable length. In these train- 
ed bands our soldiers, split up into detached 
parties, would find no ordinary opponents ; 
and we, therefore, hope, soon to learn that 
all small parties have been called in, and 
that our regiments in Ireland are kept to- 
gether and complete. That day, we fear, is 
near when 'quite peaceably,' every repealer 
will come armed to a meeting to be held 
simultaneously as to day and hour, all over 
the island, and then try to cut off quite 
peaceably every detachment of Her Majes- 
ty's loyal army." 

What contributed to disquiet the British 
exceedingly was, that great and excited re- 
peal meetings were held every week in 
American cities ; meetings not only of Irish 
born citizens, but of natives also — and con- 
siderable funds were remitted from thence 
to O'Counell's repeal exchequer. 

" If something is not done," said Colonel 
Thomson, in the Westminster, "a fleet of 
steamboats from the United States will, 
some Hue morning, be the Euthanasia of the 
Irish struggle." 

We might cite many extracts from the 
press of France, exhibiting a powerful inter- 
est in what the French conceived to be an 
impending military struggle. 





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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 







Take one from the Paris Consiitutwnnel : 

" When Ireland is agitated — when, at the 
sound of the powerful voice of O'Connell, 
four hundred thousand Irish assemble to- 
gether in i heir meetings, and pronounce, as 
if it were by a single man, the same cry, 
and the same word, it is a grand spectacle, 
which fills the soul, and which, even at this 
distance, moves the very strongest feelings 
of the heart, for it is the spectacle of an 
entire people who demand justice — of a 
people who have beeu despoiled of every- 
thing, even of the means of sustenance, and 
yet who require, with calmness and with 
firmness, the untrammeled exercise of their 
religion, and some of the privileges of their 
ancient nationality." 

Now nobody, either in France or in the 
United States, would have given himself 
the trouble to watch that movement with 
interest, if they had not all believed that 
O Connell and the Irish people meant to 
fight Neither in America nor in France 
had men learned to appreciate " the ethical 
experiment of moral force." Clearly, also, 
the English expected a fight, and were pre- 
paring for it, and greatly preferred that 
mode of settling the difficulty, (having a 
powerful army and navy ready,) to O'- 
Brien's method — inquiry, discussion, and 
redress — seeing that they were wholly un- 
provided with arguments, and had no idea 
of giving redress. 

It is also quite as clear that the Irish 
people then expected, and longed, and 
burned for battle ; and never believed that 
O'Connell would adhere to his " peace 
policy " even in the last extremity. Still, 
as he rose in apparent confidence, and be- 
came more defiant in his tone, the people 
rallied more ardently around him ; and 
thousands of quiet, resolute men, flocked 
into the repeal cause, who had hitherto held 
back from all the agitations, merely because 
they had always believed O'Connell insin- 
cere. They thought that the mighty move- 
ment which now surged up around him had 
whirled him into its own tempest at last ; 
and that " the time was come." 

No speech he ever uttered roused such a 
stormy tumult of applause as when, at 
Mallow " monster meeting," referring to the 
threats of coercion, and to an anxious 



Cabinet council which had just been held. 
He said : — 

" They spent Thursday in consulting 
whether they would deprive us of our rights, 
and I know not what the result of that 
council may be ; but this I know, there was 
not an Irishman in the council. I may be 
told that the Duke of Wellington was there. 
Who calls him an Irishman? If a tiger's 
cub was dropped in a fold, would it be a 
lamb ? But, perhaps, I am wrong in an- 
ticipating ; perhaps I am mistaken in warn- 
ing you. But is there reason to caution 
you ? The council sat for an entire day, 
and eveu then did not conclude its delibera- 
tions, but adjourned to the next day, while 
the business of the country was allowed to 
stand still. What had they to deliberate 
about ? The repealers were peaceable, 
loyal, and attached — affectionately attached 
— to the Queen, and determined to stand 
between her and her enemies. If they as- 
sailed us to-morrow, and that we conquered 
them — as conquer them we will one day — ■ 
the first use of that victory which we would 
make would be, to place the sceptre 1n the 
bands of her who has ever shown us favor, 
and whose conduct has ever been full of 
sympathy and emotion for our sufferings. 
Suppose, then, for a moment, that England 
found the act of Union to operate not t'ot- 
her benefit — if, instead of decreasing her 
debt, it added to her taxation and liabilities, 
and made her burden more onerous — and 
if she felt herself entitled to call for a repeal 
of that act, I ask Peel and Wellington, and 
let them deny it if they dare, and if they did 
they would be the scorn and by-woi'd of the 
world, would she not have the right to call 
for a repeal of that act. And what are 
Irishmen that they should be denied the 
same privilege ? Have we not the ordi- 
nary courage of Englishmen ? Are we to 
be trampled under foot ? Oh, they shall 
never trample me, at least. I was wrong 
— they may trample me under foot — I say 
they may trample me, but it will be my 
dead body they will trample on, not the 
living man." 

And a roar, two hundred thousand strong, 
rent the clouds. From that day, the meet- 
ings went on increasingly in numbers, in 
regularity of training, and /u highly-wrought 



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ALL ENGLAND AGAINST REPEAL MONSTEli MEETINGS 



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excitement ; until at Tara, and at Mullagh- 
mast, the agitator sliook with the passion 

of the scene, as the fiery eyes of three hun- 
dred thousand upturned faces seemed to 
crave the word. 

Whig newspapers and politicians in Eng- 
land, (the Whigs being then in opposition,) 
began now to suggest various conciliatory 
measures — talked of the anomaly of the 
"Established Church" — and generally ;»ave 
it to be understood, that if they were in 
power they would know how to deal with 
the repeal agitation. At every meeting 
O'Coimell turned these professions into 
ridicule. It was too late, now, he said to 
offer to buy up repeal by concessions, or 
good measures. An Irish Parliament in 
Collage Green : this was his ultimatum. 

We approach the end of the monster 
meetings. Neither England nor Ireland 
could bear this excitement much longer. 
The two grandest and most imposing of 
these parades were at Tara and Mullagh- 
mast ; both in the Province of Leinster, 
'within a short distance of Dublin ; both 
conspicuous, 'the one in glory, the other in 
gloom, through past centuries, and haunted 
by ghosts of kings and chiefs. 

On the great plain of Meath, not far from 
the Boyne river, rises a gentle eminence, in 
the midst of a luxuriant farming country. 
On and around its summit are still certain 
mouldering remains (if earthen mounds and 
moats, the ruins of the " House of Cormac," 
and the "Mound of the Hostages," and the 
" Stone of Destiny." It is 'femora of the 
Kings. On Tuesday morning, the 15th of 
August, most of the population of Meath, 
with many thousands from the four counties 
round, were pouring along every road 
leading to the hill. Numerous bauds, ban- 
ners and green boughs, enlivened their 
march, or divided their ordered squadrons. 
Vehicles of all descriptions, from the hand- 
some private chariot to the Irish jaunting- 
car, were continually arriving, and by the 
wardens duly disposed around the hill. In 
Dublin, the "Liberator," after a public 
breakfast, set forth at the head of a cortege, 
ami his progress to Tara was a procession 
and a triumph. Under triumphal arches, 
and amidst a storm of music and acclama- 
tions, his carriage passed through the 




several little towns that lay in his way. At 
Tara, the multitudes assembled were esti- 
mated in the Nation at seven hundred and 
fifty thousand ; an exaggeration, certainly. 
But they were at least three hundred and 
fifty thousand. Their numbers were not so 
impressive as their order and discipline ; 
nor these so wonderful as the stifled en- 
thusiasm that uplifted them above the earth. 
They came, indeed, with naked hands ; but 
the agitator knew Well that if he had in- 
vited them, they would have come still more 
gladly with extemporaneous pikes or spears, 
"or instruments serving for pikes and 
spears." He had been proclaiming from 
every hill-top in Ireland for six months that 
something was coming — that repeal was "on 
the wild winds of Heaven." Expectation 
had grown intense, painful, almost intoler- 
able. He knew it ; and those who were 
close to him as he mounted the platform, 
noticed that his lip and hand visibly trembled, 
as he gazed over the boundless human ocean, 
and heard its thundering roar of welcome. 
He knew that every soul in that host de- 
manded its enfranchisement at his hand. 

O'Conncll called this meeting "an august 
and triumphant meeting ; " and as if con- 
scious that he must at least seem to make 
another step in advance, he brought up at 
the next meeting of the Repeal Association, 
a detailed "plan for the renewed action of 
the Irish Parliament," which, he said, it 
only needed the Queen's writs to pnt in op- 
eration. The new House of Commons was 
to consist of three hundred members, quite 
fairly apportioned to the several constituen- (j) 
cies ; and, in the meantime, he announced 
that he would invite three hundred gentle- 
men to assemble in Dublin, early in Decem- 
ber, who were to come from every part of 
Ireland, and virtually represent their re- 
spective localities. This was the " Council 
of Three Hundred," about which he had often 
talked before in a vague manner ; but had 
evidently great difficulty in bringing to pass 
legally. For it would be a " Convention of 
Delegates," — and such an assembly, though 
legal enough in England, is illegal in Ire- 
land. Conventions, (like arms and ammu- 
nition,) are held to be unsuitable to the Irish 
character. For, in fact, it was a convention 
which proclaimed the independence of Ire- 



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534 



HISTORY OP IIIKLAND. 



land in Dtingannon ; and the arms and am- 
munition of the volunteer army that made 
ii good, in 1782. 

Two weeks after this, the London Par- 
liament was prorogued ; and the Queen's 
Bpeech, (composed by Sir Robert Peel,) 
was occupied almost entirely by two sub- 
jects—the disturbances in Wales, and the 
repeal agitation in Ireland. There had 
been some rioting and bloodshed in Wales, 
in resistance to oppressive turnpike dues, 
and the like — there was a quiet and legal 
expression of opinion in Ireland, unattended 
by the slightest outrage, demanding back 
the Parliament of the country. The Queen 
first dealt with Wales. She had taken mea- 
sures, she said, for the repression Of violence 
— and, at the same time, directed an in- 
quiry to be made into the circumstances 
which led to it. As to Ireland, Her Ma- 
jesty said, there was discontent and dis- 
affection, but uttered not a word about any 
inquiry into the causes of that. " It had 
ever been her earnest desire," Her Majesty 
said, " to administer the government of that 
country in a spirit of strict justice and im- 
partiality" — and "she was firmly determin- 
ed, under the blessing of Divine Provi- 
dence to maintain the Union." 

The little principality of Wales was in 
open revolt— I Ik re Ministers would institute 
inquiry. Ireland was quiet, and stand- 
ing upon the law — there they would meel 
the ease with horse, fool, and artillery ; for 
nil knew that was what the Queen meant 
by " the blessing of Divine Providence." 

Again the agitator mustered all Con- 
naught, at three monster meetings— in Ros- 
common, Clifden, and Loughrea. Again he 
asked them if they were for the repeal ; and 
agniu the mountains and the sea-cliffs re- 
sounded with their acclaim. Yes ; they 
were for the repeal ; they had said so be- 
fore. What next ? 

Leinster, too, was summoned again to 
meet on the 1st of October, at Mnllagh- 
mast, in Kildare County, near the road from 

Dublin to CnrloW, and close on the borders 

of the Wicklow highlands. 

This was the most imposing and effective 
of all the meetings. The spot was noted as 
the scene of a massacre of some chiefs of 
Olfaly and Lcix, with hundreds of their 



clansmen, in 1577, by the English of the 
Pale, who had invited them to a great feast, 
but had troops silently drawn around the 
banqueting-hall, who, at a signal, attacked 
the place and cut the throat of every was- 
sailer. The hill of Mullaghmast, like that of 
Tara, is crowned by a rath, or ancient earth- 
en rampart, inclosing about three acres. 

The members of the town corporations 
repaired to the rath, in their corporate robes. 
O'Connell took the chair, in his scarlet cloak 
of alderman ; and, amidst the breathless 
silence of the people, John Bogan, the first 
of Irish sculptors, came forward and placed 
on the Liberator's head a richly-embroider- 
ed cap, modeled after the ancient Irish 
Crown, saying : " Sir, I only regret this cap 
is not of gold.'' Then the deep roar of half 
a million voices, and the waving of at least 
a thousand banners, proclaimed the enthu- 
siasm of the people. Again O'Connell as- 
sured them that England could not long re- 
sist these demonstrations of their peaceful 
resolve— that the Union was a nullity — that 
he had already arranged his plan for the 
new Irish Parliaments — and that this was 
the repeal year. 

In truth, it was time for England either 
to yield with good grace, or to find or make 
some law applicable to this novel "political 
offence," or to provoke a fight and blow 
away repeal with cannon. Many of the Pro- 
testants were joining O'Connell ; and even 
the troops in some Irish regiments had been 
known to throw up their caps with " hur- 
rah lor repeal 1" It was high time to grap- 
ple with the "sedition." 

Accordingly, the Government was all this 
time watching for an occasion on which it 
could come to issue with the agitation, and 
on which all advantages would be on its 
side. The next week that occasion arose. 
A great metropolitan meeting was appointed 
to be held on the historic shore of Clontarf, 
two miles from Dublin, along the bay— on 
Sunday, the 8th of October. The garrison 
of Dublin amounted then to about four 
thousand men, besides the one thousand 
police ; with abundance of field artillery. 

Late in the afternoon on Saturday, when 
ii was already almost dusk, a proclamation 
was posted on the walls of Dublin, signed 
by the Irish Secretary and Privy Council- 



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WHY ENGLAND COULD NOT YIELD. 



lors, and the Commander of the forces, 
forbidding tlie meeting ; and charging all 
magistrates and officers, "and others whom 
it might concern, to be aiding and assisting 
in the execution of the law, in preventing 
said meeting." 

"Let them not dare," O'Connell had 
often said, " to attack ns I " The challenge 
was now to be accepted. 



K'lHt^^J 




CHAPTER LVII. 

1843— 1S44. 

Why England could not Yield— Cost to Her of Re- 
peal — Intention of Government at Clontarf-- The 
" Projected Massacre" — Meeting Prevented — State 
Prosecution — O'Brien Declares for Repeal — Pack- 
ing of the Jury — Verdict of Guilty — Debate in 
Parliament — Russell and Macaulay on Packing of 
Juries— O'Connell in Parliament— Speculation of 
tlic Whigs— Sentence and Imprisonment of "Con- 
spirators'" — Effects on Repeal Association — Ap- 
peal to the House of Lords — Whig Law Lords— 
Reversal of the Sentence — Enthusiasm of the 
People— Their Patience and Self-Denial— Decline 
of the Association. 

British Government then closed with 
repeal ; and one or the other, it was plain, 
must go down. 

For this was, in truth, the alternative. 

The British Empire, as it stands, looks 
vast and strong ; but none know so well 
as the statesmen of that country how in- 
trinsically feeble it is ; and how entirely it 
depends for its existence upon ■prestige — that 
is, upon a superstitious belief in its power. 
England, in short, could by no means afford 
to part with her "sister island :" — both in 
money and in credit the cost would be too 
much. In this repeal year, for example, there 
whs tin export of provisions from Ireland to 
England of the value of £16,000,000. And 
between surplus revenue remitted to Eng- 
land, and absentee-rents spent in England, 
Mr. O'Corinell's frequent statement that 
£9,000,000 of Irish money was annjially 
spent, in England, is not over the truth. 
These were substantial advantages, not to 
be yielded up lightly. 

In point of national prestige, England 
could still less afford to repeal the Union, 
because all the world would know the con- 
cession had been wrong from her against her 
will. Whigs and Tories were of one mind 



upon this; and nothing can be more bitter 
than the language of all sections of the 
English press, after it was once determined 
to crush the agitation by force. 

"A repeal, (says the Times,) is not a 
matter to be argued on ; it is a blow which 
despoils the Queen's domestic territory- 
splinters her Crown — undermines, and then 
crushes, her Throne — exposes her to insult 
and outrage from all quarters of the earth 
and ocean ; a repeal of the Union leaves 
England stripped of her vitality. Whatever 
might be the inconvenience or disadvantage, 
therefore, or even unwholesome restraint 
upon Ireland — although the Union secures 
the reverse of all these — hut even were it gall 
to Ireland, England must guard her own 
life's blood, and sternly tell the disaffected 
Irish : You shall have me for a sister or 
a subjngatrix ; that is my ultimatum." 

And the Morning Chronicle, speaking of 
the act of " Union," says : — 

" True, it was coarsely and badly done ; 
but stand it must. A Cromwell's violence, 
with Machiavelli's perfidy, may have been 
at work, but the treaty, after all is more 
than parchment." 

The first bolt launched, then, was the 
proclamation to prevent the meeting at 
Clontarf. The proclamation was posted in 
Dublin only an hour before dusk on Satur- 
day. But long before that time thousands 
of people from Meath, Kildare, and Dublin 
Counties were already on their way to 
Clontarf. They all had confidence in O'- 
Connell's knowledge of law ; and he had 
often told them, (and it was true,) that the 
meetings, and all the proceedings at them, 
were perfectly legal ; and that a proclama- 
tion could not make them illegal. They 
would, therefore, have most certainly 
flocked to the rendezvous in the usual 
numbers, even if they had seen the procla- 
mation. 

Many persons did not at first understand 
the object of the Privy Council in keeping 
back the proclamation to so late an hour 
on Saturday, seeing that the meeting had 
been many days announced ; and they 
might as well have issued their command 
earlier iu the week. One may also be at a 
loss to understand why the proclamation 
called not only upon all magistrates, aud 



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civil mid military officers to assist in pre- 
renting the assembly ; but also, "all others 
whom it might concern." 

Bui the thing was simple enough : they 
meant, to take O'Connell by surprise — so 
that he might bo unable to prevent the 
assembly entirely, or to organize it, (if such 
were his policy,) for defence — and thus they 
hoped to create confusion and a pretext for 
an onslaught, or "salutary lesson." Be- 
sides, they had already made up their minds 
to arrest O'Connell and several others, and 
subject, them to a state prosecution ; and 
the Crown lawyers were already hard at 
work arranging a case against him. It is 
quite possible that they intended, (should 
O'Connell go to Clonlarf in the midst of 
such confusion and excitement,) to arrest 
llim then and there ; which Would have 
been certainly resisted by the people ; and 
so there would have been a riot ; and every- 
thing would have been lawful then. As to 
the "others whom it might concern," that 
meant the Orange Associations of Dublin, 
and everybody else "ho might take the 
imitation to himself. " Others whom it may 
concern 1" exclaimed O'Connell. "Why, 
this is intended for, and addressed to 
Tresham Gregg ami his auditory."* 

Thus, the enemy had well provided for 
confusion, collision, and a salutary lesson. 
Lord Cloucurry made no scruple to term the 
whole of these Government arrangements "a 
projected massacre." 

For O'Connell and the committee of the 
Repeal Association, there were but two 
courses possible — one to prevent the meeting, 
and turn the people back from it, if there was 
still time ; the other was, for O'Connell to 
let the people of the country come to Clon 
tarf — to meet them there himself as he had 

invited them— but, the troops being almost 
all drawn out, of the city, to keep the 
Dublin repealers at home, and to give them 
a commission to take the Castle and all the 
barracks, ami to break down the canal 
bridge, and barricade the streets leading to 
Clontarf. The whole garrison and police 
were five thousand. The city has a popula- 
tion of two hundred and fifty thousand. 
The multitudes coming m from the country 

* Rev, Tresham Gregg was then the Orange agitator, 
ou whom bud fallen the mantle uf Sir Iiarcuurt Lees. 




would, probably, have amounted to almost 
as many ; and that handful of men between. 
There would have been a horrible slaughter 
of the unarmed people without, if the troops 
would fire on them — a very doubtful mat- 
ter — and O'Connell himself might have 
fallen. But those who have well considered 
the destinies of Ireland since that day, may 
reasonably enough be of the opinion that 
the death of five or ten thousand men at 
Clontarf, might have saved Ireland the 
slaughter by famine of an hundred times as 
many shortly afterwards. 

The first course was the one adopted. 
The committee issued another proclamation, 
and sent it off by parties of gentlemen 
known to the people, and on whom they 
would rely, to turn back the crowds upon all 
the roads by which they were likely to 
come in. All that, Saturday night their 
exertions wire unremitting ; and the good 
Father Tyrrell, whose parishioners, swarm- 
ing in from Fingal, would have made a 
large part of the meeting, by his exertions 
and fatigue that night, fell sick and died. 
The meeting was prevented. The trocgk 
were marched out, and drawn up on the. 
beach and on the hill ; the artillery was 
placed in a position to rake the place of 
meeting, and the cavalry ready to sweep it ; 
but they met no enemy. 

Within a week, O'Connell and eight others 
were held to bail to take their trial for 
"conspiracy and other misdemeanors." 

O'Connell, on his side, laughed both at 
the "Clontarf war" and at the state trials, 
lie seemed well pleased with them both. 
The one proved how entjrely under disci- 
pline were the virtuous, and sober, and loyal 
people, as he called them. The other would 
show how wisely he had steered the agita- 
tion through the rocks and shoals of law. 
In this he would have been perfectly right, 
his legal position would have been impreg- 
nable, but, for two circumstances — first, 
"conspiracy" in Ireland, means anything 
the Castle judges wish ; second, the Castle 
sheriff was quite sure to pack a Castle-jury 
— SO that, whatever the Castle might desire, 
the jury would affirm on oath, " so help 
them God!" The jury system in Ireland 
we shall have occasion, more than once, to 
explain hereafter. 




•7, ijKS.SUU.NlltS.J, 



THE " PROJECTED MASSACRE " MEETING PREVENTED. 



53T 



^ 



For the next eight months, that is, until 
the end of May, 1S44, the state prosecution 
wns the grand concern around which all 
public interest in Ireland concentrated 
itself. The prosecuted "conspirators" were 
nine in number — Daniel O'Connell ; his son, 
John O'Connell, M. P , for Kilkenny; 
Charles 0-avan Duffy, Editor of the Nation; 
the Rev. Mr. Tyrrell, of Lusk, County 
Dublin, (he died while the prosecution was 
pending ;) the Rev. Mr. Tierney, of Clon- 
tibret, County Monaghan ; Richard Rarrct, 

Editor of the Pilot, Dublin ; Tl la's 

Steele, " Head Pacificator of Ireland ;" 
Thomas M. Ray, Secretary of the Repeal 
Association ; and Dr. Gray, Editor of the 
Freeman's Journal, Dublin. 

During all the eight months of these legal 
proceedings, the repeal agitation continued 
to gain strengtll and impetus. The open- 
air meetings, indeed, ceased— Clontarf was 
to have been the last of them, owing to the 
approach of winter. But the new hall, 
which had been built as a place of meeting 
for the association, was just finished ; and 
O'Connell, who had a peculiar taste in 
nomenclature, christened it "Conciliation 
Hall ;" intending to indicate the necessity 
for uniting all classes and religions in Ire- 
land in a common struggle for the inde- 
pendence of their common country. 

On the 22d of October the new hall was 
opened in great form, and amidst great en- 
thusiasm. The chair was taken by John 
Augustus O'Neill, of Bunowen Castle, a 
Protestant gentleman, who had been early 
in life a cavalry officer, and member of 
Parliament for Hull, in England. Tetters 
from Lord French, Sir Charles Wolesley, Sir 
Richard Musgrave, and Mr. Caleb Powell, 
one of the members for Limerick County, 
were read and placed on the minutes — 
all breathing vehement indignation against 
the " Government," and pledging the 
wannest, support. But this first meeting 
in the new hall was specially notable for 
the adhesion of Mr. Smith O'Brien. 
Nothing encouraged the people, nothing 
provoked and perplexed the enemy so much 
as this. 

For O'Brien was not only a member of 

the great and ancient House of Thomond, 

but was further well-known as a man both 
68 



of calmness and resolution. The family 

had been Protestant for some generations ; 

and Smith O'Brien, though always zealous 

in promoting everything which might be use 

ful to Ireland in Parliament, had remained y 

attached to the Whig party, and was hardly 

expected to throw himself into the national 

cause so warmly, and at so dangerous a 

time. 

It has been already related how this ex- 
cellent and gallant Irishman had flung to 
the Lord Chancellor his Commission of the 
Peace, when that functionary began to 
dismiss magistrates for attending peace- 
ful meetings. He now saw that the 
British Government had commenced the 
deliberate task of crushing down a just na- 
tional claim in the blood of the Irish people. 
The letter in which he announced his adhe- 
sion was extremely moderate; and it pro- 
duced the deeper impression upon that ac- 
count. One passage of it is highly charac- 
teristic of the writer. He says : — 

" Lest I should be led to form a precipi- 
tate decision, I availed myself of the interval 
which followed the close of the session to 
examine whether, among the Governments 
of Central Europe, there are any so indif- 
ferent to the interests of their subjects as 
England has been to the welfare and happi- 
ness ol our population. After visiting Bel- 
gium, and all the principal capitals of Ger- 
many, I returned home impressed with the 
sad conviction that there is more human 
misery in one county in Ireland, than through- 
out all the populous cities and districts which 
I had visited. On lauding in England, I 
learn that the Ministry, instead of applying 
themselves to remove the causes of com- 
plaint, have resolved to deprive us even of 
the liberty of discontent — that public meet- 
ings are to be suppressed — and that state 
prosecutions are to be curried on against 
Mr. O'Connell, and others, on some frivol- 
ous charges of sedition and conspiracy. 

" I should be unworthy to belong to a 
nation which may claim, at least as a char- 
acteristic virtue, that it exhibits increased 
fidelity in the hour of danger, if I were to 
delay any longer to dedicate myself to the 
cause of my country. Slowly, reluctantly 
convinced that Ireland has nothing to hope 
from the sagacity, the justice, or the gene- 






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HISTOKT OF IRELAND. 



rosily of the English Parliament) my reli- 
ance shall henceforth be placed upon our 
own native energy and patriotism." 

This chivalrous example, set by a man so 
justly esteemed, of course, induced many 
other Protestants to follow his example. 
The weekly contributions to the revenue of 
the association became so great as to place 
in the hands of the committee a large trea- 
sury, to be used in spreading and organizing 
tin' movement ; arbitration courts decided 
the people's complaints, with general accept- 
ation ; and great meetings in American 
cities sent, by every steamship, their words 
of sympathy and bills of exchange. 

It is not very certain that the " Govern- 
ment" was at first resolutely bent on press- 
ing their prosecution to extremity. Prob- 
ably they rather hoped that the show of a 
determination to put down the agitation 
somehow would cool the ardor both of dema- 
gogues and people. Plainly it had no such 
effect ; and it was, therefore, resolved to 
pursue the " conspirators " to conviction and 
imprisonment, at any cost, and by any 
means. 

The "state trials" then began on the 2d 
of November, 1843. These trials cannot 
be considered as really a legal proceeding, 
though invested with legal forms. It was a 
dt facto government using its courts and 
tribunals and juries, and all the other appa- 
ratus of justice, to crush a political enemy, 
under the false and fraudulent pretence of a 
trial. Everybody understood from the first 
that there was here no question of pleading, 
or of evidence, or of forensic-rhetoric ; and 
that all depended upon the role of the jury ; 
— which vote, however, was to be termed a 
" verdict." 

A revisal of the special jury-list took 
place before Mr. Shaw, Recorder of Dub- 
lin, with a special view to these trials. The 
names, when passed by the recorder, from 
day to day, were then sent to the sher- 
iffs office, to be placed on his book. Coun- 
sel were employed before the recorder to 
oppose, by every means, the admission of 
every Catholic gentleman against whom any 
color of objection could be thought of ; yet, 
with all this care, a large number of Catho- 
lics were placed on the list. As the names 
wi re transferred to the sheriff's office, it 



happened that the slip which contained the 
largest proportion of Catholic names missed 
its way, or was mislaid ; and the sixty 
seven names it contained never appeared on 
the sheriff's book. This became immediately 
notorious, and excited what one of the 
judges called "grave suspicion." 

In striking a special jury in Ireland, forty- 
eight names are taken by ballot out of the 
the jurors' book, in the Crown office. Then 
each party, the Crown and the traverser, 
has the privilege of striking off twelve — 
leaving twenty-four names. On the day of 
trial, the first twelve out of these twenty- 
four, who answer when called, are sworn as 
jurors. Now, so well had the sheriff dis- 
charged his duty in this case, that of the 
forty-eight names there were eleven Catho- 
lics. They were all struck off by the Crown, 
together with a great number of Protes- 
tants, whose British principles were not con- 
sidered sure at the Castle, and a "jury" 
was secured on whose patriotic vote Her 
Majesty could fully rely. 

These details respecting juries may not, 
perhaps, lie very interesting to the gffneral 
reader ; yet the history of our country can 
by no means be understood without them. 
Ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth, 
juries have been merely one of the arms of 
British domination in Ireland, just as the ' 
troops and police, the detectives and spies 
are. The jury may be said to be the one 
point at which the government and the 
people touch one another; and if it be a 
real jury of the " neighborhood," as de- 
scribed in the law books, then can be easily 
appreciated that profound saying—" that 
the only use of a government is to make 
sure that there shall be twelve impartial 
men in the jury-box." Hut the English 
Government has never been able to sustain 
itself in Ireland, without making sure of the 
very opposite arrangement. And it has 
been said, with truth, that the real Palla- 
dium of the British Constitution in that 
land, is a packed jury and the suspension of 
the Habeas Corpus. If Ireland truly and 
effectively possessed those two institutions, 
as England possesses them, the British 
power would not exist in our island three 
months. 

The details of the trials are of small in- 



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terest. Ail know how they would end. 
The Government, on this prosecution for 
" conspiracy," had not only its inevitable 
Q^j J U1 7. ljllt its Post Office spies at work, by 
whose means the " authorities " had spread 
out before them every morning all the corres- 
pondence of all the traversers, and of all 
their counsel and attorneys ; no small ad- 
vantage in dealing with conspiracy— if there 
had been a conspiracy. 

Early in February the trials ended ; and 
when the Chief Justice in his charge to the 
jury argued the case like one of the counsel 
for the prosecution, and so far forgot him- 
sel as to term the traversers' counsel " the 
gentlemen on the other side," there was 
more laughter than indignation throughout 
the country. The jury brought in their ver- 
Sj<^ diet of guilty— of course. O'Connell ad- 
dressed a letter to the people of Ireland, 
informing them that " the repeal" was 
now sure ; that all he wanted was peace, 
patience, and perseverance ; and that if 
they would only " keep the peace for six, 
or at most, for twelve months, repeal was 
certain." In the meantime, he and his 
friends were appointed to come before the 
Court on a certain day in May, to receive 
sentence. 

Immediately on the verdict being known 
in Londou, there arose in Parliament a vio- 
lent debate on the state of Ireland. The 
Whig party, being then out of place, and 
who saw in this whole repeal movement noth- 
ing but a machinery by which they might raise 
themselves to power, affected great zeal for 
justice to Ireland, and even indignation 
at the conduct of the trials. It is almost 
incredible, but remains on record, that Lord 
John Russell used these words : — 

"Nominally, indeed, the two countries 
have the same laws. Trial by jury, for in- 
stance, exists in both countries; but is it ad- 
ministered alike in both ? Sir, I remember 
on one occasion when an honorable gentle- 
man, Mr. Brougham, on bringing forward a 
motion, in 182:3, on the administration of 
the law in Ireland, made use of these 
words : ' The law of England esteemed 
all men equal. It was sufficient to be 
born within the King's allegiance to 
be entitled to all the rights the loftiest 
subject of the laud enjoyed. None were 



disqualified ; the only distinction was be- 
tween natural-born subjects and aliens. 
Such, indeed, was the liberality of our 
system in the times which we called barbar- 
ous, but from which, in these enlightened 
days, it might be as well to take a hint, 
that if a man were even an alien-born, ho 
was not deprived of the protection of the 
law. In Ireland, however, the law held a 
directly opposite doctrine. The sect to 
which a man belonged, the cast of his re- 
ligious opinions, the form in which he 
worshipped his Creator, were grounds on 
which the law separated him from his fel- 
lows, and bound him to the endurance of a 
system of the most cruel injustice.' Such 
was the statement of Mr. Brougham, 
when he was the advocate of the op- 
pressed. But, sir, let me ask, was what I 
have just now read the statement of a man 
who was ignorant of the country of which 
he spoke ? No ; the same language, or to 
the same effect, was used by Sir M. 
O'Loghlen, in his evidence before the House 
of Lords. That gentleman stated that he 
had been in the habit of going the Minister 
circuit for nineteen years, and on that circuit 
it was tin' general practice for the Crown, 
in criminal prosecutions, to set aside all 
Catholics and all the Liberal Protestants ; 
and he added, that he had been informed 
that on other circuits the practice was 
carried on in a more strict manner. Sir M. 
O'Loghlen also mentioned one case of this 
kind which took place in 1834, during the 
Lord- Lieutenancy of the Marquis of Welles- 
ley, and the Attorney-Generalship of Mr. 
Blackburne, the present Master of the 
Bolls, and in which, out of forty-three per- 
sons set aside (in a cause, too, which was 
not a political one,) there were thirty-six 
Catholics and seven Protestants, and all of 
them respectable men. This practice is so 
well known, and carried out so generally, 
that men known to be Liberals, whether 
Catholics or Protestants, have ceased to 
attend assizes, that they might not be ex- 
posed to these public insults. Now, I 
would ask, are these proofs of equal laws, 
or laws equally administered? Could the 
same, or similar eases, have happened in 
Yorkshire, or Sussex, or Kent, ? Are 
these the fulfillment of the promise mado 



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510 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



entered into at the 



and engagements 
Union ?" 

This sounds extremely fair. Who would 
think that Lord John Russell was Prime 
Minister afterwards in '48 ? Mr. Macaulay 
said, in the same debate, February 19, 1844 : 

" I do say that on tiiis question, it is of 
the greatest importance that the proceedings 
which the Government have taken should 
be beyond impeachment, and that they 
should have obtained a victory in such a 
way that that victory should not be to them 
a greater disaster than a defeat. Has that 
been the result ? First, is it denied that 
Mr. O'Connell has suffered wrong? Is it 
denied if the law had been carried into 
effect without those irregularities and that 
negligence which has attended the Irish 
trials, Mr. O'Coimell's chance of acquittal 
would have been better? — no person denied 
that. The affidavit which has been pro- 
duced, and which has not been contradicted, 
states that twenty-seven Catholics were ex- 
eluded from the jury-list. I know that all 
the technicalities of the law were on the 
side of the Crown, but my great charge 
against the Government is, that they have 
merely regarded this question in a technical 
point of view. We know what the principle 
of the law is, in cases where prejudice is 
likely to arise against an alien, and who is 
to be tried de mcilietale lingua. Is he to I"' 
tried by twelve Englishmen? No; our 
ancestors knew that that was not the way 
in which justice could be obtained — they 
knew that the only proper way was to have 
one-half of the jurymen of the country in 
which the crime was committed, and the 
other half of the country to which the 
prisoner belonged. If any alien had been 
in the situation of Mr. O'Connell, that law 
would have been observed. You are read)' 
enough to call the Catholics of Ireland 
'aliens' when it suits yonr purpose; you 
are ready enough to treat them as aliens 
when it suits your purpose; but the first 
privilege, the only advantage, of alienage, 
you practically deny them." 

This orator, also, was a member of the 
administration in 1848 ; and he did not 
utter any of his fine indignation at the gross 
packing of juries which was perpetrated 
then. In 184^, however, these "Liberals" 



were in, not out ; had resting upon them 
the responsibility of maintaining the British 
Empire ; and, therefore, desired to hear no 
more of "justice to Ireland." 

In the same debate, there was much fe- 
rocious language on the part of Tory mem- 
bers of the House : the infamous nature of 
the alleged conspiracy was dwelt upon, and 
the necessity of bringing to condign punish- 
ment that "Arch-Agitator," that " hoary 
criminal," who was endeavoring to over- 
throw the British Empire. In the midst of 
all this, O'Connell himself, the " hoary 
criminal," strode into the House. In a 
discussion upon the state of Ireland, he had 
had somewhat to say. First, he listened to 
the debate for a whole week, and then, 
amidst breathless silence, arose. 

He did not confine himself to the narrow 
ground of the prosecution, but reviewed the 
whole career of British power in Ireland, 
with bitter and taunting comments. As to 
the prosecution, he treated it slightly and 
contemptuously. 

" I have, at greater length than I intend- 
ed, gone through the crimes of England 
since the Union — I will say the follies of 
England. I have but little more to say ; 
but I have, in the name of the people of 
Ireland — and I do it in their name— to pro- 
test against the late prosecution. And 
I protest, first, against the nature of that 
prosecution ; forty-three public meetings 
were held, and every one of them was ad- 
mitted to be legal ; not one was impeached 
as being against the law, and every one of 
them making on the calendar of crime a 
cypher ; but by multiplying cyphers, you 
come, by a species of legal witch-craft, to 
make it a number that shall be fatal. One 
meeting is legal, another meeting is legal, a 
third is the same, and. three, legal meetings, you, 
say, make one illegal meeting. The people 
of Ireland understand that you may oppress 
them, but not laugh at them. That, sir, is 
my first objection The second is the 
striking out all the Catholics from the jury 
panel. There is no doubt of the fact. 
Eleven Catholics were upon the jury panel, 
and everyone of them was struck out." 

All the world knew it. Nobody pretend- 
ed to deny it, or publicly to excuse it ; but 
what availed all this? The ultimatum of 



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SENTENCE AND INPRISONMENT OP " CONSPIRATORS." 



England was, that the Union must be main- 
tained at any cost, and by all means. And 
O'Connell was to return to Dublin by a 
certain day for judgment and sentence. 
His taunts and invectives against the whole 
system of Irish government were very wel- 
come, anil highly entertaining to English 
Whigs, who only looked to their own party 
chances. But no man in all England ever, 
for one moment, suffered the idea to enter 
his head, that Ireland was to be in any case 
permitted to govern herself. 

And British Whigs could well afford to 
let O'Connell have a legal triumph, to the 
damage of British Tories, so long as the 
real and substantial policy of England in 
Ireland was pursued without interruption. 
As to this point, there must be no mistake 
— no British Whig or British Tory regarded 
the Irish question in any other point of 
view than as a question on which might 
occur a change of Ministry. 

An army of fifty thousand men, includ- 
ing police, was all this while in full military 
-occupation of the island. The Arms bill 
had become law ; and, in the registration of 
arms before magistrates under that act, 
those who were in favor of their country's 
independence were refused the privilege of 
keeping so much as an old musket in then- 
houses for purposes of self-defence. * 

The police-barracks were still further 
strengthened ; the detectives were multi- 
plied ; the regular troops were kept almost 
constantly under arms, and marched to and 
fro with a view of striking terror ; improved 
codes of signals were furnished to the police 
for use by day and night— to give warning of 
everything they might conceive suspicious. 
With so firm a hold upon the island, the 

* Of the proceedings upon these applications for 
registry of arms at all the petty sessions of Ireland, 
we have no record, but to the Cork Southern lie- 
porter we are indebted for the minute report of a 
session at Marcroom, in that county, which may be 
taken as a kind of sample. 

" Maurice Dullea, Glaun— Applicant for leave to 
keep one gun. 

" Mr. Gillman. Magistrate— Are you a repeal 
warden ? 1 am not. 

" Would you answer the question on your oath, if it 
were put to you ? I would. 

" Mr. Warren— The question should not be asked, 
unless it was known he had so acted. Admitted. 

" John M'Auliffe, Millstreet — One pistol. 

" Captain Wallace — Are you a repeal warden ? I 
am, sir. 



British Ministers might have thought them- 
selves in a condition to abandon their 
questionable prosecution ; but they had the 
idea that O'Conuell's power lay very much 
in the received opinion of his legal infalli- 
bility ; so they were resolved to imprison 
him, at any rate, for a short time— even 
though he should finally trample on their 
prosecution, and come forth iu trimmph— as, 
in fact, he did. 

On the 30th May, the "conspirators" 
were called up for sentence ; and were im- 
prisoned in Richmond Penitentiary — a 
suburban prison at the south side of Dublin, 
with splendid gardens and handsome ac- 
commodations ; here they rusticated for 
three months, holding levees in an elegant 
marquee in the garden ; receiving daily 
deputations, and visits from Bishops, from 
Americans, and from ladies. O'Connell 
still wrote once a week to Conciliation Hall, 
that repeal never was so sure, never so im- 
minent, as now, if only the people would 
keep the peace. 

The great multitudinous people looked on ' 
in some amaze. " Peace " was still the or- 
der ; and they obeyed ; but they much mar- 
veled what it meant, and when it would end. 
Still it was doubtful whether the enemy's 
government had really gained much by their 
prosecution. Very considerable indignation 
had been excited, even amongst the reason- 
able Protestants, by the means which had 
been used to snatch this conviction. The 
agitation had rather gained than lost ; and 
many gentlemen who had held back till 
now, sent in their names and subscriptions. 
Smith O'Brien was now a constant attend- 
ant at the association ; and by the boldness 
and purity of his character, and by his ex- 
tensive knowledge of public affairs, gave it 
both impetus and steadiness. 

" Mr. M'Carthy O'Leary, Attorney— The man bears 
a most unimpeachable character. 

" Mr. Warren— We cannot reject one repeal war- 
den, and admit another. Rejected." 

At the same sessions was made manifest the fact 
that the Protestant "gentry" of the country were 
providing themselves with a sufficient armament. 
For example, Mrs. Charlotte Stawell, of Kilbritton 
Castle, registers "six guns and six pistols." and 
Richard Quinn, of Skivanish, "nine guns, one pair 
pistols, two dirks, two bayonets, and one sword." 
No objection was offered against these persons keep, 
ing as many fire-arms as they chose ! So worked tho 
Disarming act. 



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Yet O'ConiK'll and his friends were in 
prison, sentenced to an incarceration of one 
year ; and it would be vain to deny that 
there was humiliation in the fact. True, the 
jury had been notoriously packed ; the trial 
had been but a .sham ; and the sentence 
would probably be reversed by the House 
of Lords. Still there was Ireland represent- 
ed by her chosen men Buffering the penalties 
of crime in a jail. The island was si ill 
fully and effectively occupied by troops, as 
u hostile country ; and all its resources 
were in clear possession of the enemy. 
Many began to doubt, whether the "moral- 
force" principle of O'Conuell would be 
found sufficient. 

In truth, the repeal agitation, as a living 
and formidable power, was over from the 
day of imprisonment. The judgment of the 
Irish Court of Queen's Bench was brought 
up to the British House of Peers on Writ 
of Error ; and on the 2d and 4th of Sep- 
tember, the opinions of nine English judges 
were delivered, and the decision pronounced. 
Eight of the judges gave their opinion that 
the jury was a good jury, the verdict good, 
and the judgment good. It appeared, how- 
ever, that Mr. Justice Coleridge dissented 
Lord Lvndhurst, the Lord Chancellor, then 
delivered his decision ; — he agreed with the 
majority of the judges, and thought the 
judgment should stand, the packing of the 
jury Vicing immaterial. He was followed by 
Lord Brougham — and nobody could doubt 
what, would be the decision of that learned 
person — the jury was a good enough jury : 
some of the counts in the indictment might 
be bad ; but, bad or good, the judgment of 
the Irish Court was to stand, and O'Con- 
uell was to remain in prison. 

Lord Denman, Chief Justice of England, 
then arose. 1 have already told you that 
the whole Irish question was regarded in 
the British Parliament solely with reference 
to its affording a chance of turning out the 
Tory Ministry, and conducting the Wings 
into power and place. We have seen, ac- 
cordingly, the pretended indignation of 
Lord .John Russell, and of Mr. Macaulav, 
against the packing of the juries. It may 
seem an atrocious charge to make upon 
judges and law lords — that they could be 
influenced by any other considerations than 



the plain law and justice of the case. But 
the mere matter of fact was, that the ma- 
jority of the English judges were of the 
Tory party. Of the law lords, also, 
Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst was a violent 
Tory, and, moreover, an avowed enemy to 
Ireland. Lord Brougham was at that time 
a Tory, and, also, a well-known personal foe 
to O'Connell, having been often stung by 
the vicious taunts and sarcasms of that 
gentleman. But Lord Denman, Lord Cot- 
lenham, and Lord Campbell were Whigs ; 
and Denman, Cottenham, and Campbell gave 
i! as their opinion that the jury had been 
unfair and fraudulent — that no fair trial 
had taken place — and, therefore, that the 
judgment against the repeal conspirators 
should be reversed. 

Now, it is to be observed that the Brit- 
ish Government, by openly and ostentatious- 
ly striking off from the jury panel all Cath- 
olics, without exception, and all Protestants 
of moderate ami liberal opinions, made pro- 
clamation that they knew the great mass of 
the people to be averse to them and their 
rule — avowed that they accounted that sinaTl 
remainder, out of whom they selected their 
jurors, to be the only "good and lawful 
men." These were the vicinage contem- 
plated in the law books ; and the repeal 
conspirators being arraigned, not before their 
countrymen, not even before one sect of their 
countrymen, but before chosen men carefully 
selected by the Crown out of one section of 
one sect, were told to consider themselves 
on their trial per pais. This, to be sere, 
amounted to an admission that nine-lenlhs 
of Irishmen desired the freedom of their 
country — but then it also amounted to a de- 
claration that the English meant to hold 
the country, whether Irishmen would or 
not. On the reversal of the judgment, 
however, there was a show of high re- 
joicing in Dublin, and the prisoners were es- 
corted from the jail through the city by a 
vast and orderly procession, to O'Conuell'g 
house. The procession marched through 
College Green ; and just as O'Connell's car- 
riage came in front of the Irish Parliament 
House, (the most superb building ill Dub- 
lin,) the carriage stopped ; the whole pro- 
cession stopped ; and there was a deep 
silence as O'Conuell rose to his full height 









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ainl, pointing with his finger to the portico, 
turned slowly round and gazed into the 
faces of the people, without a word. Again 
and-again, lie stretched forth his arm and 
pointed ; and a succession of pealing cheers 
seemed to shake the city. 

The state trials, then, were at an end ; 
and all the country, friends and enemies, 
Ireland and England, were now looking eag- 
erly and earnestly for O'Connell's first move- 
ment, as an indication of his future course. 
Never, at any moment in his life, did he 
hold the people so wholly in his hand. Dur- 
ing the imprisonment, both clergy and re- 
peal wardens had labored diligently in ex- 
tending and confirming the organization ; 
and the poor people proved their faith and 
trust by sending greater and greater con- 
tributions to the repeal treasury. They kepi 
the " peace" as their Liberator bade them ; 
and the land was never so free from crime— 
lest they should give strength to the enemy. 

It is impossible to record, without pro- 
found admiration, the steady faith, patient 
zeal, self-denial, and disciplined enthusiasm, 
which the Irish people displayed for these 
two years. To many thousands of those 
peasants the struggle had been more severe 
than any war; for they were expected to 
set at nought potent landlords, who had 
over them and their children power of life 
and death — with troops of insolent bailiffs, 
and ejecting attorneys, and the omnipresent 
police ; and they did set them at nought. 
Every vote they give at an election might 
cost them house and home, land and life. 
They were naturally ardent, impulsive, 
ami impatient ; but their attitude was now 
calm and steadfast. They were an essen- 
tially military people ; but the great "Lib- 
erator" told them that " no political ameli- 
oration was worth one drop of human 
blood." 

They did not believe the formula, and in 
assenting to it often winked their eyes ; yet 
steadily and trustfully, this one good time, 
they sought to liberate their country peace- 
fully, legally, under the advice of counsel. 
They loyally obeyed that man, and would 
obey no other. And when he walked in 
triumph out of his prison, at one 
his mouth they would have ma 
Dublin from all the five ends of 




ENTHUSIASM OF THE PEOPLE. 



made short work with police and military 
barracks. 

But O'Connell was now old, approaching 
seventy ; and the fatal disease of which he 
was then really dying, had already begun 
to work upon his iron energies.* After his 
release he did not propose to hold the Clon- 
tarf meeting, as many hoped. He said 
nothing more about the "Council of Three 
Hundred," which the extreme section of 
nationalists were very desirous to see carried 
into effect ; and the more desirous because 
it would be illegal, according to what passes 
for law in Ireland. Yet the association all 
this time was becoming more powerful for 
good than ever. O'Brien had instituted a 
"Parliamentary Committee," and worked 
on it continually himself ; which, at all 
events, furnished the nation with careful and 
authentic memoirs on all Irish questions and 
interests, filled with accurate statistical de- 
tails. Many Protestant gentlemen, also, of 
high rank joined the association in 1844 
and 1845 — being evidently unconscious how 
certainly and speedily that body was going 
to destruction. 

In short, the history of Ireland must 
henceforth be sought for elsewhere than in 
the Repeal Association. 



CHATTER LVIII. 

1844. 

Decadence of Repeal Association — band Tenure 
Commission — Necessity of Exterminating "Sur- 
plus Population" — Report of the "Landlord and 
Tenant Commission "--Tenant Right to be Disal- 
lowed- Farms to be Consolidated — People to be 
Extirpated — Methods of the Minister to Divide Re- 
pealers — Grant to Maynooth — Queen's Colleges— 
Secret Agent at Rome — American Slavery — Dis- 
traction in Repeal Ranks— Bill for "Compensation 
to Tenants "—Defeated Death of Thomas Davis— 
The Famine — Commission of Chemists to Gain 
Time — Demands of Ireland — Of the Corporations — 
Of O'Connell and oilricn — Repudiation of Alms — 
Coercion Bill — Repeal of Corn Laws — Irish Har- 
vests go to England—" Relief Measures" — Delays 
— Fraud — Havoc of the People — Peel's System of 
Famine-Slaughter Fully Established — Peel Resigns 
Office 

During the two last years of the exist- 
ence of the Repeal Association, it made no 



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progress whatever towards the attainment 
of its great object ; which is equivalent to 
saying that it was going back. One of the 
first things proposed by Mr. O'Connell, after 
his release, in a secret meeting of the com- 
mittee, was a dissolution of the body, in or- 
der to its reconstruction on a somewhat 
more safe and legal basis. This was his 
old policy, whenever his agitations had come 
in conflict with what the Governmcnl called 
"law," and it had generally answered its 
purpose, whilst those agitations were direct- 
ed against penal laws, or tithes and church- 
rates, against something, in short, which 
was not vital to the existence of the Brit- 
ish Empire. But he now found himself at 
Inst in front of a castle wall, armed ami 
garrisoned, totally unassailable by any "agi- 
tation" yet invented. He could not make 
a single step in advance, upon that line ; 
and he seemed to feel it. Yet the whole 
country was earnestly expecting that step in 
advance. The proposal to dissolve was com- 
batted and was given up. He occupied his 
weekly speeches with collateral issues upon 
Parliamentary questions which were often 
arising — the " Bequests act," the " Colleges 
bill," the Papal Rescript negotiation, and 
the like; — all matters which would have 
been of moment in any self-governing nation, 
but were of next to no moment in the circum- 
stances ; or ho poured forth his Eery floods 
of eloquence in denunciation, not of the 
British Government, but of American slav- 
ery, with which he had nothing on earth to 
do. He praised too much, as many thought, 
the sublime integrity and justice of the three 
Whig law lords who had voted for revers- 
ing his judgment. But the most significant 
change in his behavior was in the querulous 
captionsness he showed towards the Nation, 
and those connected with it, whom he now 
frequently rebuked as "rash young men," 
who would goad the country into a danger- 
ous course. 

In the meantime, the English press and 
people ceased, in a great degree, to speak 
of the repeal movement with alarm and 
horror- -they seemed satisfied now that there 
was no danger in it, at least while O'Con- 
nell lived. 

For, in fact, all this time, the stead} 
policy of England towards her " sister Ls- 



and," was proceeding on the even tenor of 
its way quite undisturbed. Four millions 
sterling of the rental of Ireland was, as 
usual, carried over every year, to be spent 
in England ; and the few remaining manu- 
factures which our island had struggled to 
retain, were growing gradually less and less. 
The very "frieze," (rough home-made 
woolen cloth,) was driven out of the mar- 
ket by a far cheaper and far worse York- 
shire imitation of it. Some repeal artist 
hail devised a "repeal button," displaying 
the ancient Irish Crown ; the very repeal 
button was mimicked in Birmingham, and 
hogsheads of ancient Irish Crowns were 
ponred into the market, to the utter ruin 
of the Dublin manufacturer. True, they 
were of the basest of metal and handiwork ; 
but they lasted as long as "the repeal" 
lasted. 

All great public expenditures were still 

( lined to England ; and in the year 1844, 

there was, quite as usual, Irish produce to 
the value of about fifteen millions sterling 
exported to England. 

In 1843, the Government had sent forth 
the famous " Landlord and Tenant Com- 
mission," to travel through Ireland, collect 
evidence, and report on the relations of 
landlord and tenant in that country. The 
commissioners were all, without exception, 
Irish landlords. In '44, it traveled and in- 
vestigated ; and the next year its report 
came out, in four great volumes. The true 
function and object of this commission was 
to devise the best means of getting rid of 
what Englishmen called " the surplus popu- 
lation" of Ireland. Ever since the year 
1820, the year of Catholic Emancipation, 
British policy had been directing itself to 
this end. 

About the time of emancipation, when the 
small farmers, by the abolition of their 
franchise, were left more absolutely at the 
mercy of their landlords, it happened that 
new theories of farming became fashionable. 
"High farming" was the word. There 
was to be more grazing, more green 
cropping ; there were to be larger farms ; 
and more labor was to be done by horses 
and by steam. But consolidation of many 
small farms into one large one could not be 
effected without clearing off the "surplus 



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population ;" and then, as there would be 
fewer months to be fed, so there would be 
more produce for export to England. The 
clearance system, then, hud begun in 1829, 
and had proceeded with great activity ever 
after, but never with such remorseless fun- 
as just after the year of the "monster 
meetings." The surplus population had ap- 
peared more than usually excessive and 
perilous in the form of those huge masses of 
powerful men, whom O'Connell's voice could 
call around him upon any hill in the island. 
Now, therefore, the "assistant barristers" 
were especially busy in decreeing ejectments, 
which they issued by whole sheaves. These 
formidable documents, once placed in the 
ha mis of sheriffs' officers, often came 
down upon the people with a more sweep- 
ing desolation than an enemy's sword and 
torch. 

Whole neighborhoods were often thrown 
out upon the highways in winter, and 
the homeless creatures lived for a while 
upon the charity of neighbors ; but this 
was dangerous ; for the neighbors were 
often themselves ejected for harboring them. 

S e landlords contracted with emigration 

companies to carry them to America " for a 
lump sum," according to the advertisements 
cited before. Others did not care what 
became of them ; and hundreds and thou- 
sands perished every year of mere hardship. 
The new Poor law was now in full opera- 
tion, and workhouses, erected under that 
law, received many of the exterminated 
people ; but it is a strangely significant 
(act, that the denths by starvation increased 
rapidly from the first year of the Poor law. 
The' Report of the Census Commissioners, for 
18.51, declares that while in 1842 the deaths 
registered as deaths by famine amounted to 
one hundred and eighty-seven, they increased 
every year until the registered deaths in 
l s 4"i were five hundred and sixteen. The 
" registered " deaths were, perhaps, one- 
tenth of the unregistered deaths by mere 
hunger. 

Such, then, was the condition of Inland 
in 1844-5 ; -and all this before the "Fa- 
mine " 

Now, the "Landlord and Tenant Com- 
mission" began its labors in '44. The 




from it. The commissioners, it was diligent- 
ly given out, would inquire into the various 
acknowdedged evils that were becoming 
proverbial throughout Europe and America 
— and there were to be Parliamentary 
"ameliorations." This "commission" looked 
like a deliberate fraud from the first. It 
was composed entirely of landlords ; the 
chairman, Lord Devon, being one of the 
Irish absentee-landlords. It was at all times 
quite certain that they would see no evi- 
dence of any evils to be redressed on the 
part of the tenants; and that if they re- 
commended any measures, those measures 
would be such as should promote and make 
more sweeping the depopulation of the 
country. " You might as well," said 0'- 
Conuell, "consult, butchers about keeping 
Lent, as consult these men about the rights 
of farmers." 

The report of this set of commissioners 
would deserve no more especial notice than 
any of the other reports of innumerable 
commissions' which the British Parliament 
was in the habit of issuing, when it pretend- 
ed to inquire into any Irish "grievance;" 
but that the report of this particular 
" Devon Commission " has become the very 
creed and gospel of British statesmen with 
regard to the Irish people from that day to 
this, and has often been cited by Secretaries 
for Ireland, as affording the fullest and most 
conclusive authority upon the relations of 
landlord and tenant in that island. It is 
the programme and scheme upon which the 
last conquest of Ireland was undertaken, 
in a business-like manner, twenty-four years 
ago ; and the completeness of that, conquest 
is due to the exactitude with which the pro- 
gramme was observed. 

The problem to be solved was, how to 
get rid of the Irish people. 

But, one of the strongest demands and 
most urgent needs of these people had al- 
ways been permanence of tenure in their 
lands. O'Connell called it " fixity of 
tenure," and presented it prominently in 
his speeches as one of the greatest benefits 
to be gained by repealing the Union. It 
was, indeed, the grand necessity of the 
nation — that men should have some security 
— that they who sowed should reap — that 



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farms should, in part, at least, profit those 
who expended it. This would at once abol- 
ish pauperism, put nn end to the necessity 
of emigration, supersede Poor laws, and 
prevent the periodica] Famines which had 
desolated the island ever since the Union. 
It is 11 measure which would have been sure 
to be recommended as the first, or, indeed, 
the only measure for Ireland by any other 
commission than a commission of Irish land- 
lords. 

In the northern Province of CTlster, there 
was, as before-mentioned, a kind of un- 
written law, or established custom, which in 
some counties gave the tenant such needful 

security. The " Tenant-Right of Ulster" 

was the name of it. By virtue of that 

tenant-right, a fanner, though his tenure 
might be nominally "at will," could not be 
ejected so long as he paid Ins rent ; and if 
he desired to remove to another part of the 

country, he conld sell his " good-will " in the 
farm to an incoming tenant. Of course, the 

greater had been his improvements, the 
larger price would his tenant-right com- 
mand ; in other words, the improvements 
created by his own or his father's industry 
were his own. The same custom prevented 

rents from being arbitrarily raised in pro- 
portion to the improved value ; so that 
in many cases which came within the 
knowledge Of all lawyers' lands held "at 
will" in Ulster, and subject, to an ample 
rent, were sold by one tenant-at-will to 
another tenant-at-will at full half the fee- 
simple value of the land. Conveyances 

were made of it. It was a valuable pro- 
perty, and any violent invasion of it, as a 

witness told I, ord Devon's commission, would 

have "made Down another Tippcrary." 

The custom was almost confined to 
Ulster. It was, by no means, (though this 
has often been stated,) created or com- 
menced by the terms of the Plantation of 
Ulster, in the time of King .lames I., but 
was a relic of the ancient free social polity 
of the nation,* and hud continued in Ulster 
longer than in the other three provinces, 
limply because Ulster had been the last 
pari of the island brought under British 

• Sec nn article on tin- Trin> Origin of Tenant 
Bight, written bj Samuel Ferguson, in tie Dxtblin 
liiictrtt.'ij Magaxin* for May, 1848. 



dominion, and forced to exchango the 
ancient, system of tribc-liinds for feudal 
tenures. Neither is " tenant-light" by any 
means peculiar to Ireland, but prevails 
in all countries formerly embraced by the 
feudal system, except Ireland alone. 

The people of Ireland are not idle. They 
anxiously Bought opportunities of exertion 
on fields where their landlords could not 
sweep oil' all their earnings ; and many 
thousands of small fanners annually went to 

England and Scotland to reap the harvest, 

lived all the time on food that would sustain no 

other working men, and hoarded their earn- 
ings for their wives and children. If they had 

had tenant-right, they would have labored 
for themselves, and Tipperary would havo 
been a peaceful and blooming garden. 

In this stage of our narrative, a difficulty 
arises. It is hard to conceive it possible 
thai noble lords and gentlemen, the landlords 

and legislators of an ancient and noble 
people, should deliberately conspire to slay 
one out, of every Bight men, women, and 
little children— to strip the remainder barer 
than they were — to uproot them I'romMhe 
soil where their mothers bore them — to 
force them to flee to all the ends of the 
earth — to destroy that tenant-right of 
Ulster where it was, and to cut off all 
chance and hope, of it where it was not. 
There is nothing but a patient examination 

of the facts and documents which can mako 
this credible to mankind. 

First, then, for the Report of the Devon 
Commission. As first printed, it tills four 
stupendous Blue Books. But it contained 
too much valuable matter to be buried, like 
other reports, in the catacombs which yawn 
for that species of literature. The secre- 
tary of the commission, therefore, was 
employed to abstract and condense, and 
present the cream of il in an abridgement, 
This had the advantage not only of con- 
densation, but of selection ; the commission- 
ers could then give the pieces of evidence 
which they liked the best, together with 
their own recommendations. 

This portentous abstract is called a 
"Digest of the Evidence," &c; is published 
In authority ; and has a preface signed 
•• Devon." 

Much of the volume is occupied with dis- 



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TKNANT-IUOIIT TO BE III ' l.l .- i .. 11, 



517 



sertations and evidence respecting " tenant- 
right," which the North had, and the South 
demanded. The commissioners are clearly 
against it in every Bhape. They tern it 
" unpfailosopbical ;" and in the preface they 
stafe that the Ulster landlords and tenants 
look ii; •< ii j it in the light of a life insurance 
— that is, the landlord allows the sale of 
tenant-right, and the incoming tenant buys 
it, lest they should i >* > 1 1 1 be murdered l>y 
the out-going tenant. The following passage 
treats this tenant-right as injurious to the 
tenant himself: — 

"It is even questionable whether this 
growing practice of tenant-right, which 
would nl the first view appear to be a valu- 
able assumption on the part of the tenant, 
be 'i in reality : as it, gives to him, without 
any exertion on his own part, an apparent 
properly or security, by means of which he 
is enabled to incur future incumbrance, in 
order to avoid present inconvenience — a 
practice which frequently terminates in the 
utter destitution of liis family, and in the 
sale of his farm, when the debts thus created 
at usurious interests amount to what its 
sale would produce." 

It appears, then, that in the opinion of 
these landlords, it is injurious to the ten- 
ant to let liim Have anything on the security 
of which he can borrow money ; a th< 01 
which the landlords would not relish if ap- 
plied to themselves. Further, the com- 
missioners declare, that this tenant righi 
is enjoyed without, any exertion on the part 
of tenants. Set they have, in all cases, 
either created the whole value of it by the 
sweat of their brows, or bought it from 
t bo e who did so create it. 

The commissioners "foresee some danger 
to the just rights of property from the un- 
limited allowance of this tenant-right." 

But they suggest a substitute: "corn- 
pen ation for future improvements;" sur- 
rounding, however, that suggestion with dif- 
ficulties which have prevented it from ever 
being realized. 

Speaking of the consolidation of farms, 
they say : — 

•■ When it it seen in the evidence, and in 
the j •■ t n 1-1 1 of the si/.e of the farms, how 
■mall those holdings ore, it cannot be denied 
tlmt BUch a step is absolutely necessary." 



And then, us to the people whom it is 

thus " necessary " to eject, they say : — 

" Em'iruiluiii is considered hy the com- 
mittee to be peculiarly applicable, as n re- 
medial men ure." 

They refer to one of their tables, (No. 
!):">, p. of!!,) where — 

"The calculation is put forward showing 
that the cod olidation of the Entail holdings 
up to eight acres, would require the removal 
of about one hundred, and ninety-two thou- 
sand three hundred and sixty-eight families." 
That is, the removal of about one million 
of persons. 

Such was the Devon programme : Ten- 
ant-right to be disallowed ; — one million of 
people to l>e removed — that is, swept, out on 
the highways, where their choice would he 
America, the pool' house, or the grave. We 
shall see with what accuracy the details 
were carried out, in practice. 

In affirming that there was a con-piracy 
ol landlords and legislators to destroy the 
people, it would !»■ unjust, as it i; unneces- 
sary, to charge all members of the Queen's 
Government, or all of the Devon Commis 
siouers with a privity to that design. Sir 
Robert Peel knew how Irish landlords would 
inquire— and what report they would make 
— just as well as he knew what verdict ii 
jury of Dublin Orangemen would #ive. 
Sir Robert Peel had been Irish Secretary. 
Ill- knew Ireland well ; he had been Prime 
Minister at the tine- of Catholic Emancipa- 
tion ; and he had taken care to accompany 
that measure with another, disfranchising 
all the small farmers in Ireland. This dis- 
franchisement, as before explained, had given 
a stimulus and impetus to the clearance 
system. He had helped it hy Cheap Eject* 

mint acts. It had not, worked la t enough. 

The same Sir Robert Peel was now again 
Prime Minister in 1855, when the first of 
the reports was published hy the Land Ten- 
ure Commission ; and it at once opened to 

him a plan for the faster clearing off 
of the "Irish enemy," uuder the pretext of 
" ameliorations." 

In tin- meant ime, a the repeal movement 
was still considered formidable, and as 
Davis and the younger nationalists were 
earnestly laboring to give it more of a mili- 
tary organization, it became necessary to 




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niSTOIlY OF IRELAND. 



take some measures for the purpose of divid- 
ing nnd distracting the repealers. 

Danger was then threatening from the 
side of America, on the question of Oregon. 
True Irish nationalists, of course, hoped 
that this would end in a war ; and the Na- 
tion gave unmistakable notification that in 
case of war abont Oregon, the Americans 
might count upon a diversion in Ireland. 

Suddenly Sir Robert Peel's Ministerial 
organs announced that there were "good 
measures," or what the English call "ame- 
lioration," in store for Ireland. And, in 
truth, three measures, having much show of 
liberality, were soon brought forward. They 
were all cunningly calculated to the great 
end — the breaking up of the Repeal organ- 
ization. On the 2d of April, then, Sir 
Robert Peel "sent a message of peace to 

Ireland ":— it was a proposed bill to give 
some additional thousands per annum to 
the Catholic College of Maynooth ; and in 
the House of Commons, the Premier thus 
urged his measures : — 

" I say this without hesitation, and re- 
collect that we have been responsible for 
the peace of Ireland ; you must, in some 
way or other, break up that formidable con- 
federacy which exists against the British 
Government and British connection. I do 
not believe you can break it up by force 
You can do much to break it up by acting 
in a spirit of kindness and forbearance, and 
generosity." 

It was novel to hear these good words ; 
and all knew they meant fraud. But the 
Premier continued : — 

"There rises in the far western horizon a 
cloud, [Oregon,] small, indeed, but threat- 
ening future storms. It became my duty, 
on the part of the Government, on that day, 
in temperate but significant language, to de- 
part so far from the caution which is usu- 
ally observed by a Minister, as to declare 
publicly, that, while we were most anxious 
for the amicable adjustment of the differ- 
ences — while We would leave nothing un- 
done to effect that amicable adjustment — 
yet, if our rights were invaded, we were 
prepared and determined to maintain them. 
I own to yon, that when I was called upon 
to make that declaration, I did recollect 
with satisfaction and consolation, that the 



day before i" had sent a, message of peace to 
Ireland." 

The object of the bill was to provide mora 
largely for the endowment of Catholic pro 
lessors, and the education of young men for 
the Catholic Church ; and the Minister 
prudently calculated that it would cool the 
ardor of a portion of the Catholic clergy 
for repeal of the Union. It was forced 
through both Lords and Commons as a party 
question, though vehemently opposed by tho 
intense bigotry and ignorance of the English 
nation. But the Premier put it to them in 
that irresistible form — vote for our mea- 
sure, or we will not answer for the Union ! 

Another of the Premier's ameliorations 
was the College bill, for creating and endow- 
ing three purely secular colleges in Ireland, 
to give a good course of education without 
reference to religious belief. This also was 
sure to be regarded as a great boon by a 
portion of the Catholic clergy -while anoth- 
er portion was just as sure to object vio- 
lently to the whole scheme ; some, because 
it would place education too much under 
the control of the English Government ; 
and others, because the education was to be 
" mixed," — strict Catholics being much in 
favor of educating Catholic youth separate- 
ly. Here, then, was a fruitful source of 
quarrel amongst repealers ; and, in fact, it 
arrayed bishop against bishop, and O'Con- 
uell against " Young Ireland." The walls 
oi Conciliation Hall rung with denuncia- 
tions, not of the Union, but of "Godless 
Colleges," and of the "young infidel parly." 

But the Premier had another plot in op- 
eration. Protestant England had for ages 
refused to recognize the Pope as a Sove- 
reign, or to send a Minister to the Vatican. 

It. was still illegal to send an avowed Min- 
ister ; but Sir Robert Peel sent a secret one. 
He was to induce His Holiness to take 
some order with the Catholic bishops ami 
priests of Ireland, to draw them off in some 
degree from the repeal agitation. By 
what motives and inducements that agent 

operated upon the Pope, we can only < - 

jeeture ; and one conjecture is this — Italy 
was then, as now, in continual danger of rev- 
olution. Within the year that had passed, 
England had demonstrated that she held in 
her hand the clew to all those Republican 



^ 




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AMF.UICAN SLAVERY. 



549 



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conspiracies by her Post Office espionnage; 
and it was evident that the same Sir James 
Graham, who had copied the private cor- 
respondence of Mazzini and the Bandieras, 
and laid it before the King of Naples, could 
as easily have kept it all to himself. Highly 
desirable, surely, that "peace, law, and or- 
der," in Italy should secure so useful a 
friend. 

In short, the Sacred College sent a re- 
script to the Irish clergy, declaring that, 
whereas it had been reported to His Holi- 
ness, that many of them devoted themselves 
too ranch to politics, and spoke too rashly in 
public concerning affairs of state— they 
were thereafter to attend to their religious 
duties. It was carefully given out in the 
English press, that the Pope had denounced 
Repeal ; if he had done so, nobody would 
have minded it, because Catholics do not 
admit his jurisdiction in temporal affairs ; 
and Quarantotti's interference about, the 
veto, had been a significant warning. It 
was soon settled that the rescript had no 
'such power, and presumed that it had no 
such intention, on the part of the Pope ; 
yet a certain prndent reserve began to be 
observable in the repeal speeches of the 
clergy. So far, the Premier's Roman policy 
had succeeded. 
The distraction in the repeal ranks was 

much aided at the s e time by a certain 

wellmeauing James Haughton, a repealer 
himself, but one who concerned himself more 
about the wrongs and rights of American 
negroes, than about, those of his own coun- 
trymen. In O'Connell's perplexity as to 
his course, in the necessity which was upon 
him to appear to do something, lie took 
hold of this slavery question, made some 
vehement speeches upon it, and sent back, 
with contumelious words, some money re- 
mitted from a Southern State, in aid of his 
repi al exchequer. 

So far the Premier's plans were successful 
in breaking up the repeal movement. Rc- 
ligious disputes were introduced by the 
Colleges bill ; and this held the Protes- 
tants aloof, anil produced bitter altercation 
throughout tin' country. By the discussion 
on slavery, American alliance and coopera- 
tion were checked ; a great gain to the Pre- 
mier ; for the Americans and the Irish in 



America, all looked forward to something 
stronger than moral force. 

The Minister thought he might proceed, 
undercover of this tumult of senseless debate, 
to take the first step in his plan for the de- 
population of Ireland, in pursuance of the 
" Devon Commission " report. Accordingly, 
his third measure for the "amelioration'' 
of Ireland was a bill, ostensibly provid- 
ing for "Compensation of Tenants in lie- 
land," but really calculated for the de- 
struction of the last relics of tenant-right. 
We need not go through the details of the 
proposed measure ; it is enough to observe, 
that Lord Stanley admitted that he contem- 
plated the "removal of a vast mass of la- 
bor" from its present field. "In justice to 
the colonies," he would not recommend, as 
the Devon Commissioners did, merely that 
the whole of this vast, mass should be shot 
out naked and destitute upon their shores; 
and his bill proposed the employment of a 
part of it. on the waste lands of Ireland - 
of which waste lands there were four mil- 
lions of acres, capable of improvement. A 
portion of the "vast mass of labor" re- 
moved from other places was to be set to 
work, under certain conditions, to reclaim 
these hinds for the landlords. 

The bill, though framed entirely for the 
landlords, did yet propose to interfere, in 
some degree, with their absolute rights of 
property. They did not choose that ten- 
ants should be presumed to have any right 
to "compensation," even nominally ; or any 
other right whatever ; and as for the waste 
lands, they wanted them for snipe-shooting. (7f 
Accordingly, they resisted the bill with all 
their power ; and English landlords, on 
principle, supported them in that resistance. 
On the other hand, the Irish tenants, with 
one consent, exclaimed against the bill, as a 
bill for open robbery and slaughter. A 
meeting of County Down tenants resolved 
that it would rob their class, fin one pro- 
vince, Ulster alone,) of £1,500,000 ster- 
ling. The Nation commented upon it under 
the title of " Robbery of Tenants (Ireland) 
bill." The opposition of the tenant class, 

and of the Repeal newspapers, would have 
been of small avail, but, lor the resistance — 
upon other grounds -of the landlords. The 
bill was defeated : Sir Robert Peel had to 



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devise some other method of getting rid of 
the " surplus population." 

He was soon to be aided by a most effi- 
cient ally — the famine ; anil to tell how the 
famine helped Sir Robert Peel, and how Sir 
Robert Peel helped the famine, forms the 
whole history of the island for the next live 
years. 

In the meantime, Thomas Davis died, in 
September, 1845, full of sad foreboding de- 
spondency, us he witnessed the gradual dis- 
integration and discomfiture of that repeal 
movement, which had so many elements of 
power at first. The loss of this rare anil 
noble Irishman has never been repaired ; 
neither to his country nor to his friends. 
Before the grave had yet. closed on Thomas 
Davis, began to spread awful rumors of ap- 
proaching famine. Within the next month, 
from all the counties of Ireland came one 
cry of mortal terror. Blight had fallen on 
the crop of potatoes — the food on which 
live millions of the Irish people had been 
reduced to depend for subsistence ; three 
millions of them wholly and exclusively. 
Thai winter of 1845-6 was the first season 
of Ireland's last and greatest agony of 
famine. 

Lord Brougham, in his high-flown clas- 
sical way, described the horrors of the 
famine in Ireland, as "surpassing anything 
in the page of Thueydides — on the can- 
vas of Poussin — in the dismal chant of 
Dante." Such a visitation, falling suddenly 
upon any land, certainly imposes onerous 
duties upon its de facie government ; ami 
the very novelty of the circumstances, dri- 
ving everything out of its routine course, 
might well excuse serious mistakes in apply- 
ing a remedy to so monstrous a calamity. 
First, however, we are to bear in mind that 
all the powers, revenues, and resources of 
Ireland had been transferred to London. 
The Imperial Parliament had dealt at its 
pleasure with the " si>ter island" for forly- 
six years, and had brought us to this. Sft 
Olid, a great majority Of the Irish people had 

been earnestly demanding back those pow- 
ers, revenues, and resources ; ami the Eng- 
lish people, through their Executive, Parlia- 
ment ami press, had unanimously vowed 
this must never he. They would govern us 
iu spite of us, "under the blessing of l>i- 




viue Providence," as the Queen said. 
" Were the Union gall," said the Times, 
" swallow it you must." 

Well, then, whatsoever duties may bo 
supposed to fall upon a government, in case 
of such a national calamity, rested on the 
English Government. We had no Legisla- 
ture at home ; in the Imperial Legislature 
we had but a delusive semblance of repre- 
sentation ; and so totally useless was it, 
that national Irish members of Parliament 
preferred to stay at home. We had no au- 
thoritative mode of even suggesting what 
measures might, (in mere Irish opinion,) 
meet the case. 

lint we will see what was proposed by 
such public bodies iu Ireland as still hud 
power of meeting together in any capacity 
— the city corporations, for example, and 
especially the Repeal Association. It has 
been carefully inculcated upon the world by 
the British press, that the moment Ireland 
fell into distress, she became an object beg- 
gar at England's gate —nay, that she even 
craved alius from all mankind. Many will, 
perhaps, be surprised to learn that ueitjier 

Ireland, nor anybody in Ireland, ever asked 
alms or favors of any kind, either from Eng- 
land, or from any other nation or people. On 

the contrary, it was England herself that 
begged for us, asking a penny for the love 
of God to relieve the poor Irish. And 
further, constituting herself the almoner and 
agent of all that charily, she, England, took 
all the profit of it 

Before describing the actual process of 
the " Relief measures," it is well to con- 
sider what would be the natural, obvious, 
and inevitable course of conduct in a nation 
which was, indeed, one undivided nation : 
France, for example. It blight and famine 
fell upon the South of France, the whole 
common revenue of the kingdom would cer- 
tainly be largely employed in setting the 
people to labor upon Works of public utility; 
in purchasing and storing, for sale at a 
cheap rate, such quantities of foreign corn 
as might be needed, until the season of dis- 
tress should pass over, and another harvest 
should conic. If Yorkshire ami Lancashire 



had sustained a like calamity iu 



land, 



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i here is no doubt such measures as these would 
have been taken, promptly and liberally. 




THE FAMINE. 




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.And we know that the English Government is 
not slow to borrow money for great public 
objects, when it suits British policy so to do. 
They borrowed twenty millions sterling to 
give away to their slaveholdiug colonists for 
a mischievous whim. 

In truth, they are always glad of any oc- 
casion or excuse for borrowing money and 
adding it to the national debt ; because, as 
they never intend to pay that debt, and as the 
stock and debentures of it are, in the mean- 
time, their main safeguard against revolu- 
tion, they would be well pleased to incur a 
debt of hundred millions more at any moment. 
But the object must be popular in England ; 
it must subserve some purpose of British 
policy — as in the case of the twenty millions 
borrowed to free negroes — or the loans freely 
taken to crush the people of India, and 
preserve and extend the opium trade with 
China. 

To make an addition to the national debt 
in order to preserve the lives of a million or 
two of Celts, would have seemed in England 
a singular application of money. To kill so 
many would have been well worth a war 
that would cost forty millions. 

On the first appearance of the blight, the 
Government sent over two learned com- 
missioners, Playfair and Lindley, to Ireland, 
who, in conjunction with Doctor (now Sir 
Robert,) Kane, were to examine and repor! 
upon potatoes generally, their diseases, 
habits, &c. This passed over the time for 
some weeks. Parliament was prorogued, 
and did not meet again till January. 

In the meantime, the Corporation of 
Dublin sent a memorial to the Queen, pray- 
. ing her to call Parliament together at an 
early day, and to recommend the appropri- 
ation of some public money for public works, 
especially railways, in Ireland. A depu- 
tation from the citizens of Dublin, including 
the Duke of Leinster, the Lord Mayor, 
Lord Cloncurry, and Daniel O'Connell, 
waited on the Lord-Lieutenant, (Lord 
Heytesbury,) to offer suggestions as to 
opening the ports to foreign corn, at, least 
for a time, stopping distillation from grain, 
providing public works, and the like ; and 
to urge that there was not a moment to lie 
lost, as millions of people would shortly be 
without a uursel of food. The reply of 



Lord Heytesbury is a model in that kind. 
He told them they were premature ; told 
them not to be alarmed ; that learned men 
had been sent over from England to in- 
quire into all those matters ; that, in the 
neantime, the inspectors of constabulary, 
and stipendiary magistrates, were charged 
with making constant reports from their 
several districts ; that, in the meantime, 
there was " no immediate pressure on the 
market ; " finally, that the case was a very 
important one, and it was evident " no 
decision could be taken without a previous 
reference to the responsible advisers of the 
Crown." In truth, no other answer was 
possible, because the Viceroy knew nothing 
of Sir Robert Peel's intentions. To wait 
for the report of learned men — to wait for 
Parliament — in short, to wait; that was 
the sole policy of the enemy for the present. 
lie could wait ; lint he knew that hunger 
could not wait. 

The Town Council of Belfast met and 
made suggestions similar to those of the 
Dublin Corporation, hat neither body asked 
charily. They demanded that if Ireland 
was indeed an integral part of the realm, 
the common exchequer of both glands 
should be used — not to give alms, but to 
provide employment on public works of 
general utility. 

The plea of the enemy for not being ready 
with any remedy, was the suddenness of the 
calamity. Now, it happened that nearly 

eleven years before, a certain "select ( i- 

niittee," composed principally of Irish mem- 
bers of Parliament, had been appointed by 
the House of Commons to inquire into the 
condition of the Irish poor. They had re- 
ported, even then, in favor of promoting the 
reclamation of waste lands ; had given 
their opinion decidedly (being Irish,) that 
there was no real surplus of population, see- 
ing that the island could easily sustain much 
more than its actual population, and export 
immensely besides. Nevertheless, they warn 
the Government that, " if the potato crop 
were a failure, its produce would be con- 
sumed long before they could acquire new 
means of subsistence ; and then a famine 



ensues. 



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HISTORY OF IRFX.VND. 



Yet, when the famine did ensue, it took 
"the Government " as much by surprise (or 
they pretended that it did,) as if they had 
never been warned. 

Not only the citizens of Cork and Belfast, 
but the Repeal Association, also, had sug- 
gestions to make. Indeed, this last-named 
body was the only one that could pretend 
especially to represent the very class of peo- 
ple whose lives were endangered by the 
dearth. Let 08 see what l/iey had to propose. 

On the 8th of December, O'Connell, in 
the Repeal Association, said : " If they 
ask me what are my propositions for relief 
of the distress, I answer, first, tenant-right. 
1 would propose a law giving to every man 
his own. I would give the landlord his 
land, and a fair rent for it ; but I would 
give the tenant compensation for every 
shilling he might have laid out on the land 
in permanent improvements. And what 
next do I propose? Repeal of i/ie Union." 
In the latter part of his speech, after detailing 
the means used by the Belgian Legislature 
during the same season shutting the ports 
against exports of provisions, Imt opening 
them to import, and the like — he goes on : — 

" If we had a domes! ie Parliament, would 
not the ports be thrown open — would not 
the abundant crops with which heaven has 
blessed her be kept for the people of Ireland 
— and would not the Irish Parliament be 
more active even than the Belgian Parlia- 
ment to provide for the people food and 
employment? The blessings that would re- 
sult from repeal— the necessity for repeal — 
the impossibility of the country enduring 
the want of repeal ami the utter hopeless- 
ness of any other remedy- -all those things 
powerfully urge you to join with me, and 
hurrah for the repeal." 

Still earlier, in November, O'Brien had 
used these word 

"I congratulate you, that the universal 
sentiment hitherto exhibited upon this subject 
hasbctn tliiit we will accept no English charity. 

The resources of this Country are still 

abundantly adequate to maintain our popu- 
lation, and until those resources shall have 
been utterly exhausted, I hope there is no 
man in Ireland who will SO degrade himself 
as to ask the aid of a subscription from 
England." 



And the sentiment was received with 
"loud cheers" O'Brien's speech is an 
earnest and vehement adjuration not to suf- 
fer promises of " relief," or vague hopes of 
English boons to divert the country one 
moment from the great business of putting 
an end to the Union. Take one other ex- 
tract from a speech of O'Connell's : — 

" If we had a paternal government, I 
should be first to counsel the appropriation 
of a portion of the revenues of Ireland to 
the wants of the people, and this, too, with- 
out very strictly considering whether the 
whole should be repaid or not. We have 
an abstract claim to such application of the 
Irish revenues ; but were we to advocate 
such an arrangement now, we, should be 
mocked ami insulted. Therefore, I approach 
the Government of England on equal terms. 
I say to the English people : You are the 
greatest money-lenders in Europe, and I 
will suppose you to be as determined as 
Shylock in the play. During the last ses- 
sion of Parliament, an act was passed 
for the encouragement of drainage in Eng 
land and Ireland. According to the pro- 
visions of that act, any money advanced for 
the purpose of draining estates takes prior- 
ity over the other charges affecting those 
eslates ; so that whatever amount of money 
may be BO applied becomes the first charge 
on the estate of the proprietors of Ireland, 
and thus is its repayment secured beyoud 
all hazard. The Government can borrow 
as much money as they please on Exchequer 
bills at not more than three per cent. If 
they lend it out for the purposes of drainage, 
they can charge such proprietors as may 
i lioose to borrow, interest at the rate of 
lour per cent. They, therefore, will have a 
clear gain of one per cent., and we shall 
owe them nothing, lint they will stand 
indebted to us for affording them an oppor- 
tunity of obtaining an advantageous invest- 
ment of the capital at their disposal." 

All this while, until alter the meeting of 
Parliament, there was no hint as to the in- 
tentions of Government ; and all this wh;le 
the new Irish harvest of 1845, (which was 
particularly abundant,) with immense herds 
.if cattle, sheep, and hogs, quite as usual, 
was floating off on every tide, out of every 
one of our thirteen seaports, bound for 



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England ; and the landlords were receiving; 

their rents, unci going to England to spend 
them ; and many hundreds of poor people 
hod lain down and died on the road-sides 

for want of food, even before Christmas ; 
and the famine not yet begun, but expected 
shortly.* 

All eyes were turned to Parliament. The 
commission of learned naturalists — the in- 
quiries and reports made by means of the 
constabulary — and various mysterious inti- 
mations in the Government newspapers — all 
tended to produce the belief that the Im- 
perial "Government" was about to charge 
itself with the whole care anil administra- 
tion of the famine. And so it was — with a 
vengeance. 

Late in January, Parliament assembled. 
From the Queen's (that is, Sir Robert 
Peel's,) speech, one thing only was clear — 
thai Ireland was to have a new " Coercion 
bill." Extermination of tenantry had been 
of late more extensive than ever, and, 
therefore, there had been a few murders of 
landlords and agents — the most natural and 
inevitable thing' in the world. The Queen 
says : — 

" My Lords and Gentlemen : — I have ob- 
served with deep regret the very frequent 
instances in which the crime of deliberate 
assassination has been of late committed in 
Ireland. 

" It will be your duty to consider whether 
any measure can be devised, calculated to 
give increased protection to life, and to bring 
to justice the perpetrators of so dreadful a 
crime." 

This meant more police, more police- 
taxes, police-surveillance, and a law that 
every one should keep at homo alter dark. 
The speech goes on to refer to the ap- 
proaching famine, and declares that Her 
Majesty had "adopted precautions" for its 
alleviation. This intimation served still 
further to make our people turn to " Gov- 
ernment" for counsel and for aid. Who 



*The Census Commissioners admit only five hun- 
dred and sixteen " registered deaths,'' by starvation 
alone, up to January 1st. There was, at that time, 
do regi$try for tbcra at all; and thousands perished, 
registered by none hut the Recording Angel. Be- 
sides, id'- commissioners do not count the much 
greater numbers who died of typhus fever, the con- 
sequence of insufficient nourishment. 
70 



can blame them? "Government" had 
seized upon all our means and resources. It 
was confidently believed they intended to 
let US have the use of some part of our own 

money in this deadly emergency. It was 
even fondly imagined, by some sanguine 
persons, that the Government had it in con- 
templation to stop the export of provisions 
from Ireland— as the Belgian Legislature 
had done from Belgium, and tin; Portuguese 
from Portugal, until our own people should 
first be fed. It was not known, in short, 
what "Government" intended to do, or 
how far they would go ; all was mystery ; 
and this very mystery paralyzed such private 
and local efforts, by charitable persons, as 
might otherwise have been attempted in 
Ireland. 

The two great leading measures proposed 
in this Parliament by the administration 
were, first, a Coercion hill for Ireland, and, 
second, repeal of the Corn laws. This repeal 
pf the duties on foreign corn had long been 
demanded by the manufacturing and trading 
interests of England, and had been steadily 
opposed by the great landed-proprietots. 
Sir Robert Peel, as a Conservative states- 
man, had always hitherto vigorously op- 
posed the measure ; but early in this 
Parliament he .suddenly announced himself 
a convert to free-trade in corn ; and even 
used the pretext of the famine in Ireland to 
justify himself and cany his measure. He 
further proposed to abolish the duties on 

foreign beef, and mutton, anil bacon. Shall 
we exclude any kind of food from our ports, 
he said, while the Irish are starving? 

That is to say, the Premier proposed to 
cheapen those products which England 
bought, and which Ireland had to sell. Ire- 
land imported no corn or beef — she exported 
those commodities. Hitherto she had an 
advantage over American and other corn- 
growers in the English market, because 
there was a duty on foreign, but not on 
Irish, provisions. Henceforth, the agricul- 
tural produce of all the world was to be 
admitted on the same terms, duty-free ; and 
precisely to the extent that this would 
cheapen provisions to the English consumer, 
it would impoverish the Irish producer. 
The great mass of the Irish people wera 
almost unacquainted with the taste of bread 



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ami meat ; llicy raised those .articles, not to 
eat, but to sell and pay their rents with. 
Yet many of the Irish people, stupified by 
the desolation they saw around them, hod 
cried oat fur " opening the ports," instead 
of closing them. The Irish ports were 
opi n enoogh ; much too open ; and an 
Irish Parliament, if there had been one, 
would instantly have closed them in this 
emergency. 

In looking over the melancholy records of 
those Famine years, we find that usually the 
right view was seized, and the right word 
said, by William Smith O'Brien. He said, 
in the Repeal Association : — 

" With respect to the proposal before us, 
I have to remark that it, professes to abro- 
gate all protection. It is, in my opinion, a 
proposal manifestly framed with a view to 
English rather than Irish interests. About 
two-thirds of the population of England 
(that, I believe, is the proportion,) are de- 
pendent on manufactures and commerce, 
directly or indirectly. In this country about 
nine-tenths of the population are dependent 
on agriculture, directly or indirectly. It is 
clearly the object of the English Minister to 
obtain the agricultural produce which the 
people of this country send to England, at the 
lowest possible price — that is to say, to give 
as little as possible of English manufactures 
and of foreign commodities in return for the 
agricultural produce of Ireland." 

If this was the Minister's design, we 
may appreciate the spirit in which he ad- 
dressed himself to the "relief measures" 
for Ireland. 

The other measure was the Coercion bill. 
It authorized the Viceroy to proclaim any 
district in Ireland lie might think proper, 
commanding the people to remain within 
doors (whether they had houses or not,) 
from sunset to sunrise ;— authorized him to 
quarter on such district any additional police 
force he might think needful — to pay re- 
wards to informers and detectives — to pay 
compensation to the relatives of murdered 
or injured persons — and to levy the amount 
of all by distress upon the goods of the 
occupiers, as under the Poor law — with this 
difference, that whereas under the Poor-law 
the occupier could deduct a portion of the 
rate from his rent, under the new law he 




could not — and with this further difference, 
that whereas under the Poor law, house- 
holders whose cabins were valued under .£4 
per annum were exempt from the rate, 
under this law they were not exempt. 
Thus, every man who had a house, no 
matter how wretched, was to pay the new 
tax ; and every man was bound to have a 
house; for if found out of doors after sun- 
set, and convicted of that offence, he was 
to be transported for fifteen years, or im- 
prisoned for three — the court to have the 
discretion of adding hard labor or solitary 
confinement. 

Now, the first of these two laws, which 
abolished the preference of Irish grain in the 
English markets, would, as the Premier well 
knew, give a great additional stimulus to 
the consolidation of farms — that is, the 
ejectment of tenantry ; because " high- 
farming" — farming on a large scale, with 
the aid of horses ami steam, and all the 
modern agricultural improvements — was 
what alone would enable Irish agriculturists 
to compete with all mankind. 

The second law would drive the survif ors 
of the ejected people (those who did not die 
of hunger,) into the poor houses or to 
America ; because, being bound to be at 
home alter the sun-set, and having neither 

I se nor home, they would he all in the 

absolute power of the police, ami in con- 
tinual peril of transportation to the colonies. 

By another act of this Parliament, the 
police force was increased, and taken more 
immediately into the service of the Crown ; 
the Irish counties were in part relieved from 
their pay ; and they became, in all senses, a 
portion of the regular army. They amount- 
ed to twelve thousand chosen men, well 
armed and drilled. * 

*No population was ever more peaceable than the 
Irish at this time; but they were assumed to be in 

an unusually dangerous temper, ami to require the 
especial vigilance of this terrible police-force. To 
show the pains taken by the authorities for re- 
pressing all disturbance, we may give a tew sen- 
tences out of a manual published in this saute year, 
1846, by David Duff, Esq., an aotive police magistrate, 
it is entitled, " The Constable's Guide ": — 

" Tim great point towards efficiency is. tliat every 
man should know his duty ami do it, ami should have 

a thorough ami perfect knowledge of the neighbor- 
hood of his station ; and men should make them- 
selves not only acquainted with roads and | 
the character of all, which, with a little 



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The police were always at the commanc 
of sheriffs for executing ejectments ; and if 
they were not in sufficient force, troops, of 
the hue could be had from the nearest 
garrison. No wonder that the London 
Times, within less than three years after, 
was enabled to say: "Law has ridden 
roughshod through Ireland : it has been 
taught with bayonets, and interpreted with 
ruin. Townships leveled with the ground: 
straggling columns of exiles, work-houses 
multiplied and still crowded, express the 
determination of the Legislature to rescue 
Ireland from its slovenly old barbarism, and 
to plant the institutions of this more civilized 
land "— meaning England. 

These were the two principal measures 
for the prudent administration of the famine; 
but there was also another, purporting to 
aim more directly at relief. 

Mr. Secretary Labouehere making his 
Ministerial statement in Parliament this 
session, estimated the total money-loss ac- 
cruing by the potato-blight at sixteen mil- 
lions sterling. It was about the value of 
the Irish provisions consumed every year in 
England. The people likely to be affected 
by this dearth were always, in ordinary 
years, on the brink of destruction by famine, 
and many were every year starved to death. 
Now, to replace, in some measure, this 
absolutely necessary food by foreign corn, 
and to pay the higher price of grain over 
roots, (besides freight,) would have required 
an appropriation of twenty millions sterling 
— the same amount which hail been devoted, 
without scruple, to turning of West India 
negroes wild. 



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conld be easily accomplished. A policeman cannot 
be considered perfect in his civil duty as a constable, 
who conld not, when required, march direct to any 
house at night. 

********* 

" Independent of regular night patrols, whose 
hours Bhonld vary, men should by day take post on 
Wis commanding the houses of jhtsous having 
registered arms, or supposed to be obnoxious. The 
men so posted will in- within view of other parties, 
so as to ciSopi rate in pursuit of offenders. 

* * * * * # * * # 

"Patrols hanging about ditches, plantation , and, 
above- all, visiting the houses of suspicious charac 
tcrs, are rnosl e sentiai. 

" The telescope to be taken always on day patrol, 
and rockets and blue-lights used, as pointed out in 
the confidential memorandum." 

The "confidential memorandum'' we have not 
been privileged to see. 



England had, for so many years, drawn 
so vast a tribute from Ireland, (probably 
eight millions per annum, for forty years ) 
that now, when the consequence of our in- 
tercourse with the sister island turned out 
to be that she grew richer every year, while 
Ireland, on her side of the account, had ac- 
cumulated a famine, we claimed that there 
was something surely due to us. It is out 
of the question to enter here into these mul- 
tifarious accounts. England beats all man- 
kind in bookkeeping by double entry ; and 
as she has had the keeping of the books, as 
well as everything else, it has been very dilli- 
cult even to approximate to the truth. Hut 
to l hose who have followed the course of 
this narrative, and who call to mind the im- 
mense drain, lirst of provisions, and then of 

""' ' iey paid for those provisions steadily 

going on, from Ireland to England, since 
the Union, it will seem quite within bounds 
to affirm that the value of one year's plun- 
der—or the loan of that amount,"(if Ireland 
had had a legislature to effect such a loan,) 
would have amounted to the needful twenty 
millions sterling; would have saved Ireland 
the first year's famine, and made the suc- 
ceeding famines impossible. 

Considering all these things, it was be- 
lieved not unreasonable, that the common 
Exchequer of the "Three Kingdoms" (so 
liberal when it was a question of turning ne- 
groes wild,) ought to devote at least as 
great a sum to the mitigation of so dread- 
ful a calamity as the famine. Accordingly, 
our people demanded such an appropriation, 
not as alms, but as a right. The Commit- 
tee of the Repeal Association for example, 
said : — 

" Your committee beg distinctly to dis- 
claim any participation in appeals to the 
bounty of England or of Englishmen. They 
demand, as a right, that a portion of the 
revenue which Ireland contributes to the 
state, may be rendered available for the 
mitigation of a great public calamity." 

Up to the meeting of Parliament, the 
enemy concealed their intentions in mystery ; 
they consulted nobody in Ireland about this 
Irish emergency, but prepared their plans in 
silence. 

In the meantime, the abundant and mag- 
nificent crops of grain and herds of cuttle 



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HISTOKY OF IRELAND. 



wore going over to England, l>'>t!i earlier in 
tin- season and in greater quantities than ever 
before, for speculators were anxious to real- 
ize, ami the landlords were pressing for 
their rents ; and agents and bailiffs were 
down upon the farmers' crops before they 
could even get them stacked. So the farm- 
ers sold them at a disadvantage, in a glut- 
ted market, or they were sold for them, by 
auction, and with costs. The great point 

was to put. the English Channel betw< 

the people and the food which Providence 
had sent them, at the earliest possible 
moment. 

By New Year's Day, it was almost swept 
oil Up to that date, Ireland sent away 
and England received, of grain alone, of 
the crop of 1845— three millions two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand quarters — besides 
innumerable cattle ;— making a value of at 

least seventeen millions sterling * 

Now, when Parliament met in January, 
the sole "remedial measure" proposed by 
Sir Robert Peel, (besides the Coercion bill, 
and the Corn bill, to cheapen bread in 
England,) was a grant of £50,000 for 
public works, and another grant of as 
nmch for drainage of estates; — both these 
being grants, not to Ireland, but to the 

"Commissioners Of Public Works;" and 

to be administered not as Irishmen might 
suggest, but as to the said commissioners 

might seem good.f 

It was the two-hundredth part of what 
might probably have sufficed to stay the 
famine. It might have given sensible re- 
lief — if honestly administered — to the small- 
est of the thirty-two counties. How it was 
used, not for relief, but for aggravation of 
the misery, we shall see hereafter. For 
that season's famine it was at any rate too 
late, and before any part of it became 
available many thousands had (lied of hun- 
ger. The London newspapers complacently 
stated that the impression " in political 

* Thorn'/ Official Directory. It appears, even in 
tln\t Government publication, that the export of 
grain from Ireland t<> England was considerably 
greater in this first famine year, (1845,) than it had 
been in anj year before. So that the famine i* not 
ut all a mysterious dispensation of Providence. 

t O'Connell pointed out that the Qait and Crown 
rents draw n from Ireland last year, and spent at that 
time iii beautifying Trafalgar Bquare and Windsor 
Castle, amounted to more than £00,000. 



circles" was, that two millions of the people 
must perish before the next harvest. 

January, February, and part of March 
passed away. Nothing was done for relief ; 
but much preparation was made in the way 
of appointing hosts of commissioners and 
commissioners' clerks, and preparing the 
voluminous stationery, schedules, specifica- 
tions, and red-tape to tie them up neatly, 
which so greatly embarrass all British offi- 
cial action — a very injurious sort of embar- 
rassment in such a ease as the Crimean war, 
but the very thing that did best service (to 
the Government) on the present occasion. % 

O'Connell, O'Brien, and some other re- 
peal members, proceeded to London, in 
March, to endeavor to stir up Ministers, or 
at least discover what they were intending. 
In answer to Mr. O'Brien, Sir James Gra- 
ham enumerated the grants and loans I 
have above mentioned ; and added some- 
thing about other public moneys, which, he 
said, were also available for relief of dis- 
tress ; adding : — 

" Instructions have been given on the re- 
sponsibility of the Government, to meet 
every emergency. It would not be expe- 
dient for me to detail those instructions ; 
but 1 may state, generally, there is no por- 
tion of this distress, however wide-spread or 
lamentable, on which Government have not 
endeavored, on their own responsibility, to 
take the best precautions, to give the 
best directions of which circumstances could 
admit." 

O'Brien had just come from Ireland, 
where he had anxiously watched the pro- 
gress of the " relief measures," and of the 
famine ; he had seen that while the hit- 
ter was quick, the former were slow — in 
fact, they had not then appeared ill Ireland 
ut all ; but the very announcement that 
Government intended to interpose in some 
decisive manner, had greatly hastened col- 
lection of rents and ejectment of tenants ; 
and both hunger, and its sure attendant, 
the typhus, were sweeping them off rapidly. 
British Ministers listened to all he could 
say, with a calm, incredulous smile. "Have 

{In April of next year, (1S4G.) Jones. Twisleton, 
&c., were enabled t<> report that they had sent to Ire- 
land " ten thousand books— besides fourteen tons of 
paper." 



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we not told you," they said, " we liave sent 
persons — Englishmen, reliable men — to in- 
quire into nil those matters? Are we not 
going to 1 t every emergency?" 

" Mr. W, S. O'Brien was bound to say, 
with regard to the sums of money mention- 
ed by the right honorable baronet, as hav- 
ing been, on a former occasion, voted by the 
House for the relief of Ireland, that as far 
as his own information went, not. one single 
guinea had ever been expended from those 
sources. He was also bound to tell the 
right honorable baronet that one hundred 

thousand of his fellow-ereaturcs in Irel I 

were famishing." 

And here the report, adds: The honorable 
gentleman, who appeared to labor under 
deep emotion, paused for a short time. 
Doubtless, it was bitter to that haughty 
Spirit to plead for his plundered people, as 
it were in forma pauperis, before the plun- 
derers ; and their vulgar pride was soothed ; 
lint soon it was wounded again, for he 
added :— 

i " Under sneh circumstances did it not 
become the House to consider of the way 
in which they could deal with the crisis? 
He would tell them frankly — and it was a 
fnling participated in by the majority of 
Irishmen — that he was not disposed to ap- 
peal to their generosity in the matter. They 
had taken, and they had lied, the purse- 
strings of the Iri.-h purse I " 

Whereupon the report records that there 
were cries of oh! oh! They were scandal- 
ized at the idea of Ireland having a purse. 

Notwithstanding this repeated repudia- 
tion of alms, all the appropriations of Parlia- 
ment, purporting to be for relief, but really 
calculated for aggravation of the Irish fa- 
mine, were persistently called alms by the 
English press. These Irish, they said, are 
never done craving alms. It is true, they did 
not answer our Statement that we only de- 
manded a small part of what was due; 
they chose to assume that the Exchequer 
wns their Exchequer; — neither did they 
think it tit to remember that, Mr. O'Brien, 

and such as hi-, were by no means suffering 

from famine themselves, but. were retrench- 
ing the expenses of their households at home 
to relieve (hose who were suffering. To the 
common English intellect it was enough to 



present this one idea — here are these starv- 
ing Irish coming over to beg from you. 

Thus, it will be easy to appreciate the 
feelings which then prevailed in the two 
islands — in Ireland, a vague and dim sense 
that, we were somehow robbed — in England, 
a still more vague ami blundering idea, that 
an impudent beggar was demanding their 
money, with a scowl in his eye and a threat 
upon his tongue. 

In truth, only a few, either in England 
or in Ireland, fully understood the bloody 
game on the board. The two cardinal 
principles of the British policy in this busi- 
ness seem to have been these two : First, 
strict adherence to the principles of " poli- 
tical economy;" and, second, making the 
who] [ministration of the famine a Gov- 
ernment concern. " Political economy " be- 
came, about the time of the repeal of the 
Corn laws, a favorite study, or rather, in- 
deed, the creed and gospel of England. 
Women and young boys were learned in its 
saving doctrines ; one of the most funda- 
mental of which was, " there must be no 
interference with the natural course of 
trade." It was seen that this maxim would 
insure the transfer of the Irish wheat and 
beef to England ; for that was wdiat they 
called the natural course of trade. More- 
over, this maxim would forbid the Govern- 
ment, or relief committees, to sell provis- 
ions in Ireland any lower than the market 
price— for this is an interference with the 
enterprize of private speculators ; it would 
forbid the employment of Government ships 
— for this troubles individual ship owners ; 
and further, and lastly, it was found, (this 
invaluable maxim,) to require that the pub- 
lic works to be executed by laborers em- 
ployed with borrowed public money, should 
be unproductive works ; that is, works 
which would create no fund to pay their 
own expenses. There were many railroad 
companies at. that time in Ireland that, had 
got, their charters; their roads have been 
made Since; but it was in vain they asked 
then for Government advances, which they 

could have well iecured, and soon paid oil'; 
the thing could not be done. Lending mon- 
ey to Irish railroad companies would be a 
discrimination against English companies- 
flat interference with private enterprize. 



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HISTORY OP IRELAND. 






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The other great leading idea completed 
Sir Robert's policy. It was to make the fa- 
mine a strictly Government concern. The 
famine was to be administered strictly 
through officers of the Government, from 
high commissioners down to policemen 
Even the Irish General Relief Committee, 
and other local committees of charitable 
persons who were exerting themselves to 
raise funds to give employment, were either 
induced to act in subordination to a Gov- 
ernment Relief Committee, which sat in 
Dublin Castle— or else were deterred from 
importation of food, by the announcement 
in Parliament that the Government had given 
orders somewhere for the pnrchase of for- 
eign corn. For instance, the Mayor of 
Cork, and some principal inhabitants of 
that city, hurried to Dublin, and waited on 
the Lord-Lieutenant, representing that the 
local committee had applied for some por- 
tion of the Parliamentary loans, but " were 
refused assistance on some points of official 
form — that the people of that county were 
already famishing, and both food and labor 
were urgently needed. Lord Heytesbury 
simply recommended that they should com- 
municate at once with the Government Re- 
lief Committee''— as for the rest, that they 
should consult the Board of Works. Thus 
every possible delay and official difficulty 
was interposed against the efforts of local 
bodies — Government was to do all. These 
tilings, together with the new measure for 
an increase in the police force, (who were 
the main administrative agents throughout 
the country,) led many persons to the con- 
clusion that the enemy had resolved to avail 
themselves of the famine in order to in- 
crease Governmental supervision and tspion- 
imgr ; so that every man, woman, and child 
in Ireland, with all their goings out and com- 
ings it, might be thoroughly known and re- 
gistered—that when the mass of the people 
began to starve, their sole resource might 
be the police barracks — that Govern- 
ment might be all in all ; omnipotent to 
give food or withhold it, to relieve or to 
starve, according to their own ideas of po- 
licy and of good behavior in the people. 

It is needless to point out that Govern- 
ment patronage also was much extended by 
this system ; and by the middle of the next 



year, 1S4T, there were ten thousand men 
salaried out of Parliamentary loans .and 
grants for relief of the poor — as com- 
missioners, inspectors, clerks, and so forth ; 
and some of them with salaries equal to 
that of an American Secretary of State. 
So many of the middle classes had been 
dragged down almost to insolvency by the 
ruin of the country, that they began to be 
eager for the smaller places, as clerks and 
inspectors; for those ten thousand officers, 
then, it was estimated there were one hun- 
dred thousand applicants and canvassers — 
so much clear gain from "repeal." 

The Repeal Association continued its re- 
gular meetings and never ceased to repre- 
sent that the true remedies for Irish famine 
were tenant-right — the stoppage of export 
— and repeal of the Union ; — and as those 
were really the true and only remedies, it 
was clear they were the only expedients 
which an English Parliament would not 
try. The repeal members gained a kind of 
Parliamentary victory, however, this spring ; 
— they .itised the defeat of the Coercion 
bill, with the aid of the Whigs. Sir Rob- 
ert Peel had very cunningly, as he thought, 
made this bill precede the Corn Law Re- 
peal bill ; and as the English public was all 
now most eager for the cheapening of bread, 
he believed that all parties would make 
haste to pass his favorite measure first. 
The Irish members went to Loudon, and 
knowing they could not influence legislation 
otherwise, organized a sort of mere mechan- 
ical resistance against the Coercion bill ; 
that is, they opposed firsl reading, second 

reading, third reading, opposed its being re- 
ferred to committee, moved endless amend- 
ments, made endless speeches, and insisted 
upon dividing the House on every clause. 
In vain it was represented to them that this 
was only delaying the Corn law repeal, which 
would "cheapen bread." O'Brien replied 
that it would only cheapen bread to Eng- 
lishmen, and enable them to devour more 
and more of the Irish bread, and give less 
for it. In vain Ministers told them they 
were stopping public business — they an- 
swered that English business was no busi- 
ness of theirs. In vain their courtesy was 
invoked. They could not afford to be 
courteous in such a case, and their solo 



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errand in London was to resist an atrocious 

and torturing tyranny threatened against 
their poor countrymen. 

Just before this famous debate, there had 
been very extensive clearing of tenantry in 
Connanght ; and, in particular, one case, in 
which a Mrs. Gerrard had, with the aid of 
the troops and police, destroyed a whole 
village, and thrown out two hundred and 
seventy persons on the high road. The 
Nation thus improved the circumstances 
with reference to the "Coercion bill" : — 

" Some Irish member, for instance, may 
point to the two hundred and seventy per- 
sons thrown out of house and home the 
other day in Galway, and in due form 
of law, (for it. was all perfectly legal,) 
turned adrift in their desperation upon the 
wide world — and may ask the Minister, 
if any of these two hundred and seventy 
commit a robbery on the highway — if any 
of them murder the bailiff who, (in exer- 
cise of his duty,) flung out their naked 
children to perish in the winter's sleet — if 
any of them, maddened by wolfish famine, 
break into a dwelling-house, and forcibly 
take food to keep body and soul together, 
or arms for vengeance — -what will you do ? 
How will you treat that district ? Will 
you, indeed, proclaim it? Will you mulct 
the householders, (not yet ejected,) in a 
heavy fine, to compound for the crimes of 
those miserable outcasts, to afford food and 
shelter to whom they wrong their own 
children in this hard season ? Besides 
sharing with those wretches his last po- 
tato, is the poor cottier to be told that 
he is to pay for policemen to watch them 
day and night — that he is to make atone- 
ment in money, (though his spade and poor 
bedding should be auctioned to make it 
up, ) for any outrage that may be done 
in the neighborhood ? — but that these Ger- 
rards are not to pay one farthing for 
all this- -for, perhaps, their property is in- 



cumbered, and, it may be, they find it hard | upon it 



enough to pay their interest, and keep 
up such establishments, in town and coun- 
try, as befit their rank ? And will you, in- 
deed, issue your commands that those house- 
less and famishing two hundred and seventy 
— after their roof-trees were torn down, and 
the ploughshare run through the founda- 
tions of their miserable hovels — are to be at 
home from sunset to sunrise ? — that if found 
straying, the jails and the penal colonies 
are ready for their reception ?" 

It was precisely with a view to meet such 
cases that the Coercion bill had been de- 
vised. The English Whigs, and, at length, 
the indignant Protectionists, too, joined the 
repealers in this resistance — not to spare 
Ireland, but to defeat Sir Robert Peel, and 
get into his place. And they did defeat 
Sir Robert Peel, and get into his place. 
Whereupon, it was not long before Lord 
John Russell and the Whigs devised a new 
and more murderous Coercion bill for Ire- 
land themselves. 

It was on the 25th of May, that the Co- 
ercion bill for Ireland was defeated — the 
first Coercion bill for Ireland that was ever 
refused by a British Parliament ; and it 
was rejected, not by the exertions of Ire- 
land's friends, but by political combinations 
of her enemies. 

Sir Robert Peel immediately resigned 
office, and left the responsibility of dealing 
with the Irish affair to the Whigs. He 
knew he might do so safely. His system 
was inaugurated. His two great ideas — 
free trade and police administration — were 
fully recognized by the Whigs ; and Lord 
John Russell was even a blind bigot about 
what he imagined to be political economy. 
This " liberal" statesman never had an idea 
of his own ; and as the system of Sir Rob- 
ert Peel was really the true and only 
English method of dealing with the Irish 
difficulty, it was quite certain that the 
Whigs would not only adopt it, but improve 






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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



CHAPTER LIX. 

1816—1847. 

Progress of the Famine Carnage— Pretended Belief 
Measures— Imprisonment of O'Brien— Dissensions 
in Repeal Association Break up of that Iiody — 
ltaviigew of Famine " Labor Kate Ant" llscli'ss 
Public Works Extermination— Famine of 1847 - 
How tlioy lived in England -Advances from the 
Treasury — Attempts of Foreign Countries to Re- 
lieve the Famine Defeated by British Govern- 
ment — Vagrancy Aot— Parish Coffins — Constant 
Repudiation of Alms— An Englishman's Petition 
for Alma to Ireland " Ingratitude " of the Irish — 
]>ia11i of o'lminrll 1'ivparations to Insure the 
Next Tear's Famine— Emigration —British Famine 
Policy — New Cderolon Aot called for — Famine In 
Ireland. 

In tlie first year of the famine, then, we 
find that the measures proposed by the 
English Government were, first, repeal of 
the Com laws, which depreciated Ireland's 
only article of export ; second, a new 
Coercion law, to torture ami transport the 
people ; and, third, a grant of £100,000 to 
certain clerks or commissioners, chiefly for 
their own profit, and from which the 
starring people derived no benefit whatever. 

Yet, Ireland was taunted with this grant, 

as if it were alms granted to her. Double 
the sum (£200,000,) was, in the same 
session, appropriated for Battersea Park, a 
suburban place of recreation much resorted 
to liy Londoners. 

Ii is to be observed thai all the employ- 
ment to be provided for the poor under this 
first " Relief act," was to be given under 
the order and control of English officials ; 
further, the professions of "Government" 
— that they had taken all needful measures 
to guard against famine — had made people 
rely upon them for everything, and thus 

turned the minds of thousands upon tl - 

sands from work of their own, which they 
might have attempted if left to themselves. 
This sort of government spoon-feeding is 
highly demoralizing ; and for one who de- 
rived any relief from it, one thousand neg- 
lected their own industry in the pursuit of it. 

In truth, the amount of relief offered by 
these grants was infinitesimally small, when 
we consider the magnitude of the calamity, 
and had no other effect than to unsettle the 
minds uf the peasantry, and make them 




more careless about holding on to their 
farms. 

It is true, also, that the Government did, 
to a certain small extent, speculate in Indian 
corn, and did send a. good many cargoes of 
it to Ireland, and form depots of it at 
several points ; but as to this, also, their 
mysterious intimations had led all the world 
to believe they would provide very large 
quantities, whereas, in fact, the quantity 
imported by them was inadequate to supply 
the loss of the grain exported from any one 
COUIlty ; and a Government ship, sailing into 
any harbor with Indian corn, was sure to 
meet half a do/.en sailing out with Irish 
wheat and cattle. The effect of this, there- 
fore, was only to blind the people to the fact, 
that England was exacting her tribute as 
usual, famine or no famine. The effect of 
both combined was to engender a dependent 
and pauper spirit, and to free England 
from all anxiety about "repeal." A land- 
less, hungry pauper cannot afford to think 
of the honor of his country, and cares 
nothing about a national flag. i 

How powerfully the whole of this systcau 
and procedure contributed to accomplish the 

great end of uprooting the people from the 
soil, one can readily understand. The ex- 
hibition and profession of public " relict' " 
for the destitute, stilled compunction in the 
landlords ; and agents, bailiffs, and police 
swept- whole distiiets with the besom of de- 
struction. 

Another act hail been done by Sir Robert 
Peel's .Ministry, just before retiring, with a 
view of breaking up the Repeal Association. 
This was the imprisonment, of Mr. Smith 
O'Brien several weeks in the cellar of the 
House ol Commons. It grievously irritated 
the enemy that O'Connell, O'Brien, and the 
Repeal members, still continued to absent 
themselves from Parliament. The House 
of Commons tried various methods of per- 
suading or coercing them to London. Mr. 
Hume had written them a friendly letter, 
imploring them to come over to their 
legislative duties, and he would aid I hem in 
obtaining justice for Ireland. A "call of 
the House" was proposed; but they de- 
clared beforehand, that if there were a call 
of the House they would not obey it, and 
the Sergeaul-at-Arms must come to Ireland 



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for tbera — he would find tlicm in Concilia- 
tion Hall. They were nominated on 
English Railroad Committees, and the 
proper officer had intimated to them the 
fact They replied that they were attend- 
ing to more important business. Now, 
when they went over to oppose the Coercion 
bill, It was understood that this was to be 
their sole errand, and they were not to 
engage themselves in the ordinary details of 
legislation. But they were nol long in Lon- 
don before the opportunity was seized to 
place their names on Railway Committees. 
O'Connell and his son both obeyed the call. 
O'Brien, of course, refused, and was im- 
prisoned in the cellar for "contempt." 

London and all Eligland were highly 
pleased and entertained. The press was 
brilliant upon the great " Brian Boru" in a 
cellar ; and Mr. O'Brien was usually after- 
wards termed — with that line sarcasm so 
characteristic of English genius — the "mar- 
tyr of the cellar." 

Instantly arose dissension in the Repeal 
Association. To approve and fully sustain 
O'Brien's action in refusing to serve, would 
be to censure O'Connell for serving. In 
that body a sort of unsatisfactory compro- 
mise was made, but the " Eighty-Two 
Club," where the young party was stronger, 
voted a warm address of full approval to 
O'Brien, (who was a member of the club,) 
and dispatched several members to present 
it to him in his dungeon. 

The divisions in O'Connell's association 
were soon brought to a crisis when the 
Whigs came in. O'Connell instantly gave 
up all agitation of the Repeal question, and 
took measures to separate himself from 

those "juvenile members" who, us he de- 
clared, Lord John Russell had asserted 
were plotting not only to repeal the Union, 
but to sever the connection with England, 
(" the golden link of the Crown,") and that 
by physical force.. All this famous contro- 
versy seems now of marvelously small 
moment ; but a very concise narrative of it 
may be found in Mr. O'Brien's words, which 
will lie enough : — 

" Negotiations were opened between Mr, 
O'Connell and the Whigs at Chesham Place. 
' Young Ireland ' protested, in the strongest 
terms, against au alliance with the Whigs. | 



Mr. O'Connell took offence at the language 
used by Mr. Meagher and others. When 
I arrived in Dublin, after the resignation of 
Sir Robert Peel, I learned that he contem 
plated a rupture with the writers of the 
Nation. Before I went to the County of 
Clare, I communicated, through Mr. Ray, 
a special message to Mr. O'Connell, wdio 
was then absent from Dublin, to the effect, 
that though I was most, anxious to preserve 
a neutral position, I could not silently 
acquiesce in any attempt to expel the 
Nation or its party from the association. 
Next came the Dungarvan election, and the 
new "moral force" resolutions. I felt it 
my duty to protest against both at the 
Kilrush dinner. Upon my return to Dublin, 

I to 1 a public letter from Mr. O'Connell, 

formally denouncing the Nation; and no 
alternative was left me but to declare, that if 
that letter were acted upon, I could not 
cooperate any longer with the Repeal 
Association. The celebrated two-day de- 
bate then took place. Mr. J. O'Connell 
opened an attack upon the Nation and 
upon its adherents. Mr. Mitchel and Mr. 
Meagher defended themselves in language 
which, it seemed to me, did not transgress 
the bounds of decorum or of legal safety. 
Mr. John O'Connell interrupted Mr. Meagher 
in his speech, and declared that he could 
not allow him to proceed with the line of 
argument necessary to sustain the principles 
which had been arraigned. I protested 
against this interruption. Mr. J. O'Connell 
then gave us to understand that unless Mr. 
Meagher desisted, he must leave the hall. 
I could not acquiesce in this attempt to 
stifle a fair discussion, and sooner than 
witness the departure of Mr. J. O'Connell 
from an association founded by his father, I 
preferred to leave the assembly."* 

When O'Brien left the assembly, he was 
accompanied by his friends, and there was 
an end of the Repeal Association, save as a 
machinery of securing offices for O'Conueli'.s 
dependents. Kven for that purpose it was 
not efficient ; because it had too clearly 
become impotent and hollow ; there was no 
danger in it, and Ministers would not buy a 
patriot in that market, unless at a very low 
figure. 

* Mr. O'lSricn'a letter to Dr. Miley Dccomber, 1816. 



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In the meantime, the famine and the fever 
raged ; many landlords regained possession 
without so much as an ejectment, because 
the tenant died of hunger ; and the county 
coroners, before the end of this year, were 
beginning to strike work — they were so 
often culled to sit, upon famine-slain corpses. 
The verdict — "Death by starvation" — 
became so familiar that the county news- 
papers sometimes omitted to record it ; and 
travelers were often appalled when they 
came upon some lonely Tillage by the 
western eoast, with the people all skeletons 
upon their own hearths. Irish landlords 
arc not all monsters of cruelty. Thousands 
of them, indeed, kept far away from the 
scene, collected their rents through agents 
and bailiffs, and spent them in England or 
in Paris. But the resident landlords and 
their families did, in many eases, devote 
themselves to the task of saving their poor 
people alive. Many remitted their rents, 
or half their rents ; and ladies kept their 
servants imsy and their kitchens smoking 
with continual preparation of food fort lie 
poor. Local committees soon purchased all 
the corn in the Government depots, (at 
market price, however,) and distributed it 
gratuitously. Clergymen, both Protestant 
and Catholic, generally did their duty ; 
except, those absentee clergymen, bishops, 
and wealthy rectors, wdio usually reside in 
England, their services being not needed in 
the places from whence they draw their 
wealth. But many a poor rector and his 
curate shared their crust with their suffering 
neighbors ; anil priests, alter going round 
all day administering Extreme Unction to 
whole villages at once, all dying of mere 
starvation, often themselves went supperless 
to bed. 

The details of this frightful famine, as it 
ravaged those western districts, need not be 
narrated. It is enough to say that, in this 
year, IStti, aot less than three hundred 
thousand perished, either of mere hunger, or 
of typhus fever caused by hunger. But, as 
it has ever since been the main object "I 
the British Government to conceal the 
amount of the carnage, (which, indeed, 
they ought to do if they can,) we find that 
the Census Commissioners, in their re- 
port for 1851, admit oidy two thousand 



and forty-one " registered" deaths by famine 
alone. 

A Whig Ministry, however, was now in 
power ; and the people were led to expect 
great efforts on the part of Government to 
stay the progress of ruin. In August, it 
became manifest that the potato-crop of '46 
was also a total failure ; but the products 
otherwise were most abundant — much more 
than Sufficient to feed all the people. 
Again, therefore, it became the urgent 
business of British policy to promise large 
"relief," so as to insure that the splendid 
harvest, should be allowed peacefully to be 
shipped to England as before ; and the first 
important measure of the Whigs was to 
propose a renewal of the Disarming act, 
and a further increase in the police force. 
Apparently, the outcry raised against this 
had the effect uf shaming Ministers, for they 
suddenly dropped the bill lor this time. 
But the famine could not be correctly ad- 
ministered without a Coercion bill of some 
suit ; so the next year they devised a ma- 
chinery of this kind, the most stringent and 
destructive that had yet been pivscrilicd't'or 
Ireland. In the meantime, for " relief" of 
the famine, they brought forward their 
famous Labor-Rale act. 

This was, in few words, an additional 
Poor-rate, payable by the same persons 
liable to the other Poor-rates ; the proceeds 
to be applied to the execution of such 
public works as Me Government might choose; 
the control and superintendence to be in- 
trusted to Government officers. Money was 
to be, in the meantime, advanced from the 
Treasury, in order to set the people imme- 
diately to work ; and that, advance was to 
be repaid in ten years by means of the in- 
creased rate. There was to be an appear- 
anre of local control, inasmuch as barony 
sessions of landlords and justices were to 
have power to meet, (under the Lord-Lieu- 
tenant's order,) and suggest anv works they 
might, think needful, provided these were 
strictly unproductive works; but the con- 
trol of all was to lie in the Government 
alone. 

Now, the class which suffered most from 
the potato-blight consisted of those small 
farmers who were barely able, in ordinary 
years, to keep themselves above starvation 



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after paying their rents. These people, l>y 
the Labor-Rate act, had an additional tax 
laid on them ; and not being able to pay it, 
could but quit their holdings, sink to the 
class of able-bodied paupers, and euro 
themselves in a gang of Government navvys 
— tlms, throwing themselves for support 
upon those who still strove to maintain 
themselves by their own labor on their own 
land. 

In addition to the proceeds of the new 
Poor-rate, Parliament appropriated a further 
sum of JJoO,000, to be applied in giving 
work in some absolutely pauper districts, 
where there was no hope of ever raising 
rates to repay it. £50,000 was just the 
sum which was that same year voted out of 
the English and Irish revenue to improve 
the buildings Of the British Museum. 

So there was to be more Poor law, more 
commissioners, (this time under the title of 
Additional Puhlio Works Commissioners ;) 
innumerable officials in the public works, 
commissariat and constabulary departments; 
and no end of stationery and red tape — all 
to be paid out of the rates. On the whole, 
it was hoped that provision was made 
for stopping the "Irish howl" this one 
season. 

Irishmen of all classes had almost uni- 
versally condemned the Poor law at first ; 
so, as they did not like Poor law, they were 
to have more Poor law. Society in Ireland 
was to be reconstructed on tin; basis of 
Poor-rates, and a broad foundation of able- 
bodied pauperism. It did not occur to the 
English— and it never will occur to them — 
that the way to Stop Irish destitution is to 
repeal the Union, so that Irishmen might 
make their own laws, use their own re- 
sources, regulate their own industry. ' It 
was in vain, however, that anybody in 
Ireland remonstrated. In vain that such 
journals as were of the popular party con- 
demned the whole scheme. The Nation of 
that date treats it thus : — 

" Unproductive work to lie executed with 
burrowed money — a ten years' mortgage of 
a new tax, to pay for cutting down hills and 
filling them up again — a direct, impost upon 
landed-proprietors in the most offensive 
form, t<i feed all the rest of the population, 
impoverishing the rich without benefitting 




the poor — not creating, not developing, but 
merely transferring, and in the transfer 
wasting the means of all — perhaps human 
ingenuity, sharpened by intensest malignity, 
could contrive no more deadly and unerring 
method of arraying class against class ill 
diabolical hatred, making them look on 
one another with wolfish eyes, as if to 
prepare the way for " arislocralcs d hi 
lanlcrne " — killing individual enterprise — dis- 
couraging private improvement — dragging 
down employers and employed, proprietors, 
farmers, mechanics, and cottiers, to one com- 
mon and irretrievable ruin." 

It may seem astonishing that the gently 
of Ireland did not rouse themselves at this 
frightful prospect, and universally demand 
the repeal of the Union. They wire 
the same class, sons of the same men, who 
had, in 1182, wrested the independence of 
Ireland from the English Government, and 
enjoyed the fruits of that independence in 
honor, wealth, and prosperity for eighteen 
years! Why not now ? It is because, in 
1782 the Catholics of Ireland counted as 
nothing, now they are numerous, enfran- 
chised, exasperated ; and the Irish land- 
lords dare not trust themselves in Ireland 
without British support. They looked on 
tamely, therefore, ami saw this deliberate 
scheme for the pauperization of a nation. 
They knew it would injure themselves ; but 
they took the injury, took insult, along with 
it, and submitted to be reproached for 
begging alms, when they demanded restitu- 
tion of a part of their own means. 

Over the whole island, for the next few 
months, was a scene of confused and waste- 
ful attempts at relief — bewildered barony 
sessions striving to understand the volum- 
inous directions, schedules, and specifications, 
under which alone they could vote their 
own money to relieve the poor at their own 
doors ; but generally making mistakes, for 
the unassisted human faculties never could 
comprehend those ten thousand hooks and 
fourteen tons of paper ; insolent commis- 
sioners and inspectors and clerks snubbing 
them at every turn, and ordering them lo 
study the documents ; efforts on the part of 
the proprietors to expend some of the rates 
at least on/USeful works, reclaiming land or 
the like, which efforts were always met 



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HTSTOUT OF IRELAND. 



with flat refusal and n lecture on political 
economy, (for political economy, it seems, 
declared thai the works mnsl be strictly 
useless :is cutting down a road where there 
was no hill, or building a bridge where 
there was no water until many good roads 
became impassable on account of pits and 
trenches ;) plenty of jobbing and peculation 
nil this while ; and the laborers, having the 
example of a great public fraud before their 
eyes, themselves defrauding their fraudulent 
employers — quitting agricultural pursuits 
and crowding to the public works, where 
they pretended to be cutting down hills and 
filling 1 1 1 > hollows, and with tongue in cheek 
received half wages for doing nothing. So 
the labor was wasted ; the laborers were 
demoralized ; and the next year's famine was 
insured. 

Now began to be a rage for extermina- 
tion beyond any former time ; and many I lion- 
sands of the peasants who could still scrape 
Up the means, (led to the sea, as if pursued 

by wild beasts, and betook themselves 

to America. 'The British army, also, re- 
ceived numberless recruits this year, (for il 
is sound English policy to keep our people 
SO low that a shilling a day would tempt 

them to fight for the Devil, not to say the 

Queen,) and insane mothers began to eat 
(heir young children, who died of famine 

before them— and still fleets of ships were 
Bailing with every tide, carrying Irish cattle 
and corn to England. There was also a 
large importation of grain from England 
into Ireland, especially of Indian corn ; and 
the speculators and ship-owners had a good 
time. Much of the grain thus brought to 
Ireland had been previously exported from 
Ireland, and came back laden with mer- 
chants' profits, and double freights, and 
insurance, to the helpless people who had 

sowed and reaped it. This is what com- 
merce and tree trade did for Ireland in those 
days. 

Two facts, however, are essential to be 
borne in mind -first, that the nelt result of 
this importation, exportation, and reim- 
portation (though many n ship-load was 
canied four times across the Irish Sea. as 
prices "invited" it,) was, that England 
finally received the harvests to the same 
amount as before ; and, second, that she 



gave Ireland — under free trade in corn — less 
for it than ever. In other words, it took 
more of the Irish produce to buy n piece of 
cloth from a Leeds manufacturer, or to buy 
a rent-receipt from an absentee proprietor. 

Farmers could do without the cloth, but 
as for the rent-receipts, these they must 
absolutely buy ; for the bailiff, with his 
police, was usually at the door, even before 
the fields were reaped ; and he, and the Poor- 
rate Collector, and the Additional Poor- 
rate Collector, and the County-cess Collector, 
ami the Process-server with decrees, were 
all to be paid out of the first proceeds. If 
it took the farmer's whole crop to pay 
them, which it usually did, he hud, at least, 
n pocketful of receipts, and might sec lying 
in the next harbor, the very ship that was 
to carry his entire harvest, anil his last cow 
to England. 

What wonder that so many farmers gave 
up the effort in despair, and sunk to 
paupers? .Many Celts were cleared off this 
year, and the campaign was, so fur, suc- 
cessful. 

The winter of ISIti--';, and succeeifing 
Spring, were employed in a series of utterly 
unavailing attempts to use the "Labor-rate 
act," so as to afford some sensible relief to 
the famishing people. Sessions were held, 
as provided by the act, and the landed- 
proprietors liberally imposed rates to repay 
such Government advances as they thought 

needful ; but the unintelligible directions 
constantly interrupted them, and, in the 

nicanti , the peasantry, in the wild, blind 

hope of public relief, were abandoning their 
farms, and letting the land lie idle. 

Even the Tory or British party in Ire- 
laud furnish ample testimony to this deplor- 
able state of things. From Limerick we 
learn, through the Dublin Evening Mail: — 

"There is not a laborer employed in the 
county, except on public works ; and there 
is every prospect of the lands remaining un- 
titled anil unsown for the next year." 

In Cork, writes the Cork Constitution: 
"The good intentions of the Government 
are frustrated by the worst regulations -re- 
gulations which, diverting labor from its le- 
gitimate channels, left the fields without 
hands to prepare them for the harvest." 

At a Presentment Session in Shanngold- 






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en, after a hopeless discussion as to what 
possible meaning could be latent, in the 
Castle " instructions," and " supplemental 
instructions,* the Knight of Glin, a land- 
lord of those parts, said that, "While on 
the subject of mistakes," he might as well 
mention, "on the Glfa road, some people 
are filling up the original cutting of a bill 
with the stuff they had taken oul of it. 
That'll another Blice out of our £450." 

Which he and the other proprietors of 
that barony had to pay, For you i IMI i 
bear in mind, thai all the advances under 
this act were to be sti-ictly loam, repayable 
bythenltes, Becured bythe whole value of the 
land and at higher interest than the Gov- 
ernment borrowed the money bo advanced. 

The innocent. Knight of Glin ascribed 
the perversions of labor to "mistake." Bui 
there was no mistake at all. Digging holes 
and filling them op again was precisely the 
kind of work prescribed in such case bythe 
principles of political economy ; and then 
there were innumerable regulations to be al 
■tended to before even tin's kind of work 
could be given. The Board of Work 

Would have the roads lorn pp with BUch 

tools as they approved of, and none other ; 
that is, with picks and short shovels, and 
picks and short shovels were manufactured 
in England, and sent, over by ship load for 
thai purpose, tothegreal profil of the hard- 
Ware merchants in Birmingham. Often 

there Were no adequate supply of these on 
the spot ; then tin: work was to lie l.r.l, 

work, and the poor people, delving mac- 
adamized roads with upades and tint cutti i 
could not, earn as much as would keep then, 
alive, though, luckily, they were thereby dis- 
abled from destroying so much good road. 

That all interests in the country were 
swiftly rushing to ruin was apparent to all. 

A committee of lords and gentlemen was 
formed, called " Reproductive Committer-," 
to urge upon the Governmenl that, if the 
country was to tax- itself to supply public 
work, the labor ought, in some cases at 
least, to lie employed upon i : , i., thai mighl 
l«e of use. This movement u:i , ,, r. ir ,„. 
'•■ - ful that it elicited a letter from the 
1 ' He, authorizing uch application, but 

With supplemental instructions, BO intricate 

aad occult, that this also wa fruitli 



And the people perished more rapidly 

than ever. The famine of 1847 was far more 

terrible and universal than that of the pre . 
viousyear. The Whig Government, bound 
by political economy, absolutely refused to 
interfere with market prices, and the mer- 
chants and Speculators were never so busy 
'«' ''"'I' M'les of ti,e channel, In this year 
ii was (hat the Irish famine began to be a 
world's wonder ; and men's hearts were 
moved in the utter,,,,, I ends of the earth by 
""' recital of its horrors. The London Il- 
lustrated News began to bo adorned with 
engravings of tottering windowlet i hovels 
in Skibbereen, and elsewhere, with naked 

wretches dying on a truss of wet straw -and the 
eon tant language of English Ministers and 

members of Parliament created i,|„. impreg. 

ion abroad that Ireland was in need of alms 

and nothing but alms; whereas, Irishmen 

themselves uniformly protested that what, 
they reqnired was a repeal of the rjnion, so 
1 1" i the English might cease to devour their 
substance. 

It may be interesting to know how the 
English people were raring all this while ; 

ond whether "that portion of the Unit,, I 

Kingdom," a-; it i, called, Buffered much by- 
the famine in Ireland and in Europe. Au- 
thentic data upon this point are to be found 
ill the financial statement of Sir Chorli I 
Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Feb- 
ruary, 1847. In that statement he de- 

Clan and he tells it, he says, with greal 

ati faction -that, "the English people and 
working classes" were steadily growing more 
comfortable, nay, more luxurious in their , 
style of living. II,- goes into particulars, 
even, to Bhow how rapidly a taste for good 
things spread; among t. Engli h laborers, 
and bids his hearers " recollect that, con- 
sumption could not be accounted for by at- 
tributing it to the higher and wealthier 
cla e , lint must have arisen from the , on 
sumption of the large body of the people 

and the Working clas-.cs." 

In the matter of coffu, they had u ed 

nearly seven million pounds of ii more than 

they did in I -\:; • of butter and cheese, they 

devoured double as much within the year 

as they had done three year, before wilhiu 
the Same period. " I will next," -ays the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, " take cur- 



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rants," (for currants are one of the neces- 
saries of life to an English laborer, who 
must have his pudding on Sunday at least ;) 
and we End that the quantity of currants 
used by the "body of the people and work- 
ing classes," had increased, in three years, 
from two hundred aud fifty-four thousand 
hundred weight to three hundred and fifty- 
nine thousand hundred weight, by the year 
Omitting oilier things, we come to the Chan- 
cellor's statement, that since 1843, the con- 
sumption of tei had increased by live million 
four hundred thousand ponnds. It is unneces- 
sary to suy they had us much beef and lia- 
con as they could eat, and bread a discre- 
tion — and beer ! 
This statement was read by Sir Charles 

Wood, at the end of a long sj eh, in which 

he announced the necessity of raising an 

additional loan to Keep life in some of the 

surviving Irish ; and he read it, expressly in 
order "to dispel some portion of the gloom 
which had been east over the minds of mem 
bers," by being told that, a port ion of the 
surplus revenue must go to pay interest on 
a slight addition to the national debt. And 
the gloom vxtt dispelled ; and honorable 
members comforted themselves with the re- 
flection, that whatever lie the nominal debl 
of the country, after all, a man of the work- 
ing classes can ash no more than a good 
dinner every day, and a pudding on Sundays. 

One would not grudge the English labor- 
er his dinner, or his tea ; and we refer to his 
excellent table only to bid the reader re- 
mark that during those same three years, 
exactly as fasl as the English people and 
working classes advanced to luxury, tin' 
Irish people and working classes sank to 
starvation ; and further, that the Irish 
people were still sowing and reaping whttl 
thev of the sister island so contentedly de- 
voured, to the value of at least .LI 7, HOI), - 
000 sterling 

As an English fanner, artizan, or laborer, 
be^an to insist on tea in the morning as 
well as in the evening, an Irish farmer, arti- 
san, or laborer, found it necessary to live on 
oik' meal a day ; for every Englishman who 
added 10 his domestic expenditure by a pud- 
ding thrice a week, an Irishman had to re- 
trench his lo cabbage leaves and turnip tops ; 
us dyspepsia creeps into England, dysentery 



ravages Ireland ; "and the exact correlative 

of a Sunday dinner in England is a coron- 
er's inquest in Ireland." 

Ireland, however, was to have "alms." 
The English would not see their useful 
drudges perish at their very door for want, 
of a trifle of alms. So the Ministry an- 
nounced in this month of February, a new 
loan of leu millions, to be used from time to 
time for relief of Irish famine — the half of 
the advances to be repaid by rales — the 
oilier half to be a grant from the treasury 
lo Iced able-bodied paupers for doing useless 
work, or no work at all. As to this latter 
half of the ten millions, English newspapers 
and members of Parliament said that it was 
so much English money granted to Ireland. 
This, of course, was a falsehood. It was a 
loan raised by the Imperial Treasury, on a 
mortgage of the taxation of the Three 
Kingdoms ; and the principal of it, like tin; 
rest of the " national debt,"' was not intend- 
ed to be ever repaid ; and as for the interest, 
Ireland would have to pay her proportion 
of it, as a matter of course. 

This last act was the third of the " be- 
lief measures" contrived by the British Par- 
liament, and the most destructive of all. 
It was to be put in operation as a system 
of out-door relief; and the various local 
boards of Poor Law Guardians, if I hey could 
only understand the documents, were to 

have some apparent part in its administra- 
tion, but all, as usual, under the absolute 

control of the Poor Law Commissioners, and 
of a new board - namely, Sir John Bur- 
goyne, an engineer; Sir Randolph Routh, 
Commissary-General ; Mr. Twisleton, a Poor 
Law Commissioner; two Colonels, called 

.bines and M'tlregor, Police Inspectors; 

and Mr. Redington, LTnder-Secretary. 

In the administration of this system there 
were to be many thousands of officials, great 
and small. Tin' largest salaries were for Eng- 
lishmen ; but the smaller were held up as 
an object of ambition to Irishmen ; and it 
is very humiliating lo remember what eager 
and greedy multitudes were always canvass- 
ing and petitioning for these. 

In the new act of the out-door relief, there 
was one significant clause. It was, thai it 
any farmer Who held land should be forced to 
apply for aid under this act, for himself and 



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his family, be should not have it until he had 
first given up all his land to the landlord— 
except one quarter of an acre. It was 
called the quarter-acre clause, and was 
found the mosl efficient and the cheapest of 
nil the Ejectment acts. Farms were there- 
after daily given up, without the formality 
of a. notice to quit, or summons before Quar- 
ter Sessions. 

On (he Gth of March, there were sev- 
en hundred and thirty thousand heads of 
families on the public works. Provision 
was made by the last recited act for 
dismissing these in batches. On the 10th 
of April, the nnmber was reduced to five 
thousand seven hundred and twenty-three. 
Afterwards, hatches of a hundred thousand 
or so were in like manner dismissed. Mo I 

Of these had now neither house nor home ; 
and their only resource was in the out-door 
relief. For this they were ineligible, if they 
held but one rood of land. Under the new 
law it was able-bodied idlers only who were 
to be fed —to attempt to till even a rood of 

ground was death. 

Steadily, bul surely, the "Government" 
was working out its calculation; and the 
product anticipated ],y "political circles" 
was likely to come out about September, 
i" round numbers — two millions of Irish 
corpses. 

That "Government" had at length gol 
into its own hands all the means and mate- 
rials for working this problem, is now plain. 
There was no longer any danger of the ele- 
ments of the account being disturbed I >y ex- 
ternal interference of any kind. At, one 
time, indeed, there were odds against the 
Government sum coming out right ; for 
charitable people in England and America, 
indignant at the thought of a nation perish- 
ing of political economy, did contribute 
generOU8ly, anil did full surely believe that 

every pound they subscribed would give 
Irish famine twenty shillings worth of bread ; 

they thought so, ami poured in their contri- 
butions, and their prayers and blessings with 

them. 

In vain I "Government" ami political 
economy got hold of the contributions, and 

di posed of them in such fashion as to pre- 
vent their deranging the calculations of po- 
litical circles. 



For example, the vast supplies of food 
purchased by the " British Relief Associa- 
tion," with the money of charitable Chris- 
tians in England, were everywhere locked 
up in Government stores. Government, it, 
seems, contrived to influence or control the 
managers of that fund ; and thus, there 
were thousands of tons of food rotting with- 
in the stores of Haulbowline, at Cork liar 
bor ; and lens of thousands rotting without, 
For the market, must, be followed, not, led, 

(to tin; prejudice of Liverpool merchants I) 
— private; speculation must, not, be disap- 
pointed, nor the calculations of political 
circles falsified I 

All tin: nations of the earth might bo 
defied to feed or relieve Ireland, beset, by 

such a Government as this. America tried 
another plan ;— the ship Jamestown sailed 
into Cork Harbor, and discharged a, large 
Cargo, which actually began to come into 
consumption ; when lo ! Free Trade- anoth- 
er familiar demon of (Joverniiicnl — Free 
Trade, that, carried oil' our own harvests of 
the year before- comes in, freights another 
ship, and carries off from Cork to Liver- 
pool, a cargo against tin: American cargo. 

For the private speculators must be c - 

pensated ; the i -kets must not be /,•,/,- if 

these Americans will not give England their 
corn to lock up, then she defeats them by 
"the natural laws of trade I " So many 
Briarean hands has Government- -so surely 
do official persons work their account. 

Private charily, one might, think, in a. 
country like Ireland, would put, out the cal- 
culating Government sadly ; but thai, too, 

was brought in great, measure under con- 
trol. The "Temporary Relief act," talking 
of eight millions of money, (lo be used if 
needed,) — distributing, like Cumsean Sybil, 
ils mystic leaves by the myriad and the mil- 
lion — setting charitable people everywhere 
to con its pamphlets, and compare clause 
with clause— putting everybody in terror of 
ils rales, and in horror of its inspectors- 
was likely to pa88 the summer bravely. It 

would begin to be partly understood about 
Angust, would expire in September ;— and 
in September, the " the persons connected 
with Government" expected their round 
two millions of carcasses. 



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HISTORY OF IKELAND. 



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working to the same great end, was the 
" Vagrancy act," for the punishment of va- 
grants — that is, of about four millions of the 
inhabitants — by hard labor, "for any time 
not exceeding one month." 

Many poor people were escaping to Eng- 
land, as deck passengers, on board the nu- 
merous steamers, hoping to earn their living 
by labor there; but "Government" took 
alarm about typhus fever — a disease not in- 
tended for England. Orders in Council 
were suddenly issued, subjecting all vessels 
having deck passengers to troublesome exam- 
ination and quarantine, thereby quite stop- 
ping up that way of escape ; — and, six days 
afterwards, four steamship companies, be- 
tween England and Ireland, on request of 
the Government, raised the rate of passage 
for deck passengers. Cabin passengers were 
not interfered with in any way ; for, in fact, 
it is the cabin passengers from Ireland who 
spend in England five millions sterling per 
annnm. 

Whither now were the people to fly? 
Where to hide themselves ? They hail no 
money to emigrate ; no food, no land, no 
roof over them ; no hope before them. 
They began to envy the lot of those who 
had died in the fust year's famine. The 
poor houses were all full, and much more 
than full. Each of them was an hospital 
for typhus fever : and it was very common 
for three fever patients to be in one bed, 
some dead, and others not yet dead. Par- 
ishes all over the country being exhausted 
by rates, refused to provide coffins for the 
dead paupers, and they were thrown coffin- 
less into holes, but in some parishes, (in or- 
der to have, at least, the look of decent in- 
terment,) a coffin was made with its bottom 
linged at one side, and closed at the other 
jy a latch — the uses of which are obvious. 

It would lie easy to horrify the reader 
with details of this misery ; but let it be 
enough to give the results in round num- 
bers. Great efforts were this year made to 
give relief by private charily ; and sums 
Contributed in that way by Irishmen them- 
selves far exceeded all that was sent from 
all other parts of the world beside. As for 
the ship-loads of corn generously sent over 
by Americans, it has been already shown 
how the benevolent object was defeated. 



The moment it appeared in any port, prices 
became a shade lower ; and so much the 
more grain was carried off from Ireland 
by "free trade." It was not foreign corn 
that Ireland wanted — it was the use of her 
own ; that is to say, it was repeal of the 
Union. 

The arrangements and operations of the 
Union had been such that Ireland was 
bleeding at every vein ; her life was rushing 
out at every pore ; so that the money sent 
to her for charity was only so much added 
to landlords' rents and Englishmen's profits. 
The American corn was only so much given 
as a handsome present to the merchants 
and speculators. That is, the English got it. 

But no Irishman begged the world for 
alms. The benevolence of Americans, and 
Australians, and Turks, and Negro slaves, 
was excited by the appeals of the English 
press and English members of Parliament ; 
and in Ireland, many a cheek burned with 
shame and indignation at our country being 
thus held up to the world, by the people who 
were feeding on our vitals, as abject beg- 
gars of broken victuals. The Repeal Asso, 
elation, Ion as it had fallen, never sanction- 
ed this mendicancy. The true nationalists 
of Ireland, who had been forced to leave 
that association, and had formed another 
society, the "Irish Confederation," never 
ceased to expose the real nature of these 
British dealings — never ceased to repudiate 
ami disavow the British beggarly appeals ; 
although they took care to express warm 
gratitude for the well-meant charity of for- 
eign uations ; and never ceased to proclaim 
that the sole and all-sufficient "relief mea- 
sure " for the country would be, that the 
English should let us alone. 

On the 16th of March, for example, a 
meeting of the citizens of Dublin assembled, 
by public requisition, at the Music Hall, 
presided over by the Lord Mayor, expressly 
to consider the peril of the country, and pe- 
tition Parliament for proper remedies. It 
was known that the conveners of the meet- 
ing contemplated nothing more than sug- 
gestions as to importing grain in ships of 
war, stopping distillation from grain, and 
other trifles. Richard O'Gorman was then 
a prominent member of the Irish Confeder- 
ation ; and, being a citizen of Dublin, he 



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resolved to attend this meeting, and if 
nobody else should say the right word, say 
it himself. After some helpless talk about 
the " mistakes " and " infatuation " of Par- 
liament, and suggestions for change in va- 
rious details, O'Gorman rose, and in a pow- 
erful and indignant speech, moved this res- 
olution : — 

"That for purposes of temporary relief, 
as well as permanent improvement, the one 
great want, and demand of Ireland is, 
that foreign Legislators and foreign Minis- 
ters shall no longer interfere in the manage- 
ment of her affairs." 

In this speech he charged the Government 
with being the " murderers of the people," 
and said : — 

"Mr. Fitzgibbon has suggested that the 
measures of Government may have been 
adopted under an infatuation. I believe there 
is no infatuation. I hold a very different 
opinion on the subject. I think the British 
Government are doing what they intend 
to do." 

Another citizen of Dublin seconded Mr. 
O'Gorman's resolution, and the report of 
his observations has these sentences : — 

" I have listened with pain and disap- 
pointment to the proceedings of a meeting 
purporting to be a meeting of the citizens 
of Dublin, called at such a crisis, and to 
deliberate upon so grave a subject, yet 
at which the resolutions and speakers, as 
with one consent, have carefully avoided 
speaking out what nine-tenths of us feel to 
be the plain truth in this matter. But the 
truth, my lord, must be told— and the truth 
is, that Ireland starves and perishes, simply 
because the English have eaten us out of 
house and home. Moreover, that all the 
legislation of their Parliament is, and will 
be, directed to this one end — to enable them 
hereafter to cat us out of house and home 
as heretofore. It is for that sole end they 
have laid their grasp upon Ireland, and it 
is for that, and that alone, they will try to 
k> ep her." 

Greatly to the consternation of the quiet 

ami submissive gentlemen who had conve I 

the meeting, O'Gorman's resolution was 
adopted by overwhelming acclamation. 
Take another illustration of the spirit in 



Irish people. The harvest of Ireland was 
abundant and superabundant in 1841, as it 
lad been the year before. The problem was, 
as before, to get it quietly and peacefully ovei 
to England. First, the Archbishop of 
Canterbury issued a form of thanksgiving 
for an "abundant harvest," to be read iu 
all churches on Sunday, the 17th of Octo- 
ber. One Trevelyan, a Treasury Clerk, had 
been sent over to Ireland on some pretence 
of business, and the first thing he did when 
he landed was to transmit to England 
an humble 'entreaty that the Queen would 
deign to issue a Royal "Letter," asking 
alms in all the churches on the day of 
thanksgiving. The petition was complied 
with ; the Times grumbled against these 
eternal Irish beggars ; and the affair was 
thus treated in the Nation, which certainly 
spoke for the pmple more authentically than 
any other journal : — 

" Cordially, eagerly, thankfully, we agree 
with the English Times, in this one respect 
— there ought to be no alms for Ireland. 

"It is an impudent proposal, and ought lo 
be rejected with scorn and contumely. We 
are sick of this eternal begging. If but 
one voice in Ireland should lie raised against 
it, that voice shall be ours. To-morrow, 
to-raorrow, over broad England, Scotlan 



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which British charity was received by the alms from England. 



and Wales, the people who devour our sub- 
stance from year to year, are to offer 
up their canting thanksgivings for our 
' abundant harvest,' and fling us certain 
crumbs and crusts of it for charity. Now, 
if any church-going Englishman will heark- 
en to us, if we may be supposed in any de- 
gree to speak for our countrymen, we put 
up our petition thus : Keep your alms, 
ye canting robbers— button your pockets 
upon the Irish plunder that is in them — 
and let the begging-box pass on. Neither as 
loans nor as alms will we take that which is 
our own. We spit upon the benevolence 
that rolis us of a pound, and flings back a 
penny in charily. Contribute now if you 
will — these will be your thanks ! 

"But who has craved this charity? 
Why, the Queen of England, and her Privy 
Council, and two officers of her Govern- 
ment, named Trevelyan and Bnrgoyne 1 
No Irishman, that we know of, has begged 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



" But the English insist on our remaining 
beggars. Charitable souls that they are, 
they like better to give us charity than let 
us earn our bread. And consider the time 
when this talk of alms-giving begins : our 
'abundant harvest,' for which they arc to 
thank God to-morrow, is still here ; and 
there has been talk of keeping it here. So, 
they say to one another : ' Go to ; let us 
promise them charity and church subscrip- 
tions — they are a nation of beggars — they 
would rather have alms than honest earn- 
ings — let us talk of alms, and they will send 
us the bread from their tables, the cattle 
from their pastures, and the coats from their 
backs. 

" We charge the ' Government,' we 
charge the Cabinet Council at Osborne 
House, with this base plot. We tell our 
countrymen that a man, named Trevelyan, 
a Treasury Clerk — the man who advised 
and administered the Labor-Rate act — that 
this Trevelyan has been sent to Ireland 
that he, an Englishman, may send over 
from this side the channel a petition to the 
charitable in England. We arc to be made 
to beg, whether we will or no. The Queen 
begs for us ; the Archbishop of Canterbury 
bigs for us ; and they actually send a man 
to Ireland that a veritable Irish begging 
petition may not be a-wanting. 

"Prom Salt Hill Hotel, at Kingstown, 
this piteous cry goes forth to England. 
'In justice,' Trevelyan says, 'to those who 
have appointed a general collection in the 
churches on the 17th, and still more in 
pity to the unhappy people in the western 
districts of Ireland,' he implores his country- 
men to have mercy ; and gets his letter 
published in the London papers, (along 
with another from Sir John Burgoyne,) to 
stimulate the charity of those good and 
well-fed Christians who will enjoy the lux- 
ury of benevolence to-morrow. 

"Once more, then, we scorn, we repulse, 
we curse, all English alms ; ami only wish 
these sentiments of ours could reach, before 
noon to-morrow, every sanctimonious thanks- 
giver in England, Scotland, Wales, and 
Berwick-upon-Tweed." 

In the same number the Nation took the 
pains to collect and present statistics by 
which it appeared that ererv dai/, one day 




with another, twenty large steamships, not 
counting sailing vessels, left Ireland for 
England, all laden with that " abundant 
harvest" — for which the English, indeed, 
might well give thanks in their churches. 

It must be acknowledged that if the 
English Government and people really and 
truly did endeavor to relieve the famine in 
their sister country, that generosity met a 
most ungrateful return, from a people, too, 
who are proverbially warm-hearted. 

For the famine of 1847, it is only needful 
to add that, during this year, coroners' 
juries in several counties repeatedly, on in- 
quests over famine-slain corpses, found, upon 
their oaths, verdicts of " Willful Murder 
against John Russell, commonly called Lord 
John Russell," he being then the Queen's 
Prime Minister. 

The verdict was perfectly justifiable, and 
the crime quite manifest ; but as there was 
no power to bring the criminal over to 
Ireland for trial, and as there would have 
been no use in arraigning him before an 
English jury, he was never brought to 
justice. * 

It is essential that foreign nations should 
never believe, for the future, (what the 
English press has diligently inculcated,) 
that our people, when wiiitteu by famine, fell 
a-begging, from England or from America. 
Let them never hereafter wonder when they 
meet with Irishmen ungrateful for the 
"relief measures" — and, above all, if Ire- 
land should again starve, (as she is most 
likely to do,) anil should still be under' 
British dominion, let them never scud her a 
bushel of corn or a dollar of money. 
Neither bushel nor dollar will ever reach 
her. 

In February, 1847, and amidst the deep- 
esl gloom and horror of the famine, O'Cou- 
nell, old, sick, and heavy-laden, left Ireland, 
and left it forever. Physicians in London 
recommended a journey to the south of 
Europe, and O'Connell himself desired to 
see the Pope before he died, and to breathe 
out his soul at Rome, in the choicest odor 
of sanctity. By slow and painful stages he 
proceeded only as tar as Genoa, and there 
died on the 1 5th of May. 

For those who were not close witnesses of 
Irish politics in that day — who did not seo 



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how vast tlii.s giant figure loomed in Ireland 
and in England for a generation and a half 



— it is not easy to understand the strong 
emotion caused by bis death, both in friends 
and enemies. Vet, for a whole year before, he 
bad sunk low, indeed. His power had depart- 
ed from him ; and in presence of the terrible 
apparition of his perishing country he had 
Seemed to shrink and wither. Nothing can be 
conceived more helpless than his speeches in 
Conciliation Hall, and his appeals to the 
British Parliament during that time — yet, 
as I before said, he never begged alms for 
Ireland, lie never fell so low as that ; and 
the last sentences of the very last letter he 
ever penned to the association still proclaim 
the true doctrine : — 

"It will not be until after the deaths of 
hundreds of thousands that the regret will 
arise that more was not done to save a 
sinking nation. 

" How different would the scene be if we 
had our own Parliament — taking care of 
our own people — of our own resources. But, 
alas I alas ! it is scarcely permitted to think 
of these, the only sure preventatives of 
misery, and the only sure instruments of 
Irish prosperity." 

To no Irishman can the wonderful life of 
O'Connell fail to be impressive — from the 
day when, a fiery and thoughtful boy, he 
sought the cloisters, of St. Omers for the 
education which penal laws denied him in his 
own land, on through the manifold struggles 
and victories of his earlier career, as he 
broke and flung off, with a kind of haughty 
impatience, link after link of the social and 
political chain that six hundred years of 
steady British policy had woven around 
every limb and muscle of his country, down 
to that supreme moment of the blackness of 
darkness for himself and for Ireland, when 
he laid down his burden and closed his 
eyes. Beyond a doubt, his death was 
hastened by the misery of seeing his proud 
hopes dashed to the earth, and his well- 
beloved people perishing ; for there dwelt 
in that brawny frame tenderness and pity 
soft as woman's. To the last he labored on 
the "Belief Committees" of Dublin, and 
thought every hour lost unless employed in 
rescuing some of the doomed. 

O'Conuell's body rests in Ireland, but 



without his heart. He gave orders that the 
heart should be removed from his body and 
sent to Rome. The funeral was a great 
and mournful procession through the streets 
of Dublin, mid it will show how wide was 
the alienation which divided him from his 
former confederates, that when O'Brien 
signified a wish to attend the obsequies, a 
public letter from John O'Connell sullenly 
forbade him. 

In the year 1847 great and successful 
exertions were used to make sure that the 
next year should be a year of famine, too. 
This was effected mainly by holding out the 
prospect of " out-door relief" — to obtain 
which tenants must abandon their lands and 
leave them unfilled. A paragraph from a 
letter of Mr. Fitzpatrick, parish priest of 
Skibbereen, contains within it an epitome 
of the history of that year. It was pub- 
lished in the Freeman, March 12th : — 

"The ground continues unsown and un- 
cultivated. There is a mutual distrust 
between the landlord and the tenant. The 
landlord would wish, if possible, to gel up 
his land; and the unfortunate tenant is 
anxious to stick to it as long as he can. A 
good many, however, are giving it up, and 
preparing for America ; and these are the 
substantial farmers who have still a little 
means left." 

"A gentleman traveling from Borris-in- 
Ossory to Kilkenny, one bright spring 
morning, counts at both sides of the road, 
in a distance of twenty-four miles, ' nine 
men and four ploughs,' occupied in the 
fields ; but sees multitudes of wan laborers, 
' beyond the power of computation by a 
mail-car passenger,' laboring to destroy the 
road he was traveling upon. It was a 
'public-work.'" — {Dublin Evening Mail.) 

In the same month of March — "The 
land," says the Mayo Constitution, " is one 
vast waste : a soul is not to be seen working 
on the holdings of the poor farmers through- 
out the country, and those who have had 
the prudence to plough or dig the ground, 
are in fear of throwing in the seed." 

When the new " Out-door Belief act" 
began to be applied, with its memorable 
Quarter-acre clause, all this process went on 
with wonderful velocity, and millions of 
people were soon left landless and homeless. 



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Tliat they should be left landless and home- 
less was strictly in accordance with British 
policy ; but then there was danger of the 
millions of outcasts becoming robbers and 
murderers. Accordingly, the nest point 
was to clear the country of them, and di- 
minish the Poor-rates, by emigration. 

For, though they were perishing fast of 
hunger and typhus, they were not perishing 
fast enough. It was inculcated by the 
English press that the temperament and 
disposition of the Irish people fitted them 
peculiarly for some remote country in the 
East, or in the West — in fact, for any 
country but their own — that Providence had 
committed some mistake iu causing them to 
be bora in Ireland. As usual, the Times 
was foremost iu finding out this singular 
freak of nature ! Says the Times, (Feb- 
ruary 22, 1847,) :— 

" Remove Irishmen to the banks of the 
Ganges, or the Indus — to Delhi, Benares, 
or Trincomalee — and they would be far 
more in their element there than in a 
country to which an inexorable fate has con- 
fined them." 

Again, a Mr. Murray, a Scotch banker, 
writes a pamphlet upou the proper measures 
for Ireland. " The surplus population of 
Ireland," says Mr. Murray, " have been 
trained precisely for those pursuits which the 
unoccupied regions of North America re- 
quire." Which might appear strange — a 
populatiou .expressly trained, and that 
precisely, to suit any country except their 
own ! 

But these are comparatively private and 
individual suggestions. In April of this 
year, however, six Peers and twelve Com- 
moners, who call themselves Irish, but who 
include amongst them such " Irishmen " as 
Dr.. Whateley and Mr. Godley, laid a 
scheme before" Lord John Russell, for the 
transportation of one million and a half of 
Irishmen to Canada, at a cost of nine 
millions sterling, to be charged on " Irish 
property," and to be paid by an income 
tax. 

Again, within the same year, a few 
months later, a "Select Committee," (and 
a very select one,) of the House of 
Lords brings up a report " On Colonization 
from Ireland." Their lordships report 



that all former committees on the state of 
Ireland (with one exception,) had agreed, 
at least, on this point — that it was neci 
sary to remove the " excess of labor." They 
say : — 

" They have taken evidence respecting the 
state of Ireland, of the British North Amer- 
ican Colonies, (including Canada, New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland,) 
the West India Islands, New South Wales, 
Port Philip, South Australia, Tan Diemen's 
Land, and New Zealand. On some of these 
points it will be found that their inquiries 
have little more than commenced ; on 
others, that those inquiries have been carried 
somewhat nearer to completion, but in no 
case can it be considered that the subject is 

yet exhausted 

The committee are fully aware that they 
have as yet examined into many points but 
superficially, and that some, as, for example, 
the state of the British possessions in 
Southern Africa, and in the Territory of 
Natal, have not yet been considered at all. 
Neither have they obtained adequate inform- 
ation respecting what we sincerely h»pe 
may hereafter be considered as the prospering 
settlement of New Zealand. The important 
discoveries of Sir T. Mitchell in Australia, 
have also been but slightly noticed." 

It appears that any inquiry into the 
state of Ireland naturally called their lord- 
ships to a consideration distant of latitudes 
and longitudes. 

Their lordships further declare that the 
emigration which they recommend must be 
" voluntary " — and, also, that " there 
was a deep and pervading anxiety for 
emigration exhibited by the people them- 
selves." 

A deep and pervading anxiety to fly, to 
escape any whither 1 From whom ? Men 
pursued by wild beasts will show a pervad- 
ing anxiety to go anywhere out of reach. If 
a country be made too hot to hold its in- 
habitants, they will be willing even to throw 
themselves into the sea. 

All this while, that there were from 
four to five millions of acres of improv- 
able waste lands in Ireland— and even 
from the land in cultivation Ireland was 
exporting food enough every year to sus- 
tain eight millions of people iu England. 



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BRITISH FAMINE POLICY. 



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None of the vast public schemes of emi- 
gration was adopted by Parliament in its 
full extent ; though aid was, from time to 
time, given to minor projects for that end ; 
and landlords continued very busy all this 
year and the next, shipping all their "sur- 
plus tenantry" by their own private re- 
sources, thinking it cheaper than to maintain 
them by rates. The Poor Law Guardians, 
also, were authorized to transport paupers, 
and to appropriate part of the rates to that 
purpose. 

There has now been laid before the read- 
er a complete sketch, at least in outline, of 
the British famine policy — expectation of 
Government spoon-feeding at the point 
of police bayonets — shaking the farmers 
loose from their lands, employing them for a 
time on strictly useless public works — then 
disgorging them in crowds of one hundred 
thousand at a time, to beg, or rob, or 
perish— -then, " out-door relief," administered 
in quantities altogether infinitesimal in pro- 
portion to the need — then that universal 
'ejectment, the Quarter-acre law — then the 
corruption of the middle class by holding 
out the prize of ten thousand new Govern- 
ment situations — then the Vagrancy act, to 
make criminals of all houseless wanderers — 
then the " voluntary " emigration schemes 
— then the omnipresent police, hanging 
like a cloud over the houses of all "suspect- 
ed persons" — that is, all persons who still 
kept a house over their heads — then the 
quarantine regulations, and increased fare 
for deck passengers to England, thus de- 
barring the doomed race from all escape at 
that side, and leaving them the sole al- 
ternative : America or the grave. This, 
gives something like a map or plan of the 
field as laid out and surveyed for the final 
conquest of the island. 

The Irish landlords were now in dire per- 
plexity. Many of them were good and just 
men ; but the vast majority were fully 
identified in interest with the British Gov- 
ernment, and desired nothing so much as to 
destroy the population. They would not 
consent to tenant-right ; they dared not 
trust themselves in Ireland without a Brit- 
ish army. They may have felt, indeed, 
that they were themselves both injured and 
insulted by the whole system of English 




legislation; but they would submit to any- 
thing rather than fraternize with the injured 
Catholic Celts. A few landlords and other 
gentlemen met and formed an " Irish Coun- 
cil ;" but these were soon frightened into 
private life again by certain revolutionary 
proposals of some members, and especially 
by the very name of tenant-right. At last, 
about the end of this year, seeing that 
another season's famine was approaching, 
and knowing that Violent counsels began to 
prevail amongst the extreme section of the 
national party, the landlords, in guilty and 
cowardly rage and fear, called on Parliament 
for a new Coercion act. 

From this moment all hope that the land- 
ed gentry would stand on the side of Ire- 
land against England utterly vanished. This 
deadly alliance between the landlords and the 
Government brought Irish affairs to a crisis ; 
broke up the " Irish Confederation," (com- 
posed of the extreme nationalists, who 
could no longer exist in the Repeal Associa- 
tion,) and provoked an attempt at insurrec- 
tion. 

Before going further, however, two facts 
should be mentioned : First, That by a care- 
ful census of the agricultural produce of 
Ireland for this year, 18-17, made by Cap- 
tain Larcom, as a Government Commission- 
er, the total value of that produce was 
•£44,958,120 sterling; which would have 
amply sustained double the entire people of 
the island.* This return is given in detail, 
and agrees generally with another estimate 
of the same, prepared by John Martin, of 
Loughorn, in the County Down — a gentle- 
man whose name will be mentioned again in 
this narrative. Second, That at least five 
hundred thousand human beings perished 
this year of famine, and of famine-typhus ; f 
and two hundred thousand more fled beyond 
the sea, to escape famine and fever. Third, 
That the loaus for relief given to the 
Public Works and Public Commissariat 
Departments, to be laid out as they should 

* In Thorn's Official Almanac and Directory, the 
Government has taken care to suppress the state- 
ment of gross amount. 

f The deaths by famine of the year before, we 
may set down at three hundred thousand. There is 
no possibility of ascertaining the numbers ; and when 
the Government Commissioners pretend to do so, 
they intend deception. 



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think proper, and to lie repaid by rates 
mi Irish property, went in the first place to 
maintain ten thousand greedy officials ; ami 
that the greater part of these funds never 
reached the people at nil, or reached them 
in Bucb ••<■ way us lo ruin niul exterminate 

thrill. 

A kind of sacred wrath took possession 
oi a lew Irishmen at tliis period, They 
•on!. I ('inline the horrible scene no longer, 
si.iil resolved to cross the path of Hie Brit- 
ish car of conquest, though it Bhould crush 
tliem to atoms. 




fC 






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I- 



CHAPTER LX. 

[S 17 ISIS. 
Lord Clarendon Vioeroy tiis Means of toBorlog the 

Sillipinrlil In KiiL'lalnl of III'' I'siial Tribute I'.iiIm 

i in- n.isei Sort "i Gdftor Patronnge for Catholla 
Lawyers Another Cderoion Ait Projects for 
Stopping Export of Grain Arming Uarmof Cov- 
er nt Willis Ariiy.' in Coercion FronoU Re- 
volution ft February Confederate Cluba Dopu 

to from Dublin in Paris O'Brien's Last &p 

poaranoo in Parliament Trials of O'Brien and 
Meagher— Trial of Uitohel Paoklng of the Jurj 
tli Ign ei' Terror in Dublin. 

In Hie summer of tins year, I s 1 7 ( Lord 
Clarendon was sent over, as Lord-Lieuten- 
ant, to finish the conquest of Ireland— jusl 
ns Lord Mountjoy hud been sent to bring to 
an end the wars of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; 
ami by the same means substantially— that 

is, bj Corruption of the rich and starva- 
tion of 1 he poor. The form of procedure, 
indeed, whs somewhat different ; for Eng- 
lish statesmen of the sixteenth century had 
in 'i learned to use the weapons of "amelior- 
ation" ami " political economy ;" neither had 
they yet established the policy of keeping 
Ireland as n store-farm to raise wealth for 
England. Lord Mountjoy's system, then, 
had BOmewlmt of a rilde character ; and he 

could think of nothing better thau Bonding 
large bodies of troops to cut down the green 
corn, and bum the houses. In one expedi- 
tion into Leinster, his biographer, Moryson, 
estimates that he destroyed "teli thousand 
pounds worth of corn," that is, wheat ; an 
amount which might now lie stated at 
£200,000 worth. In OVahau's country, in 
Ulster, as the same Morysou tells us, after 
a razzia of Mountjoy : " We have none left 



to give us opposition, nor of late have seen 
any but dead carcasses, merely Starved for 
want, of meal." So that Mouuljuy could 

boast ho had given Ireland to Elizabeth, 

"nothing but carcasses and ashes." 

Lord Clarendon's method was more in 
the spirit of the nineteenth century, though 
his slaughters were more terrible in the end 
than Mountjoy's. Again there was growing! 
upon Irish soil 11 noble harvest ; but it had 
been more economical lo carry if over to 
England by help of free trade, than to 

burn if on the ground. The problem then 

was, as it had been the last year, and 
the year before, how lo insure ils speedy 

and peaceful transmission. Accordingly, 

Lord Clarendon came over with concilia- 
tory speeches, and large professions of 
the desire of "Government" now, at last, 

to stay the famine. Sullen murmurs had 
been beard, and even open threats and 
urgent recommendations, that the Irish har- 
vest must not ln> Buffered to go another 
year ; ami there were rumors of risings in 

the harvest to break up the roads, to pull 
down the bridges, ill every way lo slop the* 
tracks of this fatal " commerce ; " rumors, 
in short, of tin insurrection. Some new tneth- 

od, then, had to be adopted, to turn tho 

thoughts and hopes of that too credulous 
people once more towards Ihe "Govern- 
ment." Lord Clarendon recommended a 
lour of agricultural "lectures,'' the expense 
io be provided for by the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society, aided by public moncv. 'The 
lecturers were to go upon every estate, call 
the people together, talk to them of the In- 

nevoient intentions of his excellency, and 
give them good advice. 

The poor people listened respect fully, but 
usually told the lecturers that there was no 
use in following thai excellent agricultur- 
al advice, as they were all goillg lo lie 

tunifii i'ii/ 1 he next sprimr. These lecturers 
published their report -a most amazing pic- 
ture of patient suffering on the one hand, 

and of official insolence on the other. One 
Fitzgerald, a most energetic lecturer, lull 
oi Liebi-'s Agricultural Chemistry, tells us : 
"They all agreed Ihal what 1 said was just ; 
lint they always hud stmt exeuie, that they 
could not get seed, or had nothing to live on 

m the meantime." 



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And a Mr. Goode, who was also instruct* 
Ing the West, says : — 

" The poor people here appeared to be in 
a must, desponding state : they always met 
me with the argument that there was no 
use in their working there, for they were 
going to be turned out in spring, and would 
have their houses pulled down over them. 
I used to tell them that I had nothing to do 
with that ; that 1 w;is sent among them by 
some kind, intelligent gentlemen, bandy to 
tell them what course to pursue." 

Thai was all. Lord Clarendon h;id not 
sent down Mr. Qoode to lecture on tenant- 
right ; and the people had no business to 
obtrude their Jacobin principles npon a 
Government "instructor." They might as 
well have prated to him about repeal of the 
Union. 

Another measure of Lord Clarendon was 
1)0 buy support at the press with Secret- 
Service money. To the honor of the Dublin 
press, this was a somewhat difficult matter. 
The Government had, at that time, only one 
leading journal in the metropolis on which 
it, could surely rely — the Evening Post — 
Loi'd Clarendon wanted another organ, 
and of lower species ; for he had work to 
do which the comparatively respectable 
Post might shrink from, lie sought out a 
creature named Birch, editor of the World, 
a paper which was never named nor alluded 
to by any reputable journal in the city. 
This Birch lived by hush-money, or black- 
mail of the most infamous kind — that is, 
extorting money from private persons, men 
and women, by threats of inventing mid 
publishing scandalous stories of their domestic 
circles. Be had been tried more than once 
and convicted of this species of swindling. 
"1 then offered him L100, if I remember 
rightly," says Lord Clarendon,* " for it did 
not make any great impression on me at the 
time. He said that would not be sufficient 
for his purpose, and 1 think it was then 
extended to about -8350." On further 
examination, his lordship confessed that he 
hail paid Birch "further sums" — in short, 
kept him regularly in pay ; and, finally, on 
Birch bringing suit against him for the 
balance due lor " work and labor," had paid 



him in one sum £2,000, at the same time 
taking up all the papers and litters, (as he 
thought,) which might bring the transaction 
to light. Everybody can guess the nature of 
Birch's work and labor, and quantum meruit. 
His duty was to make weekly attacks of a 
private and revolting nature upon Smith 
O'Brien, upon Mr. Meagher, upon Mr. 
Mitchel, and every one else who was prom- 
inent in resisting 1 exposing the Govern- 
ment measures. Further, the public money 
was employed in the gratuitous distribution 
of the World; for otherwise, decent persons 
would never have seen it. 

It was long afterwards that the public 
learned how all this subterranean agency 
had come to light on the trial of one of the 
suits which Birch was forced to institute for 
recovery of his wages. 

A third measure of the Viceroy was — 
extreme liberality towards Catholic lawyers 
and gentlemen in the distribution of patron- 
age ; that so they might be the more 
effectually bought oil' from all common 
interest and sympathy with the " lower 
orders," and might stand patiently by and 
see their people slain or banished. Amongst 
others, Mr. Monahan, an industrious and 
successful Catholic barrister, was made 
Attorney- General lor Ireland — from which 
the next step was to the bench. Mr. 
Monahan became n grateful and useful ser- 
vant to the enemies of his country. 

The summer of '47 had worn through 
wearily and hopelessly. All endeavors to 
rouse the landlord class to exertion entirely 
failed, through their coward fear of an out- 
raged and plundered people ; and, at last, 

when out, of the vast multitudes of I i 

thrown from public works, houseless and 
famishing, a few committed murders and 
robberies, or shot a bailiff or an incoming 
tenant, the landlords in several counties 
besought for a new Coercion and Anns act ; 
so as to make that code more stringent and 
inevitable. Lord .John Russell was but too 
happy to comply with the demand ; but the 
landlords were to give something in exchange 
for this security. 

Addresses of confidence were voted by 
Grand Juries and county meetings of land- 
ords. The Irish gentry almost unanimous- 
ly volunteered addresses denouncing repeal 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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and repealers, and pledging themselves to 
maintain the Union. At the same time 
ejectment was more active than ever, and it 
is not to be denied that amongst the myriads 
of desperate men who then wandered house- 
less, there were some who would not die 
tamely. Before taking their last look at 
the sun, they could, at least, lie in wait for 
the agent who had pulled down their houses 
and turned their weeping children adrift ; 
him, at least, they could send to perdition 
before them. 

The crisis was come. The people no 
longer trusted the ameliorative professions 
of their enemies ; and there were some who 
zealously strove to rouse them now at last, 
to stand up for their own lives ; to keep 
the harvest of '47 within the four seas of Ire- 
land ; and by this one blow to prostrate 
Irish landlordism, and the British Empire 
along with it. 

This was a perilous, and, perhaps, an 
utterly desperate enterprize, while England 
was at peace with all the world, and at full 
liberty to hurl the whole mass of her mili- 
tary power upon a small island which she 
already held with so linn a grasp. Even 
those who counseled armed resistance were 
fully conscious of the desperation of that 
course, but honestly thought that any 
death — especially death in just war — was 
better than the death of a dog, by hunger. 

In the meantime, the beautiful metropolis 
of Ireland was extremely gay and brilliant. 
After two years' frightful famine — and 
when it was already apparent that the next 
famine, of 1847-48, would be even more 
desolating — you may imagine that Dublin 
City would show some effect or symptom of 
such a national calamity Singular to 
relate, that city had never before been so 
gay and luxurious ; splendid equipages had 
never before SO crowded the streets ; and 
the theatres and concert-rooms had never 
been filled with such brilliant throngs. In 
truth, the rural gentry resorted in greater 
numbers to the metropolis at this time — 
some to avoid the sight and sound of the 
misery which surrounded their country 
seats, and which British laws almost ex- 
pressly enacted they should not relieve ; some 
to get out of reach of an exasperated and 
louseless peasantry. Any stranger, arri- 



ving in those days, guided by judicious 
friends only through fashionable streets and 
squares, introduced only to proper circles, 
would have said that Dublin must be the 
prosperous capital of some wealthy and 
happy country. 

The new Poor law was now on all hands 
admitted to be a failure ; — that is, a failure 
as to its ostensible purpose; for its real pur- 
pose, reducing the body of the people to 
"able-bodied pauperism," it had been no 
failure at all, but a complete success. Near- 
ly ten millions sterling had now been ex- 
pended under the several relief acts ; — ex- 
pended mostly in salaries to officials ; the 
rest laid out in useless work, or in providing 
rations for a short time to induce small 
farmers to give up their laud ; which was 
the condition of such relief. Instead of 
ten millions in three years, if twenty millions 
had been advanced in the first year, and ex- 
pended on useful labor, (that being the sum 
which had been devoted promptly to turn- 
ing wild the West India negroes,) the 
whole famine-slaughter might have been 
averted, and the whole advance would havf 
been easily repaid to the Truasury.* 

Long before the Government Commis- 
sioners had proclaimed their law a failure, 
the writers in the Nation had been endea- 
voring to turn the minds of the people 
towards the only real remedy for all their 
evils — that is, a combined movement to pre- 
vent the export of provisions, and to resist 
process of ejectment. This involved a de- 
nial of rent and refusal of rales; involved, 
in other words, a root and branch revolu- 
tion, socially and politically. 

Such revolutionary ideas could only be 
justified by a desperate necessity, and by 
the unnatural and fatal sort of connection 
between Irish landlords and Iris!; tenants. 
Tin' peasantry of England, of Scotland, 
and of Ireland, stand in three several rela- 
tions towards the lords of their soil. In 
England they are simply the emancipated 
serfs and villeins of the feudal system ; 



* Of the £10,000.000 advanced by the Treasury, 
three millions had been repaid by rates in L854. 
What may have been refunded since, it is not easy 
to learn with any accuracy. The accounts between 
Ireland and the Imperial Treasury are kept in 
England. 



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PROJECTS FOR STOPPING EXPORT OF GRAIN. 



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never knew any other form of social polity, 
nor any other lords of the soil, since the 
Norman conquest. As England, however, 
prosecuted her conquests by degrees in the 
other two kingdoms, she found the free 
Celtic system of cl unship ; and as rebellion 
after rebellion was crashed, her statesmen 
insisted npon regarding the chiefs of (dans 
as feudal lords, and their clansmen as their 
vassals or tenants. In Scotland, the chiefs 
gladly assented to this view of the ease, 
and the Mac Callum More became, nothing 
loath, Duke of Argyle, and owner of the 
territory which had been the tribe lands of 
his clan. Owing mainly to the fact that 
estates in Scotland were not so tempting a 
prey as the rich tracts of Ireland — and 
partly owing also to the Scottish people 
«g having generally become Protestants on the 
change of religion — there was but little 
change in the ruling families ; and the Scot- 
ti-.li clansmen, now become "tenantry," paid 
their duties to the heads of their own kin- 
dred as before. So it has happened that to 
this day there is no alienation of feeling, or 
distinction of race, to exasperate the lot of 
the poor cultivators of the soil. 

In Ireland, wherever the chiefs turned Pro- 
testant, and chose to accept "grants" of 
their tribe-lands at the hands of British 
kings, (as the Do Burghs and O'Briens,) 
much the same state of things took place 
for a while. Bat Ireland never submitted 
to English dominion as Scotland has done ; 
and there were continual " rebellions," (so 
the English termed our national resistance,) 
followed by extensive confiscations. Many 
hundreds of great estates in Ireland have 
thus been confiscated twice, and three times ; 
and the new proprietors were Englishmen, 
and, in a portion of Ulster, Scotchmen. 
These, of course, had no common interest 
or sympathy with the people, whom they 
considered and called, " the Irish enemy." 
Still, while Ireland had her own Parliament, 
and the landlords resided at home, the state 
of affairs was tolerable ; but when the Act. 
of "Union," in 1800, concentrated the pride 
and splendor of the empire at London, aud 
made Englaud the great field of ambition 
and distinction, most of our grandees re- 
sided out of Ireland, kept agents and bail- 
iffs there, wrung the utmost farthing out 
73 




of the defenceless people, and spent it 
elsewhere. 

Now, it never would have entered the 
mind of any rational or just man, at this 
late date, to call in question the title to 
long-ago confiscated estates ; nor, suppos- 
ing those titles proved bad, would it have 
been possible to find the right owners. But 
when the system was found to work so 
fatally — when hundreds of thousands of 
people were lying down and perishing in the 
midst of abundance, and superabundance, 
which their own hands had created, society 
itself stood dissolved. That form of so- 
ciety was not only a failure, but an intoler- 
able oppression, and cried aloud to be cut 
up by the roots and swept away. 

Those who thought thus, had reconciled 
their minds to the needful means — that is, 
a revolution, as fundamental as the French 
revolution, and to the wars and horrors in- 
cident to that. The horrors of war, they 
knew, were by no means so terrible as the 
horrors of peace which their own eyes had 
seen ; they were ashamed to see their kins- 
men patiently submitting to be starved to 
death, and longed to see blood How, if it 
were only to show that blood still flowed in 
Irish veins. 

The enemy began to take genuine alarm 
at these violent doctrines — especially as 
they found that the people were taking them 
to heart ; and already, iu Clan; County, 
mobs were Stopping the transport of grain 
towards the seaports. If rents should cease 
to be levied, it was clear that not only would 
England lose her five millions steriiug per 
annum of absentee rents, but mortgagees, 
fundholders, insurance companies, and the 
like, would lose dividends, interests, bonus, 
and profits. There was then in England a 
gentleman wdio was iu the habit of writing 
able but sanguinary exhortations to Minis- 
ters, with the signature " S. G. 0." His 
addresses appeared in the Times, and were 
believed to influence considerably the coun- 
sels of Government. In November, 18-17, 
this " S. G. 0." raised the alarm, and call- 
ed for prompt, coercion iu Ireland. Here 
is one sentence from a letter of his reverence 
— for " S. G. 0." was a clergyman : — 

" Lord John may safely believe me when 
I say that the prosperity — nay, almost the 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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very existence of many insurance societies, 
the positive salvation from utter rain of 
many, very many mortgagees, depends on 

gome instant steps to make life ordinarily 
secure in Ireland ; of course, I only mean 
life in that class of it in which individuals 
effect insurances and give mortgages." 

Iu short, his reverence meant high life. 
Lord Clarendon, as Parliament was not 
then sitting, issued an admonitory address, 
wherein he announced that, : — 

"The constabulary will be increased in 
nil disturbed districts, (whereby an addi- 
tional burden will be thrown upon the rates,) 
military detachments will be stationed wher- 
ever necessary, and efficient patrols main- 
tained ; liberal rewards will be given for in- 
formation," &c 

In the meantime, large forces were con 

Centrated at points where the spirit, of re- 
sistance showed itself ; for a sample of which 
we take a paragraph from the Tippcrary 
Fret Press: — 

" A large military force, under the civil 
authority, has seized upon the produce of 

snch farms in Boytonrath, as owed rent and 
arrears to the late landlord, Mr. Roe, and 
the same will he removed to Dublin, and 
sold there, if not, redeemed within fourteen 

days. There are two hundred soldiers and 
their officers garrisoned in the mansion house 
id Rockwell." 

Whereupon, the Nation urged the people 
to begin calculating whether ten times the 
whole British army would he enough to act 
as bailiffs and drivers everywhere at once ; 
or, whether, if they did, the proceeds of the 
distress might answer expectation. In fact, 
it, was obvious that it' the enemy should he 
forced to employ their forces in this way 
over the island to lilt, and carry the whole 
harvests of Ireland, and that, over roads 

broken up and bridges broken down to ob- 
struct them, and with the daily risk of meet- 
ing hands of ahlc-hodied paupers to dispale 
their passage the service would soon have 
been wholly demoralized, and after three 
months of such employment, the remnant 
of the army might, have lieen destroyed. 

Parliament was called hastily together. 

Her Majesty told the Houses that, there 
Were atrocious ciimes in Ireland- -a spirit 
ot insubordination, an organized resistance to 



" legal rights ; " and, of course, that she re- 
quired "additional powers " for the protec- 
tion of life — that is, high life. 

The meaning of this was u new Coercion 
hill. It was carried without, delay, and 
with unusual unanimity; and it, is instructive 
hero to note the difference between a Whig 
in power, and a Whig out. When Sir 
Robert Peel had proposed his Coercion hill 
the year In-fore, it, hail been vehemently op- 
posed by Lord John Rnssell and Lord Grey, 
It was time to have done with coercion, 

they had said ; Ireland had lieen " misgov- 
erned : " there had been too many Anns 
acts; it was "justice" that, was wanted 
now, and they, the Whigs, were the men to 
dispense il. Karl Grey, speaking of the 
last Coercion bill, (it, was brought ill by the 
other party,) said, emphatically, (see debate 
iii the Lords, March -:s, 1846,) " that, mea- 
sures of severity had been tried long 
enough;" and repeated with abhorrence, 
tin' list of coercive measures passed since 
1800, all without effect ; how, in 1S0O, the 
Habeas Corpus act was suspended, the act 
for the suppression of the rebellion beiifg 
Still in force ; how coercion was renewed iu 
1801 ; continued again in ISO I ; how the 
Insurrection act was passed iii 1807, which 
(rave the Lord-Lieutenant full and legal 

power to place any district under martial 
law, to suspend trial by jury, and make it a 
transportable offence to be out of doors 
from sunset to sunrise ; how this act, remain- 
ed in force till 1810; how it was renewed 
in 1814 — continued in '16, 46, 'IT — reviv- 
ed in '--!, and continued through '2.'i, '-J1, 
and '2;'); — how another Insurrection act, 
was needed in 1833, was renewed in '34, 
and expired but live years ago. " And 
again," continued this Whig, "again in 

1846, We are called on to renew it I" Hor- 
rible ! revolting to a Liberal out of place I 

"We must look further," continued Karl 
Grey — vociferating from the Opposition 

bench— -"we must look to (he root of the 
evil ; the slate of law ami the habits of the 
people, in respect to the occupation of land, 
ore almost at the roots of the disorder ; — ■ 
it was undeniable thai the clearance system 
prevailed to a great extent, in Ireland ; anil 
that such thing's could take place, he cared 
not how large a population might be suf- 



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fered to grow np in a particular district, 
was a disgrace to a civilized country." 

And Lord .John Russell in the Commons 
had said, on the same occasion: "If they 
were to deal with the question of the crimes, 
they were bound to consider also whether 
there were not measures that might lie in- 
troduced which would reach the causes of 
those crimes" — and he horrified the House 
by an account, he gave thcni of "a whole 
village containing two hundred and seventy 
persons, razed to the ground, and the entire 
of that large number of indviduals sent 
adrift, on the high road, to sleep under the 
hedges, without even being permitted the 
privilege of boiling their potatoes, or ob- 
taining shelter among the walls of the 

houses." Disgusting I — to a Whig states- 
man in opposition ! 

Now, these very same men had had the en- 
tire control and government of Ireland for a 
year and a half. Not a single measure had 
been proposed by them in that time to reach 

"the cause of those Crimes ; " not a single 

security had been given " in respect of the 
occupation of laud ;" not one cheek to that 
terrible "clearance system," which was "a 
disgrace to a civilized country." On the 
c trary, every measure was carefully cal- 
culate,! in accelerate the clearance system ; 
and tin: Government had helped that sys- 
tem ruthlessly by the employment of their 
tmops and police. They bad literally swept 
the people oil' the land by myriads upon 
myriads ; and now, when their relief acts 
were admittedly a failure, and when mul- 
titudes of homeless peasants, transformed 
into paupers, were at length making the 
landed men, and mortgagees, and Jews, anil 
insurance officers, tremble for their gains — 
the Liberal Whig Ministry had nothing to 
propose but more jails, more handcuffs, more 
transportation. 

The new Coercion bill was in every re- 
spect like tic rest of the series ; in Ireland, 
tlie-e bills are all as much like one another 

as one policeman's carabine is lil< other. 

Disturbed districts were to be proclaimed by 
tin- Lord-Lieutenant He might proclaim a 

whole county, or the whole thirty-two coun- 
ties. Once proclaimed, everybody in that 
district was to be within doors, (whether he 
bad a house or not,; Iroiu dusk till morning. 



Any one found not at home, to be arrested 
and transported. If arms were found about 
any man's premises, and he could not, prove 
that they were put, there without his knowl- 
edge — arrest, imprisonment, and transport- 
ation. All fhe arms in the district to bo 
brought in on proclamation to that effect, 
and piled ill the police offices. Lord Lieu- 
tenant to quarter on the district as many ad- 
ditional police, inspectors, detectives, and 
sub -inspectors, as he might think lit ; offer 
such rewards to informers as he might think 
fit ; — and charge all the expense upon the 
tenantry, to be levied by rates — no pari of 
these rates to be charged to the landlords — 

con tabulary to collect them at the point of 
the bayonet ; — and these rates to be in ad- 
dition to Poor-rates, cess, tithe, {rent-charge,) 
rent, and imperial taxes. 

The passage of the Coercion bill at, iho 
instance of the landlords, and the break-up 
of the Irish Confederation, occasioned the 
r tablishment of the United Irishman, an 
avowed organ of insurrection. Events for 
a time moved rapidly. Soon there bnr«1 in 

upon us news of the February revolution 

in Paris, and the flight of King Louis 
Philippe; for between the French people 

and the Irish there has always been an elec- 
tric telegraph, whose signals never fail ; and 
British statesmen had not forgotten that it 
was the first great French revolution which 
cost them the war of '98. The February 
revolution, also, at once obliterated the feuds 
of the Irish Confederation. Nobody would 
now be listened to there, who proposed any 
other modi' of redress for Irish grievances 
than the sword. A resolution was brought 
up, with the sanction of the committee, and 
passed with enthusiastic acclamation, that 
the confederate clubs should become armed 
and officered, so that each man should 
know his right hand and his left-hand com- 
rade, and the man whose word he should 
obey. All the second-rale cities, as well as 
Dublin, and all the country towns, were now 
lull of chilis, which assumed military and rev- 
olutionary names — the " Sarslield Club," 

the "Emmet Club," and so forth ; I the 

business of arming proceeded with CI m- 
meiidable activity. Such young men as 
could afford it, provided themselves with 
rilles and bayonets ; those who had not tho 



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580 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



meaus for this, got pike-lieads made, and 
there was much request for ash poles. 
What was still more alarming to the enemy, 
the soldiers in several garrisons were giving 
unmistakable symptoms of sharing in the 
general excitement ; not Irish soldiers alone, 
but English and Scottish, who had Chartist 
ideas. A large part of the circulation of 
the United Irishman, in spite of all the 
exertions of the officers, was iu military 
barracks. 

Undoubtedly, it behooved the British 
Government, if it intended to hold Ireland, 
to adopt some energetic measures ; and, as 
it certainly did so intend, these measures 
were not wanting. 

New regiments were poured into Ireland, 
of course ; and Dublin held an army of ten 
thousand men, infantry, cavalry, artillery, 
and engineers. The barrack accommoda- 
tions being insufficient, many large buildings 
were taken as temporary barracks ; the 
deserted palaces of the Irish aristocracy — 
as Aldborongh House on the northeast — 
the deserted halls of manufactures and trade 
in " The Liberty," and the Linen Hall, were 
occupied by detachments. The Bank of 
Ireland — our old Parliament House — had 
cannon mounted over the entablatures of its 
stalely Ionic colonnades ; and the vast and 
splendid Custom House, not being now 
needed for trade, (our imports being all 
from the "sister country," and our exports 
all to the same,) was quite commodious 
as a barrack and arsenal. The quiet 
quadrangles of Trinity College were the 
scene of daily parades ; and the loyal board 
of that institution gave up the wing which 
commands Westmoreland street, College 
street, and Dame street, to be occupied by 
troops. Superb squadrons of hussars, of 
lancers, and of dragoons, rode continually 
through and around the city ; infantry 
practiced platoon-firing in the squares ; 
heavy guns, strongly guarded, were forever 
rolling along the pavement ; and parties of 
horse artillery showed all mankind how 
quickly and dexterously they could wheel and 
aim, and load and fire at the crossings of 
the streets. These military demonstrations, 
and the courts of "Law," constituted the 
open and avowed powers and agencies of the 




But there was a secret and subterranean 
machinery. The editor of the World was 
now on full pay, and on terms of close 
intimacy at the Castle and Viceregal Lodge. 
His paper was gratuitously furnished to all 
hotels and public-houses by meaus of Secret 
Service money. Dublin swarmed with de- 
tectives ; they went at night to get their 
instructions at the Castle, from Colonel 
Brown, head of the police department ; and 
it was one of their regular duties to gain ad- 
mittance to the Clubs of the Confederation, 
where it afterwards appeared that they had 
been the most daring counselors of treason 
and riot. 

Frankly, and at once, the Confederation 
accepted the only policy thereafter possible, 
and acknowledged the meaning of the 
European Revolutions. On the 15th of 
March, O'Brien moved an Address of Con- 
gratulation to the victorious French people ; 
and ended his speech with these words : — 

" It would be recollected that a short 
lime ago he thought it his duty to deprecate 
all attempts to turn the attention of the 
people to military affairs, because it seemeU 
to him that, in the then condition of the 
country, the only effect of leading the 
people's mind to what was called ' a guerrilla 
warfare,' would be to encourage some of 
the misguided peasantry to the commission 
of murder. Therefore, it was that he de- 
clared he should not be a party to giving 
such a recommendation ; but the state of 
affairs was totally different now, and he had 
no hesitation in declaring that he thought 
the minds of intelligent young men should 
be turned to the consideration of such 
questions as, how strong places can be 
captured, and weak ones defended — how 
supplies of food and ammunition can be cut 
off from an enemy — and how they can be 
secured to a friendly force. The time was 
also come when every lover of his country 
should come forward opeidy, and proclaim 
his; willingness to be enrolled as a member 
of a national guard. No man, however, 
should tender his name as a member of that 
national guard unless he was prepared to do 
two things — one, to preserve the state from 
anarchy ; the other, to be ready to die for 
the defence of his country." 
Two days after this meeting was Saint 



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Patrick's Day. A meeting of the citizens of 
Dublin was announced for that anniversary, 
to adopt an address, from Dublin to Paris, 
but was adjourned for two or three days to 
allow time for negotiations to unite all 
repealers of the two parties in the demon- 
si ration. Lord Clarendon, doubtless under 
the advice of his Privy-Councillor of the 
World, thought it would be a good oppor- 
tunity to strike terror by a military display. 
He pretended to apprehend that Saint 
Patrick's Day would be selected for the 
first day of Dublin barricades ; and the 
troops were kept under arms — the cavalry, 
with horses ready saddled iu all the bar- 
racks, waiting for the moment to crush 
the first movement in the blood of our 
citizens. 

The meeting was adjourned ; but there 
was no intention of abandoning it. O'Brien 
had offered, even in case of a Proclamation 
forbidding it, to attend and take the chair ; 
and what he promised, the enemy well kuew 
lie would perforin. 

The meeting was held without interrup- 
tion ; but it was well known that the public 
buildings, and some private houses, were 
filled with detachments under arms. These 
addresses, both from the Confederation and 
from the city, were to be presented in Paris 
to the President of the Provisional Govern- 
ment, M. de Lamartine ; and O'Brien, 
Meagher, and an intelligent tradesman, of 
high character and independence of mind, 
named Hollywood, were appointed a deputa- 
tion to Paris. 

All this, it was evident, could not go on 
long. The Clubs were, in the meantime, 
rapidly arming themselves with rifles ; and 
blacksmiths' forges were prolific of pike- 
heads. The Confederates hoped, and the 
Government feared, that no armed collision 
would be made necessary until September, 
when the harvest would be all cut, and when 
the commissariat of the people's war, the 
cause of the war, and the prize of the war, 
would be all bound up in a sheaf togeth- 
er. But the foe to be dealt with was no 
weak fool. The Government understood 
these views thoroughly, and resolved to pre- 
cipitate the issue somehow or other. One 
morning, after that meeting of Dublin 
citizens, three men, Smith O'Brien, Mr. 




Meagher, and Mr. Mitchel, were waited on 
by a police-magistrate and requested to 
give bail that they would stand their trial on 
a charge of sedition. The ground of prose- 
cution in the two former cases was the 
language held at the meeting of the Irish 
Confederation, (quoted above in part.) In 
the third case, there were two distinct 
indictments, for two articles in the United 
Irishman. 

Before the trials, O'Brien and Meagher 
went to France and presented their address 
to the Provisional Government.* 

On their return, O'Brien walked into the 
British Parliament, and found that august 
body engaged in discussing a new bill " for 
the further security of Her Majesty's 
Crown." Ministers, in fact, had determined 
to meet the difficulty by a new "law," the 
Treason-felony law, by which the writing 
and printing, or open and advised speak- 
ing, of incitements to insurrection in Ireland 
should be deemed " felony," punishable by 
transportation. The bill was introduced by 
the Whigs, and was warmly supported 
by the Tories ; Sir Robert Peel declaring 
that what Ireland needed was to make her 
national aspirations not only a crime, but 
an ignominious crime ; so as to put this 
species of offence on a footing with arson, 
or forgery, or waylaying with intent to 
murder. O'Brien rose to address the 
House, and never, since first Parliament 
met. in Westminster, was heard such a chorus 
of frantic and obscene outcries. 

He persisted, however, and made himself 
heard ; and those to whom the name and 
fame of that good Irishman are dear, will 
always remember with pride that his last 



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* These were mere addresses of congratulation and 
of sympathy. De Lamartine made a highly poetic, 
but rather unmeaning reply to them. He has since, 
in his history, violently misrepresented them ; being, 
in fact, a mere Anglo-Frenchman. Mr O'Brien has 
already convicted him of these misrepresentations. 
We content ourselves here with pronouncing the two 
following sentences poetic fictions : " Les Irlandais, 
unis aux chartistes anglais, se precipitaient sur le 
continent et cherchaient des complicities insurrec- 
tionnelles en France, a la fois parmi les demagogues 
au nom de la liberte, et parmi les chefs du parti Cath- 
olique an nom du Catholicisme." And again : " L'- 
Angleterre n'attendait pas avec moins do sollicitude 
la reception que ferait Lamartine aux insurges Ir- 
landais, partis de Dublin pou- venir demander des 
encouragements et des armei i la Republiijue fran- 
chise." 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



utterance in the London Parliament was 
one of haughty defiance, in the name of his 
oppressed and plundered country. He 
avowed that he had advised his country- 
men to arm, and fight for their right to 
live upon their own soil ; and he added, 
amidst the horrible yells of the House : — 

" I conceive that it is the peculiar duty 
of the Irish people to obtain the possession 
of arms at a time when you tell them you 
are prepared to crush their expression of 
opinion, not by argument, but by brute 
force." 

The bill was passed into " Law," by im- 
mense majorities ; and, thereafter, an Irish 
repealer of the Union was to be a " felon." 
O'Brien returned to Dublin. The deputies 
were received by a multitudinous and en- 
thusiastic meeting in the Dublin Music Hall, 
and Meagher presented to the citizens of 
Dublin, with glowing words, a maguilieenl 
flag, the Irish Tricolor, of Green, White, 
and Orange, surmounted by a pike-head. 

The trials came on. They were to be 
before special juries, struck by t he process 
before described. O'Brien and Meagher 
were first tried, and as their "sedition" had 
been so open and avowed — and as the Whig 
Ministers were extremely reluctant to 
pack juries if they could help it — the Crown 
officers left on each of the two juries om 
repealer. It was enough. A true repealer 
knew that no Irishman Could commit any 
offence against a foreign Queen ; and in 
(arh case the one repealer stood out, refused 
to convict, though he should be starved to 
death ; and the traversers, amidst cheering 
multitudes, were escorted triumphantly from 
the Four Courts to the Confederate Com- 
mittee Rooms, where they addressed the 
people, and promised to repeat and improve 
upon all their seditions. The excitement of 
the country was intense. The defeat of 
the " Government " was celebrated all over 
the country by bonfires and illuminations, 
and the clubs became more diligent in 
arming themselves ; but Mr. Monahan, the 
Attorney-General, foamed ami raged. 

Next came the two trials of Mr. Mitch el ; 
and it was very evident to the Government 
that there must be no possibility of mistake 
or miscarriage here. The time, indeed, 
was become exceedingly dangerous, and the 




people rapidly rising into that state of high 
excitement in which ordinary motives and 
calculations fail, and a single act of despera* 
tion may precipitate a revolution. As 
usual in such cases, the British Government 
had recourse to brutality, in order to strike 
terror. Police magistrates were ordered to 
arrest parties of yonng men practising at 
targets in the neighborhood of country 
towns, and march them in custody through 
the streets. Men in Dublin were seized 
upon and dragged to jail on the charge of 
saying " halt" to the clubmen marching to 
a public meeting — it was "training in 
military evolutions " under the act ; and one 
young man was actually brought to trial, 
and transported for seven years, on an 
indictment charging him, for that he had, 
in a private room in Dublin, said to thirteen 
nt her young men, then and there ranged in 
line, these fatal words : " Bight shoulders 
forward," contrary to the peace of our lady, 
the Queen, and so forth. 

On the two juries being struck for the 

trial of Mr. Mitchcl, it was at once evident 

« 

that upon each of them would be one or 
two men who desired the independence of 
their country ; and, perhaps, one or two 
others of whom the Castle could not be 
perfectly sure. But, as the new " Treason- 
felony" act had now become law, the 
Government suddenly abandoned the two 
prosecutions already commenced, and arrest- 
ed Mr. Mitehel on a charge of treason under 
the new act. 

On this occasion it was determined to pro- 
ceed, not by a special, but by a common jury ; 
which latter method, as was supposed, gave 
the sheriff more clear and unquestioned 
power of fraudulently packing the jury. 
For the jury was to lie closely packed, of 
course. Lord John Russell and Mr. 
Macanley, who had been in opposition in 
18-14, ami who had then mi earnestly de- 
nounced the ]iackiug of juries in Ireland, 
were now in office ; were responsible for the 
government of the country, and understood 
perfectly that upon the careful packing of this 
jury depended the Queen's Government in 
Inland. The judges had already appointed 
the day for holding the commission to try 
cases in Dublin ; and the sheriff had sum- 
moned his select huudred and fifty jurors 



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to try the cases ; but after the arrest of 

this new prisoner, and when the sheriff knew 

1 -\1 thai important business was to be done, he 

,QjS\ altered his list, and summoned a new set, so 
that all was ready for the trial. 

Ill the meantime, Lord Clarendon was 
busily getting up, through the Grand 
Masters of the Orangemen, loyal addresses, 
and declaratious against " rebels " and 
" traitors." In fact, the Orange farmers 
and burghers of the North were fast be- 
coming diligent students of the United Irish- 
man, and although they and their Order 
had been treated with some neglect of late 
both by England and by the Irish aristo- 
cracy they were now taken into high favor, 
and anus were very secretly issued to some 
of their lodges from Dublin Castle.* 
fj<0 But this needed prudence ; for Protestant 

Repeal Associations had been formed in 
Dublin, in Drogheda, and even in Lurgan, 
a great centre of Orangeism. To counteract 
the progress we had made in this direction, 
the aristocracy and the clergy were incessant 
in their efforts, and the Protestants were 
assured that if Ireland should throw off the 
dominion of Queen Victoria, we would all 
instantly become vassals to the woman who 
sit t eth upon Seven Hills. 

The Viceroy, at the same time, took care 
to frighten the moneyed citizens of Dublin 
and other towns by placards warning them 
against the atrocious designs of " Commuu- 
ists" and "Jacobins," whose only object, 
his lordship intimated, was plunder, f 

Whether the Whigs and " Liberals" who 
then ruled the English Councils were really 
desirous to give a fair trial to their political 
enemy, or whether they only pretended this 
desire — or what communications took place 
i<? ,.- ;• on the subject between Downing street and 
the Castle — we cannot certainly know ; 

* This was quite unknown to the public at the 
> «C $' time : one case of it only ever came clearly to light. 

|Yt^ h It was a shipment of the hundred stand of arms to 

the Belfast Orangemen 

■(•These placards may be attributed to Lord Claren- 
don, without scrapie. They were printed ljy the 
Government printer, and paid for out of our taxes. 
Bat it is quite possible that the Viceroy, if charged 
with these things, would deny them, because they 
were done through a third party— perhaps, Birch. 
In like manner, he denied all knowledge of the 
shipment of muskets to the Belfast Orangemen— they 
were sent, however, from his Castle, and through a 
subordinate official of his household. 



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but we find that only two days before this 
most foul pretence of a trial, Lord John 
Russell, in answer to questions in the House 
of Commons, declared that he had written 
to " his noble friend," (Lord Clarendon,) 
that " he trusted there would not arise any 
charge of any kind of unfairness, as to the 
composition of the juries ; as for his own 
part, he would rather see those parties 
acquitted, than that there should be any 
such unfairness." J 

Lord Clarendon, however, informed him 
that for this once he could not adhere to the 
Whig maxims — that a conviction must be 
had, per fas et nefas. 

The venerable Robert Holmes, brother- 
in-law of the Emmets, defended the prison- 
er ; but no defence could avail there. Of 
course, he challenged the array of jurors, on 
the ground of fraud ; but the Attorney- 
General's brother, Stephen Monahan, clerk 
in the Attorney-General's office, and also one 
Wheeler, clerk in the Sheriff's office, had 
been carefully sent, out of the city to a dis- 
tant part of Ireland ; and Baron Lefroy 
was most happy to avail himself of the de- 
fect of evidence to give his opinion that the 
panel was a good and honest, panel. The 
Crown used its privilege of peremptory 
challenge to the very uttermost ; every Cath- 
olic, and most Protestants, who answered to 
their names, were ordered to " stand by." 
There were thirty-nine challenges ; and of 
these but nineteen were Catholics, all the 
Catholics who answered to their names were 
promptly set aside, and twenty other gentle- 
men, who, although Protestants, were sus- 
pected of national feeling — that is to say, 
the Crown dared not go to trial before the 
people, Catholic or Protestant. The twelve 
men finally obtained by this sifting process 
had amongst them two or three Englismcn ; 
the rest were faithful slaves of the Castle, 
and all Protestants, of the most Orange 

dye. 

Of course, there was a "verdict,'' of 
guilty ; and a sentence of fourteen years' 
transportation. The facts charged were 
easily proved ; they were patent, notorious, 
often repealed, and perfectly deliberate ; 
insomuch, that jurymen who felt themselves 

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to be subjects of the Queen of England, 
could not do otherwise than convict. On 
the other hand, any Irish nationalist must 
acquit. Never before or since have the 
Government of the foreign enemy and the 
Irish people met on so plain an issue. Never 
before was it, made so manifest that the 
enemy's Government maintains its suprem- 
acy over Ireland, by systematically break- 
ing the " law," even its own law, defiling 
its temples of justice, and turning the judges 
of t lie land into solemn actors iu a most im- 
moral kind of play. 

An armed steamer waited in the river, on 
the day of Mr. Mitchel's sentence; the 
whole garrison of Dublin was under arms, 
on pretence of a review in the Park ; a 
place was secretly designated for the prison- 
er's embarkation below the city, where 
bridges over a canal, and over the entrance 
to the Custom House docks could be raised, 
ia order to preveut any concourse of the 
people in that direction ; and, two or three 
hours after the sentence, Air. Mitchel was 
carried off, and never saw his country any 
more. 

The enemy were themselves somewhat 
surprised at the ease with which they had 
borne him out of the heart of Dublin, at 
noon-day, in chains ; and evidently thought 
they would have but small trouble in crush- 
ing any attempt at insurrection afterwards. 
The confederates waited until "the time" 
should come ; and some of them, indeed, 
were fully resolved to make an insurrection 
in the harvest ; yet, as might have been ex- 
pected, "the time " never came. The indi- 
vidual desperation of Dillon, Meagher, 
O'Gorman, Leyne, Reilly, could achieve 
nothing while the people were dispirited 
both by famine and by lung submission to 
insolent oppression. " When will Ike lime 
come ? " exclaimed Martin, " the time about 
which your orators so boldly vaunt, amid 
the fierce shouts of your applause ? If it 
come not when one of you, selected by your 
enemies as your champion, is sent to perish 
among thieves and murderers, for the crime 
of loving and defending his native land — 
then it will never come — never." 

During the trial, Dublin was under a 
complete reign of terror. Reilly was ar- 
rested on the charge of saying to men 



of his club, when turning into their place of 
meeting — "left wheel." It was a term of 
military drilling, though the clubmen were 
without weapons. He was kept in a sta- 
tion-house all night ; and bail was refused 
in the morning. Iu the course of the day 
he was fully committed for trial, and bail 
was taken. During the whole week, the 
whole large force of the city police had or- 
ders to stop all processions, to arrest citi- 
zens, on any or on no charge ; and gene- 
rally to " strike terror." Iu the meantime, 
every day was bringing iu more terrible 
news of the devastation of the famine, and 
evictions of the tenantry. " On Friday," 
says the Tipperary Vindicator, (describing 
one of these scenes,) " the landlord appear- 
ed upon the ground, attended by the sheriff 
and a body of policemen, and commenced 
the process of ejectment," &e. On that 
morning, and at that spot, thirty persons 
were dragged out of their houses, and the 
houses pulled down. One of the evicted 
tenants was a widow — "a solvent tenant 
comes aud offers to pay the arrears due by 
the widow ; but a desire on Mr. SeullyW 
part to consolidate, prevented the arrange- 
ment." 

The same week, a writer in the Cork Ex- 
aminer, writing from Skibbereen, says : — 

" Our town presents nothing but a mov- 
ing mass of military and police, conveying 
to and from the Court House crowds of fa- 
mine culprits. I attended the court for a 
few hours this day. The dock was crowded 
with the prisoners, not one of whom, when 
called up for trial, was able to support him- 
self in front of the dock. The sentence of 
the court was received by each prisoner 
with apparent satisfaction. Even transport- 
ation appeared to many to be a relaxation 
from their sufferings." 

On Tuesday, of the same week — it being 
then well known that the Crown would pack 
their jury — a meeting of the citizens of Dub- 
lin was held at the Royal Exchange, to pro- 
test ; and Mr. John O'Connell went so far 
as to move this resolution : " Resetted, 
That we consider the right of trial by a jury 
as a most sacred inheritance : in the security 
of person, property, and. character." The 
meeting then proceeded to protest against 
" the practice of arranging juries to obtain 



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convictions." During the same week the 
poor houses, hospitals, jails, and many build- 
ings taken temporarily for the purpose, were 
overflowing with starving wretches ; and 
fevered patients were occupying the same 
bed with famished corpses ; — but on every 
day of the same week large cargoes of grain 
and cattle were leaving every port for Eng- 
land. The Orangemen of the North were 
holding meetings to avow hostility to repeal- 
ers and to "Jezebel," and eagerly crying, 
"To hell with the Pope 1 " Thus British 
policy was in full and successful operation at 
every point, on the day when the Government- 
seized on its first victim, under a new law 
specially made for his case, and carried him 
off in fetters, under the false pretence of a 
trial and conviction. 



CHAPTER LXI. 

18-18—1849. 

Reconstitution of the Irish Confederation— New Na- 
tional Journals Established — The Tribune — The 
Fz'on — New Suspension of Habeas Corpus — 
Numerous Arrests — O'Brien Attempts Insurrection 
— Ballingarry — Arrest and Trial of O'Brien and 
Others — Conquest of the Island — Destruction of the 
People — Incumbered Estates Act — Its Effects — No 
Tenant-Right — " Rate-in- Aid " — Queen's Vnit to 
Ireland — Places Given to Catholics — Catholic 
Judges— Their Office and Duty — Ireland "Prosper- 
ous " — Statistics of the Famine Slaughter — De- 
struction ot Three Millions of Souls — Flying from 
" Prosperity." 

The fierce enthusiasm of the Irish Con- 
federates appeared to be redoubled after 
the removal of the first convicted " felon." 
They hoped, at least, that if they were re- 
strained from action then, it was to some 
good end, with some sure and well-defin- 
ed purpose ; and, assuredly, there were 
many thousands of men then in Ireland 
who longed and burned for that end and 
that purpose, to earn an honorable death. 
How the British system disappointed them 
even of an honorable death, remains still to 
be told. A man may die in Ireland of 
hunger, or of famine-typhus, or of a broken 
heart ; but to die for your country — the 
death didce tt decorum — to die ou a fair 
field, fighting for freedom and honor — to die 
the death ever of a defeated soldier, as 
Hofer died ; or so much as to mount the 
71 



gallows, like Robert Emmet, to pay the 
penalty of a glorious " treason " — even this 
was an euthanasia which British policy could 
no longer afford to an Irish Nationalist. 

Yet, with all odds against them — with 
the Irish gentry thoroughly corrupted or 
frightened out of their senses, and with the 
"Government" enemy obviously bent on 
treating our national aspiration as an igno- 
minious crime, worthy to be ranked only 
with the offences of burglars or pickpockets 
— still, there were men resolved to dare the 
worst and uttermost for but oue chance of 
rousing that down-trodden people to one 
manful effort of resistance against so 
grievous a tyranny. The Irish Confedera- 
tion reconstituted its council, and set itself 
more diligently than ever to the task of 
inducing the people to procure arms, with a 
view to a final struggle in the harvest. 
And as it was clear there was nothing the 
enemy dreaded so much as a bold and honest 
newspaper, which would expose their plots 
of slaughter, and turn their liberal pro- 
fessions inside out, it was, before all things, 
necessary to establish a newspaper to take 
the place of the United Irishman. 

It was a breach as deadly and imminent 
as ever yawned in a beleaguered wall ; but 
men were found prompt to stand in it. 
Within two weeks after Mitchel's trial, the 
Irish Tribune, was issued, edited by O'Dogh- 
erty and Williams, with Antisell and Savage' 
as contributors. In two weeks more, on 
the 24th of June, came forth another, and, 
perhaps, the ablest of our revolutionary 
organs — the Irish Felon. Its editor and 
proprietor was John Martin, a quiet country 
gentleman of the County Down, who had 
been for years connected with all national 
movements in Irelaud — the F^epeal Asso- 
ciation, the Irish Confederation — but who 
had never been roused to the pitch of 
desperate resistance till he saw the bold and 
dashing atrocity of the enemy on occasion 
of Mitchel's pretended trial and conviction. 
He came at last, along with many other 
quiet men, to the conclusion that the nation 
must now set its back to the wall. James 
Fintan Lalor, one of the most powerful 
writers of his day, came up from Kildare 
County to aid in conducting the Felon, and 
for five weeks thereafter, " Treason-felo i 






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continued to be taught and enforced with 
great boldness and ability. But six weeks 
would have been too much for the patience 
of the Government. The police were 
ordered to forcibly stop the sale of papers 
by vendors in the streets ; and warrants 
were issued for the arrest of all the editors — 
Martin, Duffy, O'Dogherty, and Williams. 
The country was beginning to bristle with 
pikes ; men were praying for the whitening 
of the harvest ; and it was plain that, 
before the reign of "Law and Order" 
should begin, other terrible examples must 
be made ; other juries must be packed ; 
then, after thai, a Whig "Government" 
would surely begin to deal with Ireland in 
a conciliatory spirit 1 

Throughout all these scenes the horrible 
(amine was raging as it had never raged 
before — the police and military, both in 
towus and in the country, were busily em- 
ployed in the service of ejecting tenants — 
pulling down their houses — searching out 
and seizing hidden weapons — and escorting 
convoys of grain and provisions to the sea- 
side, as through an enemy's country. 
Yet, rumors began to grow and spread, 
(much exaggerated rumors,) of a very 
general arming amongst the peasantry and 
the clubmen of the towns ; and the police 
had but small success in their searches 
for anus ; for, in fact, these were carefully 
built into stone walls, or carried to the 
grave-yards, with a mourning funeral 
escort, and buried in Collins, shrouded in 
well-oiled flannel, " in hope of a happy 
resurrection." 

The enemy thought it wisest not to wait for 
the harvest, and resolved to bring matters 
to a head at once. Accordingly, they 
asked Parliament to suspend the Habeas 
Carpus act in Ireland, so as to enable them 
to seize upon any person or number of 
persons whom they might think dangerous, 
and throw them into prison without any 
charge against, them. Parliament passed 
the bill at once ; and, in truth, it. is an 
ordinary procedure in Inland. 

Instantly, numerous warrants were placed 
in the hands of the omnipresent police ; and 
in every town and village in Ireland sudden 
arrests were made. The enemy had taken 
care to inform themselves who were the 



leading and active confederates all over the 
island, the Presidents and Secretaries of 
Clubs, and zealous organizers of drilling and 
pike exercise. These were seized from day 
to day, sometimes with circumstances of 
brutality, (which was useful to the enemy in 
"striking terror,") and thrust into dun- 
geons, or paraded before their fellow- 
citizens in chains. Martin and the other 
editors were in Newgate Prison, awaiting 
transportation as felons. Warrants were 
out against O'Brien and Meagher. 

Well, Ihe time had come at last. If Ire- 
land had one blow to strike, now was her 
day. Queen A r ictoria would not wait till 
the autumn should place in the people's 
hands the ample commissariat of their war, 
and decreed that if they would fight, they 
should, at least, light fasting. O'Brien was 
at the house of a friend in Wexford County 
when he heard of the suspension of the 
Habeas Corpus, and that a warrant had 
been issued for his own arrest. lie was 
quickly joined by Dillon and Meagher — 
Doheny and MacManus, with some others, 
betook themselves to the Tipperary hills* 
and "put themselves upon the country." 
O'Oorinan hurried to Limerick and Clare, 
to see what preparation existed there for the 
struggle, and to give it a direction, lleilly 
and Smith ranged over Kilkenny and 
Tipperary, eagerly seeking for insurrection- 
ary fuel ready to be kindled, and sometimes 
in communication with O'Brien and his 
party, at other times alone. To O'Brien, 
an account of his character, his services, and 
his value to the cause, the leadership seemed 
to be assigned by common consent. 

It is very easy for those who sat at home 
in those days, to criticise the proceedings of 
O'Brien, and the brave men who sought, 
in his company, for an honorable chance 
of throwing their lives away. But, it must 
be obvious, from the narrative of the three 
years' previous famine, what a hopeless sort 
of material for spirited national resistance 
was then to be found in the rural districts 
of Ireland. Bands of exterminated pea- 
sants, trooping to the already too full 
poor houses ; straggling columns of hunted 
wretches, with their old people, wives, and 
little ones, wending their way to Cork or 
Watertord, to take shipping for America ; 



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O BRIEN ATTEMPTS INSURRECTION. 



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the people not yet ejected frightened and 
desponding, with no interest in the land 
they tilled, no property in the house 
above their heads, no food, no arras, with 
the slavish habits bred by long ages of 
oppression ground into their souls, and that 
momentary proud flush of passionate hope 
kindled by O'Coimell's agitation, long since 
dimmed and darkened by bitter hunger and 
hardship. It \v;is no easy task to rouse 
such a people as this. But there is in the 
Irish nature a wonderful spring and an in- 
tense vitality, insomuch that the chances of 
a successful insurrection in '48 may have 
been by no means desperate. At any rate, 
O'Brien and his comrades were resolute to 
give the people a chance, knowing full well 
that though they should be mown down in 
Jya] myriads by shot and steel, it would be a 
■a better lot than poor houses and faniiuc- 
graves. 

It is needful, here, to speak of the Irish 
priesthood, and the part which they took in 
that last agony of our country, Hitherto, 
there has not been occasion to say much of 
the Catholic Church, though it makes so 
potent an element in Irish life, for the 
reason that in all vehement popular movc- 
<?f mentE it always follows the people, and 

never leads — unless the movement be strong 
and sweeping enough to command and 
coerce the clergy, the clergy keep aloof from 
it altogether. Instinctively the Church 
adheres to what is established, and opposes 
violent action. Thus, in O'Coimell's Repeal 
agitation, several Bishops held themselves 
neutral ; and hundreds of priests, as was 
well known, were zealous repealers against 
their will ; only because the popular passion 
was too strong for them to resist.. After- 
wards, however, many of the Catholic 
clergy had conic over to the " Young Ire- 
land " party. Some of them, indeed, being 
more Irishmen than Romans, did from 
the first fully sympathize with the na- 
tional aspirations of their island — did pro- 
foundly feel her wrongs, and burn to redress 
or avenge them. When the final scene 
opened, however, and the whole might of 
the empire was gathering itself to crush us, 
the clergy, as a body, were found on the side 
of the Government, and cannot be severely 
blamed for it, as they were convinced of the 



utter hopelessness of the struggle at that 
time. 

O'Brien, Dillon, and Meagher, with some 
few followers, and without arms or stores, 
taking the field against the potent monarchy 
of England, were, indeed, but a forlorn hope. 
They can scarcely be said to have had a plan. 
O'Brien resolutely refused to commence a 
struggle, which he felt to be for man's dearest 
rights, by attacking and plundering the 
estates and mansions' of the gentry — who, 
however, were then generally fortified and 
barricaded in their own houses, to hold the 
country for the enemy. 

For several days he went from place to 
place, attended by his friends, followed 
sometimes by two or three hundred people, 
half- armed, always expecting to meet a party 
with a warrant for his arrest ; in which case 
it would huwtir, both defensive and offensive, 
to the last extremity. All around him 
were country mansions of nobles and gentle- 
men who had openly avowed themselves, (in 
their " Addresses of Confidence,") for the 
English, and against their own people, who 
had publicly branded him as a rebel, and 
offered their lives and fortunes for the work 
of crushing him ; and he, an outlaw, de- 
clined to exact contributions from them to 
feed his followers and hold them together. 
All this was resolved and done from the 
purest and most conscientious motives, 
undoubtedly ; but it was, perhaps, not the 
best, mode of commencing a revolution. 

All this while, from day to day, crowds 
of stout men, many of them armed, flocked 
to O'Brien's company ; but they uniformly 
melted off, as usual — partly compelled by 
want of provisions, partly under the in- 
lluenco of the clergy. The last time he had 
any considerable parly together, was at 
Ballingarry, where forty-five armed police 
had barricaded themselves in a strong stone 
house, under the command of a certain 
( 'a plain Trout, who certainly had the long- 
expected warrant to arrest O'Brien, but 
who was afraid to execute it until after the 
arrival of some further reinforcement. O'- 
Brien went to one of the front windows, 
and called on Captain Trail t to surrender. 
Trail t demanded half an hour to consider. 
During this half hour some of the crowd 
aid thrown a few stones through the 



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windows ; and Captain Trant, seeing that 
the people could not be controlled much 
longer by O'Brien, gave orders to fire. 
O'Brien rushed between the people and the 
window, climbed on the window, and 
once more called upon the police to sur- 
render. At the first volley from the house 
two men fell dead, and others were wounded, 
and the crowd on that side fell back, leaving 
O'Brien almost alone in the garden before 
the house. 

Traut was shortly afterwards reinforced 
by the force he expected. Mr, O'Brien's 
followers were by this time scattered and 
gone. He scarce made an effort even to 
provide for his own safety, and was soon 
arrested. 

In fact, there was no insurrection. The 
people in those two or three counties did not 
believe that he meant to fight ; and nothing 
would persuade them of that but some 
desperate enterprise. Yet, they were all 
ready and willing ; and, indeed, are at all 
times ready anil willing to fight against 
a dominion, which represents to them nearly 
all that they know of evil in this world. 

From the first moment that the repeal of 
the Habeas Corpus act placed the liberties 
of Irishmen at the disposal of Lord Clar- 
endon, the police received secret orders 
to arrest all leading confederates, both in 
town and country. A return was in the be- 
ginning of the next year, 1849, made to 
Parliament of the number of persons, and 
their names, who were imprisoned under 
that law. There were one hundred and 
eighteen of them ; including most of the 
very men on whom O'Brien might reason- 
ably have relied to sustain his movement. 
They were all imprisoned in various jails, 
without any charge, or one word of explan- 
ation ; removed in batches from one prison 
to some other, in a distant part of the 
island, with no other object, apparently, 
but to exhibit them in chains, and strike a 
wholesome terror into all spectators. 

To arrive at an accurate list and due 
selection of leading confederates, Lord 
Clarendon employed without scruple, both 
Post Office spying * and the regular service 
of detectives. 



* The return on this subject laid before Parliament 
only brings down the letter-spies as far as Lord Do 



Certain " trials " ensued in the usual 
style. First, the editors were brought to 
trial under the new " Treason-felony " act ; 
and O'Brien and his immediate comrades, 
under the Common Law, for the crime of 
" high treason," having appeared in arras 
against the " Government." The Govern- 
ment would gladly have dispensed with 
these trials, and removed their captives out 
of the way by a more summary process. 
But they must not forget that they were a 
" liberal " Government, aud had a reputa- 
tion to support before the world. Ireland 
was not Naples, but, indeed, a far more mis- 
erable country, and political offenders could 
by no means be suffered to perish by long 
confinement iu subterranean dungeons with- 
out trial. But, then, arose the question of 
juries; aud the "Government" knew full 
well that no jury iu Ireland impartially em- 
paneled according to law, and really repre- 
senting the nation, would convict one of 
those men for any offence whatsoever. 

They could not refuse a trial ; but one 
thing they could do, which the King of 
Naples had not yet learned — they coufd 
pack the juries. No doubt it was painful 
to have to pack juries again. Whig repu- 
tation could ill endure it. But they hoped 
this would be the last time. They knew 
that iu the eyes of Englishmen, the extreme 
urgency of the occasion would justify this 
one last tremendous fraud. When we say, 
" in the eyes of Englishmen," the reader 
will understand that we mean the ruling 
classes of Englishmen — namely, the landed 
interests, aud the monied and mercantile in- 
terests ; in short, those Englishmen whose 
opinions and interests are alone consulted 
in the government of that country. To 
them it was an absolute necessity of their ex- 
istence that Irish national movements should 
be crushed down by any means and all 
means. 

The Whig Government, in fact, felt 
that if they satisfied the men of rank 
and money in Englaud, they did the whole 
duty of Whigs ; and the men of rank and 
money were eagerly crying out to have the 

Grey, in 1843. But as the report on the occasion de- 
clared the Post Office espionnatje a needful branch 
of administration in Ireland, it may be assumed, 
without scruple, that it was resorted to not only by 
Lord Clarendon, but by every Viceroy since. 



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ARREST AND TRIAL OF O BRIEN AND OTHERS. 



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last embers of tliat long national struggle 
stamped out. 

O'Brien, Meagher, MacManus, and 0'- 
Donohoe were to have their trial before a 
special commission in Clonmel, the capital 
of Tipperary. On the details of these 
trials we need not dwell ; because they 
were on the same pattern with other scenes 
of tliis same kind already narrated. The 
officials of the Crown showed a stern, dog- 
ged determination to disregard every re- 
monstrance, to refuse every application, and 
to do the work intrusted to them in the 
most coarse, insolent, and thorough-going 
style. For example, Mr. "Whiteside, O'- 
Brien's counsel, reminded the Court "that, 
in England, persons charged with high 
treason are allowed a copy of the jurors' 
panel, and a list of the witnesses to be 
examined on tlio part of the Crown." 
Here is oue extract from the report of the 
"trial":— 

" The learned counsel put it to the Court, 
whether Mr. O'Brien, under trial in a 
country said to be under the same Govern- 
ment and laws as England, should not have 
the same privilege which he would enjoy, as 
a matter of right, if he happened to be 
tried on the other side of the channel. 

" Tlie Court decided that the prisoner 
was not entitled to the privilege." 

When the clerk read the names of the 
jury-panel, Mr. O'Brien, of course, chal- 
lenged the array, ou the ground of fraud ; 
and, of course, the Court ruled against him. 

" Mr. Whiteside stated that it made little 
difference whether his client were tried by 
a jury selected from a panel thus consti- 
tuted, or taken and shot through the head 
ou the high road. ±so less than one hun- 
dred Catholics had been struck off the 
panel, and so few left on, that Mr. O'- 
Brien's right to challenge was now little 
better than a farce. This objection was 
also overruled — Chief Justice Blackburne 
having decided that the panel was properly 
made out." 

O'Brien, whose mind was made up to 
meet any fate, stood in the dock during 
this nine days' trial, with a haughty calm- 
ness. What thoughts passed through that 
proud heart as the odious game proceeded, 
no human eye will ever read ; but of one 




thing we may be sure — his grief, shame, and 
indignation were not for himself, but for the 
down-trodden country where such a scene 
could be enacted in the open day, and 
against the will of nine-tenths of its in- 
habitants. 

There followed, in due course, the usual 
barbarous death-sentence : — 

"That sentence is, that you, William 
Smith O'Brien, be taken from hence to 
the place from whence you came, and be 
thence drawn on a hurdle to the place 
of execution, and be there hanged by the 
neck until you are dead ; and that after- 
wards your head shall be severed from your 
body, and your body divided into four 
quarters, to be disposed of as Her Majesty 
shall think fit. And may the Lord have 
mercy on your soul." 

He hears it unmoved as a statue ; inclines 
his head in a stately bow ; politely takes 
leave of his counsel, and returns to his 
prison. 

Again, and again, and again, the same 
process was performed in all its parts. 
MacManus was next tried, then O'Donohoe, 
then Meagher ; their juries were all carefully 
packed ; they were all sentenced to be 
hanged ; and they all met the announce- 
ment of their fate as men ought. For 
more than a month these trials went on, 
from day to day ; and it was the 23d of 
October when the last sentence was pro- 
nounced. A strong garrison of cavalry, in- 
fantry, and artillery occupied the town, and 
inclosed the scene with a hedge of steel. 
Outside, the people muttered deep curses, 
and chafed with impotent rage. A few 
daring spirits, headed by O'Mahony, once 
contemplated an attack and rescue ; but 
the people had been too grievously frightened, 
and too effectually starved by the Govern- 
ment, to be equal to so dashiug an exploit ; 
and so that solemn and elaborate insidt was 
once more put upon our name and nation ; 
and tl'.e four men who had sought to save 
their people from so abject a condition, lay 
undisturbed in Clonmel jail, sentenced to 
death. And whosoever has studied even the 
imperfect sketch given in these pages of the 
jotent and minutely-elaborated system of 
oppression that pressed upon that nation at 
every point, 



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HISTORY OP IRELAND. 







watching over every man, woman, and child, 
at their uprising and downlying, so as to be 
enabled to foresee and to baffle even the 
slightest approach to combination for a na- 
tional purpose* — will assuredly not wonder 
at the utter and abject helplessness of the 
nation, in presence of so cruel an outrage. 

The newspaper editors were still to be 
" tried." In the months of October and 
November, 1848, Duffy, of the Nation, 
Williams and O'Doherty, of the TVibwne, 
and Martin, of the Felon, were successively 
brought up for trial in the City Court 
House, of Green street. Their newspapers 
had been suppressed weeks before, their 
offices broken up, their types, and presses, 
and books seized. O'Doherty and Martin 
were " convicted " by well-packed juries, con- 
taining not a single Catholic. In the cases of 
Duffy and Williams, the enemy ventured 
to leave one or two Catholics on the juries. 
Williams was acquitted ; Duffy's jury dis- 
agreed, and he was retained in prison till 
a more tractable jury could be manufactured. 
Again he was brought to trial, and again 
the jury disagreed. Still he was kept in 
custody, though his health was rapidly fail- 
ing ; and, at hist, when all apprehension of 
trouble seemed to be over, and the more 
dangerous conspirators were disposed of, the 
" Government " yielded to a memorial on 
his behalf, and abandoned the prosecution. 

In the matter of those sentenced to death, 
Ministers, after much deliberation, decided 
on sparing their lives, and commuting their 
punishment to transportation for life. This 
was done under the false pretence of clem- 
ency ; but it was, in truth, the most refined 
cruelty ; it was, moreover, illegal — there 
being no law to authorize such a commuta- 
tion. The prisoners, therefore, objected 
through their counsel ; they had no use for 
life under such circumstances ; and demand- 
ed to have the extreme benefit of the law. 
Ministers, however, were resolved to be 
merciful — introduced an act into Parlia- 
ment, empowering the Queen to transport 

* We may once more refer to the memorable words 
('I' an English Attorney-General's description of tbe 

British regime in Ireland : " Notice is taken of every 
person that is able to do either good or hurt. It is 
known not only now they live, and what they do, 
but it is foreseen what they purpose or intend to 
do." 



them — had it passed at once — and imme- 
diately shipped them off to herd with felons 
in the penal colony of Van Diemeu's Land. 
O'Doherty and Martin having been origin- 
ally sentenced to ten years' transportation, 
were sent away at the same time, but in an- 
other ship ; and for more than five years, in 
the most degrading bondage, they expia- 
ted the crime of " not having sold their 
country." 

A few unconeerted and desperate at- 
tempts were made in Monster, by O'Ma- 
hony and Savage, by Brennan and Gray, 
to draw the people together, and achieve 
some one daring act, which might awak- 
en the insurrectionary spirit. They all 
failed, or were easily suppressed. The 
clergy were now decidedly and actively in 
the interest of "law and order ;" that is, 
in the interest of England ; and the more 
regular police were on the alert by day 
and night, and the island bristled with 
forty thousand bayonets. " Tranquillity 
reigned in Warsaw." John O'Connell, in 
Conciliation Hall, pointed to the sad jjite 
of those who had disregarded the counsels 
of the "Liberator" — entreated the people 
to sustain him in his moral and peaceful 
appeals to Parliament ; and promised that 
Irelaud should be, at some early day, " first 
flower of the earth and first gem of the 
sea." 

What to do now with this Ireland, thus fal- 
len under the full and peaceful possession of 
her " sister island," was the subject of seri- 
ous thought in England. The famine was 
still slaying its tens of thousands ; and the 
Government emigration scheme was draw- 
ing away many thousands more and shoot- 
ing them out naked and destitute on the 
shores of the St. Lawrence ; so that it 
was hoped the "Celts" would soon be 
thinned out to the proper point. The very 
danger so lately escaped, however, brought 
home to the British Government, and to 
the Irish landlords, the stern necessity of 
continued extermination. It was bntter, 
they felt, to have too few hands to till the 
ground, than too many for the security 
of law and order. 

A plan for a new " Plantation of Ire- 
land" was promulgated by Sir Robert Peel 
— that is, for replacing the Irish with good 



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Anglo-Saxons. Tins project for a new 
Plantation in Ireland was anxiously revolv- 
ed in the Councils of the Government. It be- 
gan to be believed that the peasant class, 
being now almost sufficiently thinned out — 
mid the claim of tenants to some sort of 
right or title to the land they tilled, having 
been successfully resisted and defeated — 
that the structure of society in Ireland hav- 
ing been well and firmly planted upon 
a basis of able-bodied pauperism, (which the 
English, however, called " independent la- 
bor,") the time was come to effect a trans- 
fer of the real estate of the island from 
Irish to English hands. This grand idea 
afterwards elaborated itself into the famous 
" Incumbered Estates act." 

The conquest of the island was now re- 
garded in England as effectually consum- 
mated — England, great, populous, and 
wealthy, with all the resources and vast 
patronage of an existing government in her 
hands — with a magnificent army and navy 
— with the established course and current 
of commerce steadily flowing in the precise 
direction that suited her interests — with a 
powerful party on her side in Ireland itself, 
bound to her by lineage and by interest — 
and, above all, with her vast brute mass ly- 
ing between us and the rest of Europe, en- 
abling her to intercept the natural sympa- 
thies of other struggling nations, to inter- 
pret between us and the rest of mankind, 
and represent the troublesome sister island 
exactly in the light in which she wished to 
be regarded — England prosperous, potent, 
and at peace with all the earth besides — 
had succeeded, (to her immortal honor and 
glory,) in anticipating and crushing out of 
sight the last agonies of resistance in a 
small, poor, and divided island, which she 
had herself made poor and divided, care- 
fully disarmed, almost totally disfranchised, 
ami almost totally deprived of the benefits 
of that, very British " law " against which 
we revolted with such loathing and horror. 
England had done this ; and whatsoever 
credit and prestige, whatsoever profit and 
power could be gained by such a feat, she 
has them all. "Now, for the first time 
these six hundred years," said the London 
Tims, " England has Ireland at her mercy, 
and can deal with her as she pleases." 



It was an opportunity not to be lost, for 
interests of British civilization. Parliament 
met late in January, 1849. The Queen, in 
her " speech," lamented that "another fail- 
ure of the potato crop had caused severe 
distress in Ireland ; " and, thereupon, asked 
Parliament to continue, "for a limited pe- 
riod," the extraordinary powers ; that is, the 
power of proclaiming any district under 
martial law, and of throwing suspected per- 
sons into prison, without any charge against 
them. The act was passed, of course. 

Then, as the famine of 1848 was fully as 
grievous and destructive as any of the pre- 
vious famines — as the rate-payers were im- 
poverished, and, in most of the unions, 
could not pay the rates already due — and 
were thus rapidly sinking into the condition 
of paupers ; giving up the hopeless effort 
to maintain themselves by honest industry, 
and throwing themselves on the earnings of 
others ; as the poor houses were all filled to 
overflowing, and the exterminated people 
were either lying down to die or crowding 
into the emigrant ships — as, in short, the 
Poor law, and the New Poor law, and the 
Improved Poor law, and the Supplementary 
Poor law, had all manifestly proved a " fail- 
ure." Lord John Russell's next step was 
to give Ireland more Poor laws. 

The expression failure must, however, be 
qualified as before. They were a failure 
for their professed purpose — that of relieving 
the famine ; but were a complete success 
for their real purpose — that of uprooting 
the people from the land, and easting them 
forth to perish. Irishmen have not much 
faith in the "Government" statistics of 
their country ; but as it is well to see how 
much the enemy was willing to admit, we 
give some details from a report furnished in 
'48 by Captain Larcom, under the orders 
of Government, and founded on local reports 
of police inspectors. The main facts are 
epitomized thus, for one year : — ■ 

"In the number of farms, of from one to 
fire acres, the decrease has been twenty- 
four thousand one hundred and forty-seven ; 
from fire to fifteen acres, twenty-seven 
thousand three hundred and seventy-niue ; 
from fifteen to thirty acres, four thousand 
two hundred and seventy-four ; whilst of 
farms above thirty acres the increase has been 



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three thousand six hundred and seventy. 
Seventy thousand occupiers, with their fami- 
lies, numbering about three hundred thou- 
sand, were rooted out of the land. 

" In Leinster, the decrease in the number 
of holdings not exceeding one acre, as com- 
pared with the decrease of '41, was three 
thousand seven hundred and forty-nine ; 
above one, and not exceeding five, was four 
thousand and twenty-six ; of five, and not 
exceeding fifteen, was two thousand five hun- 
dred and forty-six ; of fifteen to thirty, three 
hundred and ninety-one ; making a total of 
ten thousand six hundred and seventeen. 

" In Minister, the decrease in the hold- 
ings, under thirty acres, is stated at eighteen 
thousand eight hundred and fourteen ; the 
increase over thirty acres, one thousand 
three hundred and ninety-nine. 

" In Ulster, the decrease was one thousand 
five hundred and two ; the increase, one 
thousand one hundred and thirty-four. 

" In Connaught, where the labor of ex- 
termination was least, the clearance has 
been most extensive. There, in particular, 
the roots of holders of the soil were never 
planted deep beneath the surface, and 
consequently were exposed to every ex- 
terminator's hand. There were in 1841, 
thirty-five thousand six hundred and thirty- 
four holders of from one to five acres. In the 
following year there were less by nine thou- 
sand seven hundred and three ; there were 
seventy-six thousand seven hundred and seven 
holders of from five to fifteen acres, less in one 
year by twelve thousand eight hundred and 
ninety-one ; those of from fifteen to thirty 
acres were reduced by two thousand one 
hundred and twenty-one ; a total depopula- 
tion of tweuty-six thousand four hundred and 
ninety-nine holders of land, exclusive of their 
families, was effected in Connaught in one 
year." 

On this report it may be remarked that 
it was a list of killed and wounded in one 
year of carnage only — and of one class of 
people only. It takes no account of the 
dead in that multitudinous class thinned the 
most by famine, who had no land at all, but 
lived by the labor of their hands, and who 
were exposed before the others, as having 
nothing but life to lose. As for the land- 
lords, already incumbered by debt, the 



pressure of the Poor-rates was fast breaking 
them down. In most cases, they were not 
so much as the receivers of their own 
rents, and had no more control over the 
bailiffs, sheriffs, and police, who plundered 
and chased away the people, than one 
of the pillars of their own grand entrance- 
gates. 

The slaughter by famine was enormous 
this season. Here is one paragraph from 
amongst the commercial reports of the 
Irish papers, which will suggest more than 
any labored narrative could inculcate : — - 

" Upwards of one hundred and fifty ass 
hides have been delivered in Dublin from 
the County Mayo, for exportation to 
Liverpool. The carcasses, owing to the 
scarcity of provisions, had been used as 
food I" 

But those who could afford to dine upon 
famished jackasses were few, indeed. Dur- 
ing this winter of 1848-9, hundreds of 
thousands perished of hunger. During this 
same winter, the herds and harvests raised 
on Irish grouud were floating off to England 
on every tide — and, during this same winter 
almost every steamship from England daily 
carried Irish paupers, men, women, and 
children, away from Liverpool and Bristol 
to share the good cheer of their kinsmen at 
home. 

It was in this state of things that Lord 
John Russell, having first secured a con- 
tinued suspension of the Habeas Corpus act, 
proposed an additional and novel sort, of 
Poor-rate for Ireland. It was called the 
" Rate-iti-Aid." That is to say, Poor Law 
Unions which were still solvent, and could 
still in sonic measure maintain their own 
local poor, were to be rated for relief of such 
unions as had sunk under the pressure. 
Assuming that Ireland and England are 
two integral parts of an " United Kingdom," 
(as we are assured they are,) it seems hard 
to understand why a district in Leinster 
should be rated to relieve a pauper territory 
in Mayo — and a district in Yorkshire not. 
Or to comprehend why old and spent Irish 
laborers, who had given the best of their 
health and strength to the service of Eng- 
land, should be shipped off to Ireland to 
increase and intensify the pauperism and 
despair. But so it was : the maxim was, 



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t/HO.C&ii.VSiiS.'i 



INCUMBERED ESTATES ACT. 



593 



that " the property of Ireland must support 
the poverty of Ireland ; " without considera- 
tion of the fact that the property of Ireland 
was all this time supporting the luxury of 
England. 

The next measure passed in the same 
session of Parliament was the " Incumbered 
Estates act" — the act of Twelfth and 
Thirteenth Victoria, chap. 77. Under 
this, a royal commission was issued, consti- 
tuting a new court " for the sale of In- 
cumbered Estates ; " and the scope and 
intent of it were to give a short and sum- 
mary method of bringing such estates to 
sale, on petition either of creditors or of 
owners. Before that time the only mode of 
doing this was through the slow and ex- 
pensive proceedings of the Court of 
Chancery ; and the number of incumbered 
landlords had grown so very large since the 
famine began, their debts so overwhelming, 
and their reutal so curtailed, that the Lon- 
don Jews, money-brokers, and insurance 
offices, required a speedier and cheaper 
method of bringing their property to the 
hammer. What -ought to be fully under- 
stood is, that this act was not intended to 
relieve, and did not relieve, anybody in 
Ireland ; but that, under pretence of facili- 
tating legal proceedings, it contemplated a 
sweeping confiscation and new plantation of 
the island. The English press was already 
complacently anticipating a peaceable trans- 
fer of Irish land to English and Scotch 
capitalists, and took pains to encourage 
them to invest their money under the new 
act. Ireland, it was now declared, had be- 
come tranquil ; "the Celts were gone; " 
and if any trouble should arise, there was 
the Habeas Corpus Suspension act ; and 
the horse, foot, and artillery, and the juries. 
Singular to relate, however, the new act did 
not operate satisfactorily in that direction. 
English capitalists had a wholesome terror 
of Tipperary, and of the precarious tenure 
by which an Irish landlord holds his life ; 
insomuch that the great bulk of the sales 
made by the commissioners were made to 
Irishmen ; and in the official return of the 
operations of the Court, up to October, 
1851, it appears that while the gross 
amount produced by the sales had been 

more than three and a half millious sterling, 
75 



there had only been fifty-two English 
and Scottish purchasers to the amount of 
£319,436.* 

Seeing this imperfect progress in the new 
plantation of Ireland, Ministers, iu March, 
1850, introduced a supplemental bill. The 
Solicitor-General who moved it was even so 
incautious as to admit the motive. " They 
had devised a plan," he said, " which, it 
was hoped, would induce capitalizes from 
England to take an interest in these sales." 
The plan was a mere financial operation, 
creating a species of debentures chargeable 
on the land, and passing current like any 
other stock or scrip ; but it need not be de- 
scribed in detail ; for the plan was aban- 
doned, and it is only mentioned here to 
exhibit the policy of England as indicated 
by the Solicitor-General. 

Down to the 25th May, 1857, there had 
been given orders for sale to the number of 
three thousand one hundred and ninety- 
seven ; the property had been sold to seven 
thousand two hundred and sixteen pur- 
chasers, of whom six thousand nine hundred 
and two were Irish — the rest English, 
Scotch, or other foreigners. The estates 
already sold brought upwards of twenty 
millions sterling, which was almost all 
distributed to creditors and other parties 
interested. The result to Ireland was 
simply this — about one-fifteenth part of the 
island had changed hands ; had gone from 
one landlord and come to another landlord ; 
the result to the great tenant class was 
simply nil. The new landlord came over 
them armed with the power of life and 
death, like his predecessor ; but he had no 
local or personal attachment which iu some 
cases used to mitigate the severity of land- 
lord rule— aud he was bound to make inter- 
est on his investment. The estates, there- 
fore, have been broken up, on an average, 
into one-half their former size, and this has 
been much dwelt upon as an " ameliora- 
tion ; " but we have yet to learn that small 
landlords are more mild and merciful than 
great ones. On the whole, the " Incum- 
bered Estates act " has benefitted only the 
money-lenders of England. 

As to " tenant-right," the salutary custom 
explained before, aud whieli did once prac- 
* Almanac and Directory, 1S52. 




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BISTORT OF IRELAND. 



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tically secure to tlie tenantry in some por- 
tions of Ulster, a permanency of tenure on 
payment of their rent, our Parliamentary 
patriots have been agitating for it, begging 
for it, conferring with Ministers about it, 
eating public dinners, making speeches, and 
soliciting votes on account of it ; but they 
have never made, and are never likely 
to malic, an approach by one hair's-breadth 
to its attainment. It is absolutely essential 
to the existence of the British Empire that 
the Irish peasant class be kept in a condition 
which will make them entirely manageable 
— easy to be thinned out when they grow 
too numerous, and an available materiel for 
armies. It is a necessity for the British 
commercial, social, and Governmental sys- 
tem — but this is not said by way of com- 
plaint. Those who arc of opinion that Brit- 
ish civilization is a blessing, and a fight 
to lighten the world, will easily reconcile 
themselves to the needful condition. Those 
who deem it the most base and horrible 
tyranny that has ever scandalized the earth, 
will probably wish that its indispensable prop 
• — Ireland — were knocked from under it. 

In the meantime, neither the Incumbered 
Estates act, nor any other act, made or to 
be made by an English Parliament, has 
done or aimed to do anything towards 
giving the Irish tenant-at-will the smallest 
interest in the land he tills ; but, on the 
contrary, the whole coarse of the famine- 
legislation was directed to the one end 
of shaking small lease-holders loose from 
the soil, and converting them into tenants- 
at-will, or into " independent laborers," or 
able-bodied paupers, or lean corpses. Un- 
derstand, further, that the condition of an 
Irish " tenant-at-will " is unique on the face 
of the globe,* is utterly unintelligible to 
most civilized Europeans, and is only to be 
found within the sway of that Constitution 
which is the envy of surrounding nations. 
The German, Von Rauiner, making a tour 
in Ireland, thus tries to explain the thing:— 

''How shall I translate I, luinls-ct-uill ? 
Wegjagbare ? Expellable? Serfs? But 
n the ancient days of vassalage, it consisted 
rather in keeping the vassals attached to 

* Paralleled in some sort only liy the ryots of India 
— another people privileged to enjoy the blessings 
of British rul«. 



the soil, and by no means in driving them 
away. An ancient vassal is a lord com- 
pared with the present tenant-at-will, to 
whom the law affords no defence. Why 
not call them Jagabare (<Jiascab/e)? But 
this difference lessens the analogy — that for 
hares, stags, and deer, there is a season 
during which no one is allowed to hunt 
them — whereas tenauts-at-will are hunted 
all the year round. And if any one would 
defend his farm, (as badgers and foxes are 
allowed to do,) it is here denominated 
rebel/ion." 

In 1840, it was still believed that the de- 
population had not proceeded far enough ; 
and the English Government was fully de- 
termined, having so gracious an opportu- 
nity, to make a clean sweep. One of the 
provisions of Lord John Russell's Rate-in- 
Aid bill was for imposing an additional rate 
of two shillings and sixpence in the pound, 
to promote emigration. During the two 
years, 1848-9, the Government Census Com- 
missioners admit nine thousand three hun- 
dred and ninety-five deaths by famine alone ; 
a number which would be about true if lftul- 
tiplicd by twenty five. In 1S50, they were 
nearly seven thousand, as admitted by the 
same authorities ; and in the first quarter 
of 1851, six hundred and fifty-two deaths 
by hunger, they say, " are recorded." 

In the very midst of all this havoc, in 
August, 1849, Her Majesty's Ministers 
thought the coast was clear for a royal visit 
The Queen had long wished, it was said, to 
visit her people of Ireland ; and the great 
army of persons, who, in Ireland, are paid 
to be loyal, were expected to get up the ap- 
pearance of rejoicing. Of course, there 
were crowds in the Streets; and the natural 
courtesy of the people prevented almost 
everything which could grate upon the lady's 
ear, or offend her eye. One Mr. O'Reilly, 
indeed, of South Great George's street, 
hoisted on the top of his house a large black 
banner, displaying the crownless harp ; and 
draped his windows with black curtains, 
showing the words famine and pestilence; 
but the police burst into his house, tore 
down the flag and the curtains, and thrust 
the proprietor into jail. 

On the whole, the Viceroy's precautions 
against any show of disaffection, were com- 



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plete and successful. Nine out of ten citi- 
zens of Dublin eagerly hoped that Her Ma- 
jesty would make this visit the occasion of 
a " pardon " to O'Brien arid his comrades. 
Lord Clarendon's organs, therefore, and his 
thousand placemen, and agents of every 
grade, diligently whispered into the public 
ear, that the Queen would certainly pardon 
the state prisoners, if she were not insulted 
by repeal demonstrations — in short, if there 
was not one word said about those individu- 
als. The consequence was, that no whisper 
was heard about repeal, nor about the state 
prisoners. 

Although there was no chance of tenant- 
right, no chance of Ireland being allowed to 
manage her own affairs — yet, towards Cath- 
olics, of the educated classes, there was 
much liberality. Mr. Wyse was sent as an 
ambassador to Greece ; Mr. More O'Ferrall 
was made Governor of Malta ; many bar- 
risters, once loud in their patriotic devotion 
at Conciliation Hall, were appointed tocom- 
missionerships and other offices,* and Ire- 
land became " tranquil" enough. For result 
of the whole long struggle, England was 
hit, for a time, more securely in possession 
than ever of the property, lives, and in- 
dustry of the Irish nation. She had not 
parted with a single atom of her plunder, 
nor iu the slightest degree weakened any of 
her garrisons, either military, civil, or eccle- 
siastical. Her "Established Church" re- 
mained in full force — the wealthiest church 
in the world, quartered upon the poorest 
people, who abhor its doctrine, and regard 
its pastors as ravening wolves. It had, 
indeed, often been denounced in the London 
Parliament, by Whigs out of place ; Mr. 

* By degrees, considerable numbers of Catholic 
barristers have been admitted to tire judicial bench, 
(although never to the rank of Chancellor ) They 
usually earned this promotion by political services ; 
and they have proved, in fact, the most useful ser- 
vants to the English Government, in carrying on the 
infamous transactions which pass for trials of " poli- 
tical offenders " in Ireland. Tiny sit by gravely and 
complacently, and see juries packed for the destruc- 
tion of better and braver men than those judges ever 
were. They know that the object of the odions 
fraud over which they preside, is to perpetuate Brit- 
ish dominion over their unhappy country — unhappy 
in nothing more than in having given birth to (hem. 
They know, further, thai the operation and intent nf 
that British domination are to plunder and to exter- 
minate their countrymen, their kinsmen, their own 
flesh aud blood. And they have deliberately elected 




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Roebuck had called it " the greatest eccle- 
siastical enormity in Europe;" Mr. Mac- 
auley had termed it " the most utterly ab- 
surd and indefensible of all the institutions 
now existing in the civilized world." But 
we have already learned what value there is 
in the liberal declarations of Whigs out of 
place. Once in place and power, they felt 
that the "enormity" of the Established 
Church, absurd and indefensible as it was, 
constituted one of their greatest and surest 
holds upon the Irish aristocracy, to whoso 
younger sons ami dependents, it affords a 
handsome and not too laborious livelihood. 
The Orangemen, also, were still maintain- 
ed in full force. They are all armed ; for 
no bench of magistrates will refuse a good 
Protestant the liberty of keeping a gun ; and, 
lest they might not have enough, the Gov- 
ernment sometimes supplies arms for distri- 
bution among the lodges. The police and 
detective system continued to be more high- 
ly organized than ever ; and the Government 
Board of " National " Education, more dili- 
gently than ever inculcated the folly and vice 
of national aspirations. 

Yet Ireland, we are told, has been, since 
the famine, improving and prosperous. Yes ; 
it cannot be denied, that two millions and a 
half of the people having been slain, or 
driven to seek safety by flight, the surviv- 
ors began to live better for a time. There 
was a smaller supply of labor, with the 
same demand for it — therefore, wages were 
higher. There was more cattle and grain 
to export to England, because there were 
fewer mouths to be fed ; and England, (in 
whose hands are the issues of life ami death 
for Ireland,) can afford to let so many live. 

their side — against their countrymen and kinsmen, 
and with the mortal enemies of their countrymen. 
In other words, they have sold their country and 
themselves ; aud the special service which they are 
expected to do — the job which they sit on that bench 
to put through— is precisely to countenance this very 
fraud and villany of jury-packing— to grace it with 
their robes and ermine — to preside with dignified 
gravity while the Sheriff and Attorney-General do 
their wicked business — looking all the while as if it 
were a solemn inquest they are holding — and then, 
with feeling voice, and in a high moral tone, and 
with the solemn prate usual on such occasions, to 
sentence to death or exile, a man who has noi been 
tried ; a man, too, whom they are forced to respect, 
even in their own depraved hearts, while they hypo- 
critically lecture him upon his own enormous iniqui- 
ties- 



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Upper classes, and lower classes, merchants, 
lawyers, state-officials, civil and military, are 
ndebted for all that they have, for all 
that they are, or hope for, to the sufferance 
and forbearance of a foreign and hostile na- 
tion. This being the case, the prosperity 
of Ireland, even such ignominious prosper- 
ity as it, is, has no guarantee or security. 

A few statistics may fitly conclude this 
part of the subject. 

The census of Ireland in 1841 gave a 
population of eight millions one hundred and 
seventy-five thousand one hundred and 
twenty-five. At the usual rate of increase, 
there must have been, in 1846, when the 
famine commenced, at least eight millions 
seven hundred and fifty thousand ; at the 
same rate of increase, there ought to have 
been, in 1851, (according to the estimate of 
the Census Commissioners,) nine millions 
eighteen thousand seven hundred and 
ninety-nine. But in that year, after five 
seasons of artificial famine, there were found 
alive only six millions five hundred and 
fifty-two thousand three hundred and 
eighty-live — a deficit of about two millions 
and a half. Now, what became of those 
two millions and a half? 

The " Government" Census Commission- 
ers, and compilers of returns of all sorts, 
whose principal duty it has been, since that 
fatal time, to conceal the amount of the 
havoc, attempt to account for nearly the 
whole deficiency by emigration. In Thorn's 
Official Almanac, we find set down on one 
Bide, the actual decrease from 1841 to 1851, 
(that is, without taking into account the 
increase by births in that period,) one 
million six hundred and twenty-three thou- 
sand one hundred and fifty-four. Against 
this, they place their own estimate of the 
emigration during those same ten years, 
which they put down at one million five 
hundred and eighty-nine thousand one 
hundred and thirty-three. But, in the first 
place, the decrease did not begin till 1846 
— there had been till then a rapid increase 
in the population — the Government returns, 
then, not only ignore the increase, but set 
the emigration of ten years against the de- 
population of Jive. This will not do ; we 
must reduce their emigrants by one-half, 
say to six hundred thousand — and add to 



the depopulation the estimated increase up 
to 1846, say half a million. This will give 
upwards of two millions, whose disappear- 
ance is to be accounted for — and six 
hundred thousand emigrants in the other 
column. Balance unaccounted for, a mi/lion 
am! a half. 

This is without computing those who 
were born in the five famine years ; whom 
we may leave to be balanced by the deaths 
from natural causes in the same period. 

Now, that million and a half of men, 
women, and children, were carefully pru- 
dently, and peacefully slain by the English 
Government. They died of hunger in the 
midst of abundance, which their own hands 
created ; and it is quite immaterial to 
distinguish those who perished in the 
agonies of famine itself from those who died 
of typhus fever, which in Ireland is always 
caused by famine. 

Further, this was strictly an artificial 
famine — that is to say, it was a famine 
which desolated a rich and fertile island, 
that produced every year abundance and 
superabundance to sustain all her people 
and many more. The English, indeed, call 
that famine a dispensation of Providence ; 
and ascribe it entirely to the blight of the 
potatoes. But potatoes failed in like man- 
ner all over Europe, yet there was no 
famine save in Ireland. The British ac- 
count of the matter, then, is, first, a fraud ; 
second, a blasphemy. The Almighty, in- 
deed, sent the potato blight, but the English 
created the famine. 

And, lastly, it has been shown, in the 
course of this narrative, that the depopula- 
tion of the country was not ouly encouraged 
by artificial means, namely, the Out-door 
Relief act, the Labor-rate act, aud the 
emigration schemes, but that extreme care 
and diligence were used to preveut relief 
coming to the doomed island from abroad ; 
and that the benevolent contributions of 
Americans and other foreigners were turned 
aside from their desired objects — uot, let 
us say, in order that none should be saved 
alive, but that no interference should 
be made with the principles of political 
economy. 

The Census Commissioners close one of 
their late reports with these words : — 



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DEPOPULATION EMIGRATION. 



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" In couelusion, we feel it will be gratify- 
ing to your excellency to find that, although 
the population has been diminished in so 
remarkable a manner, by famine, disease, 
and emigration, and has been since decreas- 
ing, the results of the Irish census are, on 
the whole, satisfactory." 

The commissioners mean to say that, 
although there are fewer men and women, 
there are more cattle and hogs for the 
English markets. 

But the depopulation of the country by 
no means ended with the famine. Between 
1851 and 1861, during which period of ten 
years there was no officially-declared famine, 
but, on the contrary, Ireland was continually 
felicitated by English Viceroys and states- 
men upon her returning prosperity, we find 
that the diminution of the people steadily 
proceeded, so that, in 1801, the Census 
Commissioners found alive upon the Irish 
soil only five millions seven hundred and 
sixty-four thousand five hundred and forty- 
three individuals — less by three millions of 
souls than the population in 1845. This 
destruction of people is to be accounted for 
only in part by emigration, although 
emigration was very large in all those years. 
But, there is no fact better established in 
social and economic science than that emi- 
gration never does thin the people of any 
country to anything like its apparent 
amount ; because, iu a healthy coudition 
of society, the loss from this cause is 
compensated by the greater increase of 
people at home. But the cruel truth is, 
that society in Ireland is iu ruins ; it has no 
longer any recuperative energy. British 
civilization has taken so powerful and deadly 
a hold of it, that not ouly do the people fly 
in multitudes from the terrible "prosperity" 
of their country, but those who remain and 
strive to hold their grouud are perishing 
where they stand. 



_e_ 



5t7 



CHAPTER LXII. 

1850—1851. 

Depopulation — Emigration — " Plea for the Celtic 
Race"— Decay of the Irish Electoral Body— Act 
to Amend Representation — "Papal Aggression" 
—Rage in England— Ecclesiastical Titles Bill- 
Never Enforced — And Why— Orange Outrage in 
Down County—" Dolly's Brae "—Style of Orange 
Processions— Condition of the Country— Further 
Emigration— Still more Extermination— Crime and 

Outrage— Plenty and Prosperity in England 

Conclusion. 

In 1851 the island of Ireland still con- 
tained six and a half millious of people ; 
which was much too large a pophlation to 
be compatible with English policy. It has 
been seen, iu an earlier page of this 
narrative, that the British Government and 
Parliament had been long anxiously occu- 
pied, even before the first symptom of the 
"famine," in devising the best, cheapest, 
and readiest mode of getting rid of what 
was constantly called the " surplus popula- 
tion " of Ireland. In fact aud practice, the 
migration of the poorer people had been 
proceeding on a considerable and still in- 
creasing scale for many years. No season 
passed in which thousands of Irishmen, 
wearied and worn out by the struggle 
against remediless misery aud hopeless ag- 
gression, did not bid adieu to their dear 
native country, to seek a happier future in 
some distant land. The general use of 
steam in ocean navigation had also greatly 
facilitated the movement of emigration, by 
shortening distances and bringing continents 
nearer to one another. The whole amount 
of the emigration from Great Britain and 
Ireland for the year 1815, was but two 
thousand and eighty-one persons ; but in 
1S52 it amounted to one hundred aud 
seventy-six times that number — namely, 
three hundred and sixty-eight thousand seven 
hundred and sixty four.* 

In 1835, a Parliamentary Commission 
reported that there were in Ireland two 
millions three hundred and eighty thousand 
persons always in danger of perishing by 
hunger ; aud the island (although the most 
fertile country in all the earth,) being even 

* General Report of the Emigration Commission- 
ers, 1861. Appendix. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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then periodically visited by terrible dearths 
and famine, it may have been natural to con- 
clude that it would be doing Ireland a 
signal service to multiply the means of emi- 
gration ; but in carrrying out this idea, the 
Government was resolved to bring the 
whole movement of emigration, as well as 
everything else that was Irish, under its 
own control, as far as possible. During the 
fifteen years which preceded the famine, 
(1831-1846,) Ireland alone had furnished 
more than eight hundred thousand emigrants 
out of the total emigration from the three 
kingdoms. The exact numbers are eight 
hundred and nine thousand two hundred 
and forty-four, making an annual average 
of fifty-three thousand nine hundred and 
forty-nine ; and the number for all the three 
kingdoms during the same period was one 
million one hundred and seventy-one thousand 
four hundred and eighty five.* Yet, the 
excess of births over both deaths and emigra- 
tions continued to make a sensible increase 
in the population ; and in the very same 
year (1841,) in which had occurred the 
largest exodus during that period, the census 
showed that the population of the island was 
greater than it had ever been before, and 
greater than it has ever been since officially 
declared, namely, eight millions one hundred 
and seventy-five thousand one hundred and 
twenty-four. J 

This result, showing the nullity of emigra- 
tion as an agency of depleting a population, 
might have been more surprising if it had 
not been long foreseen. Far from derang- 
ing the calculations of economic science, it 
confirmed the conclusions of the best econ- 
omists. No writer, native or foreign, who 
has treated of Irish affairs, has estimated 
with more sagacity the actual condition and 
necessities of our country than the illustri- 
ous French publicist, M. Gustave de Beau- 
mont. Studying, in 1839, the condition 

* Reports of Commissioners of Emigration, in 
Thorn's Official Directory. We often cite this sta- 
tistical annual, prepared by authority of the British 
Government. But (on that very account,) it is un- 
li-ustworthy, unless when it bears necessarily or 
unintentionally against the Government, and it is 
only for such evidence that we have recourse to it. 

t But, in 1M.">, (when no census was taken.) the 
population must have amounted almost to nine mil- 
lions. This fact is too often overlooked, and by the 
enemy's Government purposely ignored, for obvious 
reasons. 



of Ireland, and considering whether the 
favorite British prescription of emigration 
could in any great measure cure the miseries 
which he had witnessed in the country, 
M. de Beaumont applied himself to the 
solution of these questions : 1st. What 
should be the proportions of the emigration 
if it were to materially affect the situation 
of the people ? 2d. Would emigration npon 
such a scale be possible ? 3d. Supposing it 
possible, would it be a radical solution of 
the difficulty ? The advocates of wholesale 
emigration (all of them Englishmen,) 
answered the first question by estimating at 
two millions — or from two to four millions — 
the number of persons who must quit Ire- 
land, in order to create at once so sensible a 
void in the population as should leave the 
rest at ease. The second question, then, 
was easy to answer — that on so vast a scale 
the project was simply impossible, for want 
of sufficient means of transport. For sup- 
posing that each emigrant vessel carried a 
thousand passengers, there must be em- 
ployed in the operation two thousand ships. 
This would put in requisition the whole 
British merchant navy, and withdraw it 
from the commerce of the world for a 
project iu itself chimerical ; for it would 
have been impossible to provide funds for 
the needful expenses ; and no country, not 
even the United States, could be expected 
to receive such an invasion en masse, and 
provide the unhappy invaders with the 
means and opportunity of earning their 
bread by their labor. But, assuming all 
these difficulties overcome, then arose M. de 
Beaumont's third question : Was it certain 
that, the system of land-tenure remaining 
the same, emigration would cure the evils of 
the country, and effect a social transforma- 
tion? On this point, our very intelligent 
foreign visitor found it easy to demonstrate 
that the removal of one-third, or even half, 
of the population would be no radical 
remedy. The difficulty for Ireland, as he 
plainly saw, was not to make the land pro- 
duce a sufficiency of food for all its people, 
but lay altogether in the system of land- 
tenure. " For," says the author, " if it be 
one of the settled principles of laud pro- 
prietors, that the farmer should have no 
other profit out of his cultivation but just 



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what is strictly necessary for his subsistence; 
mid if it be the general custom to apply this 
Bystem rigorously, so that every improve- 
ment in the farmer's way of living brings 
with it necessarily a rise in his rent — on 
this hypothesis, which, for those who know 
Ireland, is a sad reality, what would be the 
advantage of a diminution of the popula- 
tion ?'' * "Thus," he continues, "after 
many thousands of the Irish shall have dis- 
appeared, the lot of the remainder will 
probably be no way altered — they still may 
remain as miserable as they were before 
It has been seen, in the preceding in- 
quiry, that with but one-third of its present 
inhabitants, Ireland was a century ago as 
indigent as in our own day, being subjected 
thru, as at present, to the same causes of 
misery, independent of numbers." M. de 
Beaumont here refers to the authority of 
Swift and of Berkeley, which sufficiently 
establishes the misery of Ireland in their 
days. 

In all this investigation the singularity is, 
that M. de Beaumont, knowing the wealth 
and fertility of Ireland, and how- she not 
only produced every year more than her 
people could consume, but also exported 
immense quantities of her produce, did not 
come at once to the conclusion, and pro- 
claim his conclusion — that Ireland and the 
Irish are under the control of mortal ene- 
mies, whose single policy is to abolish the 
Irish race off the face of the earth. 

Another calm and diligent inqnirer,f 
after giving an account of the immense 
schemes of wholesale emigration, remarks : 
" It. is in view of these sad teachings of the 
past that the most sincere and intelligent 
friends of Ireland counseled the British 
Government, rather to expend in vast works 
of drainage and cultivation, the sums esti- 
mated as required for the transport of emi- 
grants. Lord Devon's Commission calcul- 
ated that the emigration of one hundred 
thousand persons per annum, if effected at 
the public expense, and putting the cost at 
the moderate amount of six pounds sterling 
for each person, would cost £600,000 a 
vear . — a sum which, annually applied to the 



purchase and improvement of unproductive 
lands, would undoubtedly permit the Irish 
to live at home, and rescue them from the 
necessity of goiug into exile to save their 
lives." Here the Abbe" Perraud also seems 
to misapprehend, or else shrinks from utter- 
ing the horrible fact — that the object of all 
British policy in Ireland is now, and ever 
has been, to make it impossible for the 
Irish to live at home. In the writings of 
foreigners, even the most acute, and most 
friendly to Ireland, there is a steady — ■ 
almost stolid — persistence in assuming that 
British statesmen, if they only knew how, 
would hasten to redress the ills of Ireland. 
For this reason, and for this alone, has the 
real history of Ireland remained a puzzle 
and a secret to even the most intelligent 
inquirers from other countries. They may 
as well understand at once, that the key of 
the whole mystery is this one fundamental 
truth — the single policy of England towards 
Ireland is, as it always has been, to extir- 
pate the Irish nation. This maxim, well 
borne in mind, everything becomes simple 
enough. 

In 1841, the number of inhabited houses 
in all Ireland, according to the official cen- 
sus,! was one million three hundred and 
twenty-eight thousand eight hundred and 
thirty-nine. In 1851 , it was one million forty- 
six thousand two huudred and ninety-four. 
But this decrease between those two periods 
of the census does not by any means repre- 
sent the actual amount of destruction ; be- 
cause from 1841, (the census year,) till 
1845, the population had been rapidly in- 
creasing, (as has been observed in a former 
chapter.) When the " famine" commenced, 
in 1840, we may fairly assume that the in- 
habited houses amounted to one million and 
a half; the decrease, then, in 1851, must 
be set down at almost half a million of 
houses or cabins, giving shelter on an aver- 
ago to five human beings each. These 
fio-ures are in themselves sufficient to give 
a ghastly idea of the agony of Ireland, and 
of the too cruel efficiency of the methods 
so steadily pursued for the extirpation of its 
native inhabitants. "The Celts were ; 

rial Almanac and Directory, 






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or rapidly going ; and this not the result of 
emigration, as we have seen, but of mere 
hunger and hardship. The system, and the 
motives and operation of the system became 
at length so clear and plain, that Mr. Isaac 
Butt, a Protestant barrister, (O'Connell's 
opponent in the famous Corporation Debate 
upon Repeal,) published some years later, 
(1866,) a work entitled "A Plea, for the 
Celtic Race" urging the impolicy, even in 
the interest of England, of entirely abolish- 
ing the whole breed.* 

It is no way surprising, then, to find that 
the number of persons in all Ireland qualified 
to vote for county representatives in Parlia- 
ment, had dwindled down on January I, 
1850, to considerably less than one thou- 
sand for each county ; or twenty-seven 
thousand one hundred and eighty for the 
thirty-two counties. The great County of 
Mayo had but two hundred electors ; and 
these almost all landed proprietors. This 
cannot be surprising to those who have fol- 
lowed the narrative of that long, wasting 
war systematically made on the race of 
small farmers — first by the abolition of the 
forty-shilling franchise; then by the "con- 
solidation" of farms ; by the frequent eject- 
ment acts ; by the stimulus given to exter- 
mination and emigration ; fiually, by the 
Poor laws and the famine. 

The condition of the county representa- 
tion, therefore, had become so scandalous, 
that Ministers, in 1850, judged it needful 
to extend, somehow or other, the numbers 
qualified to vote. But here arose a difficulty 
— there were no more freeholders ; that 
class had been too effectually shaken loose 
from the soil, impoverished, and extirpated. 

* We give two suggestive passages from this per- 
formance: "Whatever maybe the difficulties that 
attend the discussioa of the question, any man who 
can contribute ever so little to its investigation does 
some service to his country. To say that the land 
question is the most important part of all Irish pub- 
lic questions, but feebly expresses its magnitude. It 
would be nearer the truth to say, that it forms the 
whole. While the "unsatisfactory relations" be- 
tween the owners and occupiers of the soil continue, 
there can never be peace or prosperity in the land. 
Let these relations be placed on a satisfactory busis, 
and all other questions will very soon adjust them- 
selves. The question, however, is not exclusively of 
Irish interest. It is true that, so far as Ireland is 
concerned, it involves nothing less than the contin- 
ued existence in their own land of the old Irish race, 
i the face of troubles which are gathering and 




Many thousands of them who had escaped 
death, were by this time digging canals and 
railways in America. It was evident that 
nothing like an apparently adequate repre- 
sentation could be looked for, based upon 
the old and respectable condition of a free- 
hold estate in land. But it occurred to 
Lord John Russell to found the franchise 
upon the Poor-rales; thus connecting this 
ancient privilege of freemen with the odious 
and destructive system of public pauperism, 
which had been forced upon the island 
against its will, and had been corroding its 
people so fatally ever since. 

Accordingly, a bill was introduced to 
" amend " the representation, both in coun- 
ties and in boroughs. The Irish Official 
Directory thus shortly states the facts : — 

" The number of electors under the Re- 
form act was, in 1832, ninety-eight thou- 
sand eight hundred and fifty-seven ; on 
January 1, 1850, the constituency had dim- 
inished to sixty-one thousand and thirty-six 
— twenty-seven thousand one hundred and 
eighty in the counties, and thirty-three 
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six in tile 
cities and boroughs. The act 13th and 14th 
Yic , chap. 69, was passed in 1850, to amend 
the representation ; and in addition to those 
persons previously qualified to register and 
vote in county elections, occupiers of tene- 
ments rated in the last Poor-rate at a net an- 
nual value of £12 and upwards, are entitled 
to vote in elections for counties, subject 
to registration, in accordance with the act, 
and to certain limitations therein ; also 
owners of cetain estates of the rated net 
annual value of £b. But no persons are to 
be entitled to vote in counties in respect of 

darkening over Europe, it is not too much to say, 
that the continuance of England's greatness may de- 
pend upon her being able to satisfy and conciliate 
that race in their native land. 

" English statesmen must ask themselves whether 
the British Empire can afford to lose the hardy and 
bold population, portion of which every month is now- 
transferring itself to the other side of the Atlantic. 
They must seriously reflect on the danger which 
arises from sending a hostile and embittered Irish 
colony to the American continent. All the emigrants 
who are now leaving the country carry with them 
the most determined hatred of British power. Those 
whom they leave behind sympathize in their feelings, 
and whenever the opportunity occurs, the Irish 
abroad and a large portion of the Irish at home will 
be ready to aid any attempt that can strike a blow 
at that power. 



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tenements in virtue of which tlicy may be 
entitled to vote in boroughs. In boroughs, 
occupiers rated in the last Poor-rate at X'S 
anil upwards an: entitled to vote, subject to 
registration and certain limitations in the 
act. By the 13th and 1 4 Mi Vic, chap. OS, 
the polling at contested elections is to con- 
tinue in counties for two days only, and in 
cities and boroughs for one day only ; the 
returning officer is to provide booths, so 
thai UOt more than six hundred voters shall 
poll at each booth for a county, and two 
hundred for a city or borough. The num- 
ber of electors registered under the new act, 
on January 1, 1851, was one hundred ami 
sixly-three thousand five hundred and forty- 
six, being one hundred and thirty-five thou- 
sand two hundred and forty-five in the coun- 
ties, and twenty-eight thousand three hun- 
dred and one in the cities and boroughs." 

This enlargement of the electoral basis 
was undoubtedly a seeming advantage — as- 
suming that the Irish representation in a 
British Parliament is a thing desirable. But 
it. was not in the nature of the Whigs, nor, 
indeed, of the Tories, to concede to Ireland 
even an apparent advantage, and not ac- 
company the "boon" with an outrage. 
Lord John Russell flung us the Franchise 
act with one hand, and with the other n 
new Coercion law, and the "Ecclesiastical 
Titles act." As for t'|n former, it was only 
the usual atrocity ; this time under the 
title of an "Act for the better Prevention 
of Crime and Outrage in Ireland;" with 
the customary powers, to proclaim districts, 
to quarter police on them, to search for 
anus, to keep everybody at home alter sun- 
set, and to transport delinquents. There was 
nothing uncommon in this ; and the uncom- 
mon and exceptional thing for Irishmen 
would have been to find themselves living 
under the civil laws of the land. But, the 
other measure, (Ecclesiastical Titles bill,; 
needs further notice. 

In the summer of this year, 18.i0, arrived 
in England a most startling document ; 
nothing less than a Papal Brief, direct 
from Rome, directing the English Catholic 
"Vicars Apostolic" — who were Bishops, 
in fact, possessing all episcopal jurisdiction 
— to assume the true titles of their Sees, as 
Bishop of Hexham, Bishop of Birmingham, 
7« 



and so forth ; and further appointing the il- 
lustrious Doctor Wiseman a Cardinal and 
first Archbishop of Westminster. The soil 
of Protestant Englaud was thus mapped out 
by a foreign prince into separate governments, 
(dioceses,) and placed under the control of 
certain Popish priests ; in utter disdain of 
the exclusive rights of the Anglican Church 
and of the Queen as its Pope and head. 
Hen; was papal aggression 1 Immediate- 
ly arose a vehement "No-popery" excite- 
ment throughout England, it is true, 
that the Pope herein exercised the un- 
doubted jurisdiction which he possessed in 
things spiritual over his Church ; and which 
he had lon^r notoriously exercised under other 
names and forms. Still, it was against the 
"law" — that is, against some of the old 
penal laws, yet unrepealed, but always vio- 
lated, to introduce into Great Britain or 
Ireland any Papal Bull, Brief, Rescript, or 
writing whatsoever. And then the high tone 
assumed (necessarily) by the Pope, in his 
Uriel', and by Cardinal Wiseman in promul- 
gating it, appeared to the enlightened mind 
of Protestant England, to a mount to noth- 
ing less than Jezebel herself, formally enter- 
ing in and taking possession. 

At once there was a shout of alarm and 
wrath, from all the ends of England and 
Scotland, to which the Irish Orangemen, of 
course, contributed their best vociferation. 
County meetings were laid, nil over Eng- 
land, to denounce this audacious " Papal 
aggression;" and plat forms, pulpits, and 
press rung for months with the old and well- 
worn denunciations against Jezebel, the Sac- 
rifice of the Mass, and the whole mystery 
of iniquity generally. Lord John Russell, 
a statesman who hated Catholics and their 
religion, with all the venom of his small, 
shriveled, and spiteful soul, and who was 
distressed besides by the late concession of 
frauehi.se to certain Catholics in Ireland, 

Lord John Russell, though Prime Min- 
ister of the Queen, was not, above the paltry 
task of stimulating this ignoble rage. He 
selected the 4th of November, the day be- 
fore the anniversary of the " Gunpowder 
riot," to publish in the newspapers a letter 
to the Bishop of Durham, expressing alarm 
and indignation, " but less alarm than indig- 
nation," at the daring invasion of England 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



by t ho Pope of Rome ; enlarging upon the 
enormity of Catholic doctrines, and terming 
Catholic worship "superstitious mummery." 
His lordship, however, though he saw great 
cause for apprehension, assured the Bishop 
that the noble Protestant State of England 
should never, never be yielded up into the 
hands of a foreign priest. Next day was 
the fifth, when Guv FaWkes is always burned 
in effigy. This time there was in many 
towns ot England, ami especially in London, 
an astonishing uproar of "No-Popery" 
zeal ; multitudinous processions celebrated 
the occasion ; orators sponted out of Fox's 
Martyrs, (taking care to say nothing of the 
martyrs that Protestants had made,) and 
the ignorant masses were inflamed to mad- 
ness by pictures of the racks and pincers 
which they were assured were shortly to be 
introduced into England, under the new 
Papal Boll. Instead of Guy Fawkes, they 
burned effigies of the Pope, of the Virgin, 
of Cardinal Wiseman ; and swore deep oaths, 
under the influence of deep potations, that 
they would all die, with the Bible on 
their bosoms, before they would submit to 
the tyranny of the Propaganda and the 
pincers of the Inquisition. It would have 
been an insane action, on the part of any 
Catholic priest, to allow himself to be seen 
in the streets upon that evening. 

The conclusion of this affair of " Papal 
Aggression" belongs to the following year, 
18.il ; but we may here anticipate a little. 
Lord John Russell lost no time in availing 
himself of the stupid fanaticism of his 
conn try men. Parliament met again in 
February, 1851 ; he made the chief feature 
in the Queen's speech this very affair of the 
Pope's Bull ; and made her earnestly recom- 
mend to Parliament efficient action upon so 
important a subject. A bill was at once intro- 
duced by his lordship, absolutely prohibiting 
the assumption of the title of any existing 
See, or of any title whatsoever, from any 
pliice in the United Kingdom, under a 
penalty of £100 for each such offence. 
This was an extension of the provisions of 
the Catholic Relief act of 1829, which im- 
posed the same penalty on the assumption of 
the title to any existing See only. That 
prohibition in Ireland, and the penalty at- 
tached to it, had been always entirely 



neglected and ignored by the Catholic hier- 
archy ; and the Catholic Archbishop of 
Armagh signed himself Archbishop of Ar- 
magh and Primate of All Ireland, just as 
the other one did. In the new ecclesiastical 
division of England, however, care had 
been taken to avoid giving to Catholic 
Bishops the precise titles of Protestant Sees 
— except in one instance — and, therefore, 
it became necessary for the legislators 
against Papal Aggression to extend the 
prohibition and penalty to all territorial 
titles whatsoever, derived from any place in 
the three kingdoms. 

The new bill, which was intended to be 
highly stringent and menacing — a new ami 
formidable bulwark to the Reformation in 
England — was only on its passage when 
Lord John Russell's Government went out, 
and the Tories, under'Lord Derby, came in. 
It made no difference in this case. The 
bill to repress " Papal Aggression " was not 
only taken up by the new administration, 
but was eventually passed, with amendments, 
extending the penalty to the introduction of 
any document or rescript from Rome, ^is 
well as the one lately arrived, and further 
empowering and inviting any common in- 
former to prosccnte. The bill was carried 
through all its stages by immense majorities, 
English Whigs and English Tories being ' 
once more an unit on this vital matter ; 
and, thereafter, it was not only to be illegal 
for the Archbishop of Westminster to sign 
himself Archbishop of Westminster, but for 
the Archbishop of Armagh to take the title 
of his undoubted office, under the penalty of 
JU100 for each offence. 

On the passage of this bill, it was really 
believed by ignorant Protestants, that a 
new and mighty bulwark had been set up 
against the Pope, and that the "Reforma- 
tion " was at length secured. Much to the 
surprise of these ignorant Protestants, no 
notice whatever was taken of the new law 
by English Bishops or by Irish Bishops. 
Indeed, Doctor MacHule, the bold Arch- 
bishop of Tuam, who has the spirit of a 
patriot and, if need be, of a martyr, took 
an early occasion of publicly violating the 
new law, by reading in his cathedral the 
actual rescript of the Pope, and inviting any 
informer, or priest-hunter, who mil 



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ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL DOLLY S BRAE. 



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to earn a hundred pounds, to institute a 
prosecution against him. The law was 
never executed in a single instance. Doctor 
Newman signed his name in public docu- 
ments as Cardinal Archbishop of West- 
minster, and the Archbishop of Armagh 
continued to style himself Primate of All 
Ireland. The "Law" stands on record 
upon the scandalous chronicle of English 
legislation as a mere impotent example of 
No-Popery spite. 

Why was this law, passed by immense 
majorities, and with every appearance of 
determination, never enforced in a single 
case ? Why were not the Catholic Bishops 
prosecuted under its provisions ? The 
answer is too obvious — the Irish Catholic 
bishops have been so useful to the British 
Government, ever since the Union, in pre- 
serving the " peace of the country ;" that 
is, its perpetual subjugation to England, 
that it was not safe to make enemies of 
them. On this subject we may trust the 
Rev. Father Perraud, who thus expresses 
himself in his able work on Ireland. * " It 
is useless to eouceal the fact ; it is not 
the regiments encamped in Ireland ; it is 
not the militia of twelve thousand peelers 
distributed over the whole of the surface of 
the laud, which prevents revolt and preserves 
the peace. During a long period, especially 
in the last century, the excess of misery to 
which Ireland was reduced, had multiplied, 
even in the most Catholic counties, the secret 
societies of the peasantry. At this very 
moment, it is said, America is making great 
efforts to entice patriotic young men into 
those obscure associations in which men 
swear hatred to governments, in which are 
prepared the conspiracies' against public 
institutions, in which are silently organized 
social wars. . . But, who have ever 
been so energetic in resistance to secret 
societies as the Irish episcopacy ? Who 
have denounced these illegal associations 
with the most persevering, powerful, 
and formidable condemnation? On more 
than one occasion the Bishops have even 
hazarded their popularity in this way ; 
they could at a signal have armed a million 

* Etudes sur V Irland conlemporaine. Par le R. 
P. Adolphe Perraud. Paris : lbM. 



combatants against a persecuting govern- 
ment ; and that signal they refused to give." 

Passing over the various singular mis- 
statements of the reverend writer — that 
secret societies in Ireland swear hatred to 
governments in general, instead of the Eng- 
lish Government alone — that they conspire 
against " public institutions " generally, 
instead of the institutions of famine and 
packed juries, and the rest of our British 
institutions — and that they organize "so- 
cial war," instead of war against the 
English troops — passing over these errors 
one thing is, at least, evident from 
the pages of the Fere Perraud — that the 
Catholic Bishops take credit to themsel- 
ves for preserving British institutions and 
British Government in Ireland."}" It is 
possible that they are entitled to this credit, 
such as it is. And herein lies the reason 
why they were never prosecuted under the 
"Ecclesiastical Titles Bill." The English 
Government did not enforce its own law, 
because it dared not. J 

The Parliamentary session of 1S50 is 
further notable as the occasion of a dis- 
cussion upon the Orange outrage at Dolly's 
Brae, near Castlewellan, in the County 
Down. The transaction had taken place in 
the July of the year before, at the usual 
celebration of the Orange anniversary. It 
happened in this manner: The Orangemen 
of various districts of that region had as- 
sembled, marching by various routes, at the 
splendid demesne called Tollymore Park, 
the seat of the Earl of Roden, one of the 
highest dignitaries of their Order. One of 
the parties had marched through an ex- 
clusively Catholic district, and iu the true 
spirit of the anniversary, had insulted the 
peaceable people with the flaunting of their 
Orange banuers and lilies, and by playing 

f II. Perraud had made two visits to Ireland, in 
order to collect materials for his valuable work ; had 
communicated freely with the Catholic Bishops ; and 
must be supposed to speak for them in claiming 
merit for them on account of their loyal efforts. 

t It is observable that Father Perraud speaks of 
the Bishops as denouncing -illegal associations." 
But there is no society in Ireland so ille'jal as the 
Catholic Episcopacy. No White-Boy, Young Ire- 
lander, or "Fenian," ever more deliberately broke 
the law than those Bishops habitually do, in taking 
the title of their Sees, and in reading Rescripts from 
Rome. 



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before the poor cabins the time of " Croppies 
Lie Down."* After the muster at Tolly- 
more Pnrk, a dinner, and some drink, and a 
speech from Lord Rodeo concerning the 
Mystery of Iniquity, and the duty of all 
good Protestants — if they were to be 
martyred for their faith — at least to die with 
their Bibles clasped to their bosoms, it was 
determined to march back by way of Dolly's 
Brae. One Beers, a very ignorant Orange 
magistrate, accompanied them. Violent 
proceedings were expected to occur upon the 
passage by Dolly's Brae, and might have 
been prevented by Lord Roden and other 
magistrates present at the banquet, if they 
had used their influence to prevent the 
march by that particular road ; but it was 
thought advisable to give the Papists a 
lesson ; and the Lodges started for Dolly's 
Brae. It appeared, on the subsequent in- 
vestigation, that so strong was the. reason 
to apprehend disturbance as to induce some 
magistrates to send forward a strong force 
of police. On the arrival of the Orange- 
men in the townlanil, it was found that 
most of the inhabitants were gathered near 
the roadside, whether for mutual protection 
or for active resistance to the Orange march 
in that direction, did not clearly appear; 
but the latter motive was unlikely, as the 

* The usual Orange style is thus described by one 

who knew the North of Ireland well: "In bo 

districts of tbat country, Protestants are the majority 
of the people: the oM policy of the "government 11 
has been to arm the Protestants and disarm the < lath- 
olirs. The magistrates at all sessions are Orange- 
men or high British loyalists. In those districts, 
therefore, Catholics lead tie- lives of dogs lie down 
in fear and rise up with foreboding; their worship 
is insulted, and their very funerals are made an occas- 
ion of riot. One of the July anniversaries comes 
round— the days >A' Aughrim and the Hovne ; the 
pious Evangelicals must eelebrate those disastrous 
bin hard fought battles where William of Nassau. 
with his army ol French Huguenots, Danes, and 
Dutchmen, overthrew the power of Inland, and 
made the noble old (Yltie raee hewers of wood and 
drawers of water even unto this day Lodges as. 
l >t» I scmblc at some central point, with drums and tiles 

playing the " Protestant boys." At the rendezvous 
the Grand Masters, with their sashes and aprons 
— a beautiful show Procession formed, they walk 
in Lodges, each i\ iih its banner of orange or purple, 
and garlands of orange lilies borne high on poles. 

Most have arms, y nanry-rauskets or pistols, or 

ancient swords, whetted for the occasion. They ar- 
rive at some other town or village, dine in the pub- 
Ho-houseS, drink the " glorious, pious and Immortal 
memory of King William," and "To Hell with the 
Pope;" re-lorui their procession after dinner, and 




Catholics were quite unarmed, save with a 
few scythes and hayforks. An immediate 
collision took place, of course. The chief 
of police led his men at once into the scene 
of disorder, ascertaining to his own .satis- 
faction, us usual, that the Catholics were 
solely to blame, and were the atrocious 
aggressors, he directed all the efforts of his 
force against them. In short, by the joint 
Operations of the armed Orangemen and 
the armed police, the unarmed Papists were 
victoriously defeated ; several corpses were 
left upon the held, and most of the houses 
were burned or wrecked. 

Such was the day of Dolly's Brae. A 
lawyer was sent down from Dublin as a 
" Commissioner," on the usual pretence of 
examining into the fads, and collecting the 
evidence ; and it appears that his report 
was not so grossly partial as had been ex- 
pected ; for Lord Clarendon could not 
avoid the plain necessity of dismissing from 
the Commission of the Peace both Lord 
Roden and Beers. It was on this report 
that the debate arose in Parliament, and 
many severe judgments were expressed of tfle 
conduct of the Irish Government in en- 
couraging and arming such a banditti as the 
Orangemen. Lord Clarendon, who attend- 
ed in his place in the House of Peers upon 

then comes the time for Protestant action. They 
march through a Papist townland: at every house 
they stop, and play "Croppies lie down!" and the 
Boyne Water, tiring a few shoU over the house at 
the same time, 'flu; doors are shut — the family in 
terror the father standing on the floor with knitted 
brows and teeth olenched through the nether lip, 
grasping a pitchfork, (for the police long since found 
out and took away his gun.) Bitter memories of the 
trials of ages darken his soul — Outside, with taunt- 
ing inusie. and brutal jests and laughter, stand in 
their ranks the Protestant communicants. The old 
grandmother can endure no longer : she rushes out 
with gray hair streaming, and kneels on the road he- 
tore them, she clasps her old thin bands, and curses 
them in the name of Cod anil his Holy Mother. 
Loud laughs are The answer, and a shot or two over 
the house, or in through the window. The old crono 
in frantic ex.ispi ration takes up a stone and hulls it 
with feeble hand against the insulting crew There; 
the first assault is committed; everything is lawful 
now : smash go the unglazed windows and their 
frames; zealous Protestants rush into the house rag- 
ing; the man is shot down at his own threshold ; tho 
cabin is wrecked ; and the procession, playing 
" Croppies lie down !" proceeds to another Popish 
den. 

"So the Reformation is vindicated. Tho namei 
of Ikillyvarley and Tullyorier will rise to the lips of 
many a man who reads this description." 



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this occasion, defended his proceedings as 
he best could ; and in particular, lie most 
emphatically denied that in 1848 he had 
furnished arms to Orange Lodges. He 
said that, in fact, a certain Captain 
Kennedy (at the time of the debate serving 
in India,) had given money out of his own 
pocket to provide arms for Lodges ; but 
he, Lord Clarendon, was quite innocent 
of any such proceedings. It is scarcely 
necessary to say that nobody believed his 
lordship. What had been charged was, that 
not money, but arms, had been sent from 
Dublin Castle to Belfast lor distribution 
amongst Orangemen ; and, besides, if the 
money given by Captain Kennedy came, in 
fact, out of the Secret Service fund, Lord 
Clarendon, as the distributor of that fund 
in Ireland, would have felt it his right and 
his duty to deny the fact when charged. 
It is an official necessity ; because, other- 
wise, there would be nothing secret nor 
sacred in Secret Service money. 

It only remains to be mentioned, that 
no person was ever brought to justice 
for the predetermined massacre of Dolly's 
Brae. 

At this point — the middle of the current 
century — the present history closes. It 
leaves in full operation the whole system of 
British rule in Ireland. Every department 
of Irish life was brought under complete 
subordination to English interests ; and the 
arrangements seemed to be perfect for pre- 
venting national aspirations or national in- 
terests in Ireland from ever again becoming 
a disturbing element in the course of im- 
perial policy. The Celtic population was 
securely put in the way of steady diminu- 
tion.* The famine was past ; and the 
people were continually called on by the 
smooth-spoken Viceroy, to rejoice in the re- 
turn of prosperity ; yet there was still a 
multitudinous rush to the sea, in order to 
escape from such prosperity. The emigra- 
tion from Ireland, in 1851, amounted to 
two hundred and fifty-seven thousand three 
hundred and seventy-two. The number of 
paupers relieved iu the poor houses in 1850, 
was eight hundred and five thousand seven 
hundred and two, without counting nearly 

* It 19 now, (18C8,) considerably under six mil- 
lions. 



four hundred thousand who were receiving 
"out-door relief." No attempt had been 
made to secure to the tenant by just laws 
any right whatsoever in the improvements 
he might make on his farm. Extermination 
of peasantry was not only the practice but 
the fashion ; and ruthless consolidation of 
farms had come to be thought the criterion 
of high intelligence, and even philanthropy 
in an Irish proprietor ; because it proved 
that he had studied the " Devon Commis- 
sion " report, and appreciated the conclu- 
sions of the Commissioners. 

In the same year, 1850, the Government 
was holding iu its own hands, by means of 
the Savings Banks, the earnings and sav- 
ings of poor Irish people to the amount of 
£1,21)1,798 ; so that every industrious ar- 
tizan and careful maid-servant who had 
made a deposit, was directly interested to 
the amount of such a deposit, in maintain- 
ing what is called " the peace of the coun- 
try," that is to say, submitting implicitly to 
the British system, and influencing others to 
submit. 

The Established Church and the police 
were flourishing ; the Orangemen were as 
insolent and ferocious as they had ever 
been ; and the Coercion act (for suppression 
of " Crime and Outrage,") was always 
ready in the Castle, to be launched at 
a moment's warning against any barony or 
county in the land. Yet the truth is, that 
Ireland was at that time remarkably free 
from crimes and outrages, (except those 
perpetrated against her people,) and it is in- 
structive to remark, that crimes and out- 
rages were at the same time steadily on the 
increase in England and Scotland. A 
speech in Parliament of Lord John Russell, 
contains a wonderful revelation upon this 
point.')" His lordship stated, that iu one 
year, (1857,) the convictions in Great I5iit- 
aiu were — for "shooting, stabbing, and 
wounding,", two hundred and eight ; for 
highway robbery, three hundred anil seven- 
ty-eight ; for burglary and housebreaking, 
one thousand and thirty-four ; for forgery, 
one hundred and eighty-four ; a catalogue 
which could by no means be matched in 
Ireland. However, those English and 

t Tt in cited by Sir Archibald Alison, in Chapter 56 
of his History. 



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HISTORY OF IRELAND. 



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Scotch crimes and outrages were not done 
assertion of public right, or resistance of 
public, wrong ; that is to say, they were 
real crimes and outrages ; they did not 
alarm the higher classes ; and had seldom 
any social, political, or religious character. 
Therefore, it never entered into the mind of 
Government or Parliament to apply their 
" Crime and Outrage act " to England or 
Scotland. In other words, the series of 
CCercion laws for Ireland have always been 
proposed and passed under a false pretence ; 
they are not to prevent crime, but to keep 
the people forever helpless in the hands of 
their mortal enemies. They are not mea- 
sures for reformation of society, but engines 
and arms for perpetuation of British rule in 
Ireland. 

While our count ry was so rapidly sinking 
to beggary, and diminishing in population, 
it may be useful to cast a glance at the 
progress Of the other island. This cannot 
be done better than by quoting a passage 
from Alison, {chop. 5(5,) in which he gives a 
general view of English affairs during a 
period of four years: "From 18-18," he 
says, "to 1853, the effects of free-trade were 
displayed, undisturbed by any other or 
counteracting influences. Plenty had again 
returned, and spread its sunshine over the 
land. The harvest of 184 7 had been so 
favorable, that at Lord John Russell's sug- 
gestion, a public thanksgiving was offered 
np for it ;* and this blessing continued un- 
abated in a sensible degree throughout the 
period." The same historian proceeds to 
give statements exhibiting the enormous 
development of English commerce and wealth 
during the same period of four years, by 
reason of the gold discoveries in California 
and in Australia. But nothing of all that 
prosperity is for Ireland. Having scarcely 
any manufactures, she has no commerce, 
except her fatal commerce with England, 
under that "free-trade" which cheapens all 
which she has to sell, and makes dearer to 
that precise amount everything which she is 
forced to buy. 

It may, therefore, be affirmed that in on 

* The harvest of 1847 was also very abundant in 
Ireland, and it was one of the deadliest years of 
famine. The English offered thanksgivings to God 

for the Irish harvests, and then devoured them. 



about the year 1850, Ireland became thor- 
oughly subjugated, without almost a hope 
of escape. Everything was fatted to the 
hand of her enemy, and that enemy made 
most unrelenting use of the advantage. 

The Catholic bishops counseled obedience 
and submission ; the formidable kind of 
"agitation" devised by O'Connell had be- 
come altogether impossible : because in the 
tirst place the very material for it, (the 
"surplus population,") had been swept off 
the face of the earth, and besides the English 
Government had now so firm a hold of the 
poor, through "Crime and Outrage acts," 
police and poor-laws, that it was more diffi- 
cult than formerly to move the masses 

Parliamentary efforts, or rather pretences 
of effort, were made from time to time, to 
obtain ameliorations of some grievance or 
other. These pretences of effort, if they 
really tended to any good for Ireland, were 
always defeated, or rather indeed, spurned 
by Parliament with disdain and insult, as it 
was always known they would be : and the 
total result of those Parliamentary move- 
ments may be defined as consisting of a few* 
places distributed to rhetorical patriots. 
Thus, far from the Irish representation in 
Parliament serving as means of asserting 
Irish rights or interests, it helps to rivet the 
chains of our unhappy island, by opening a 
market overt, where patriots may be pur- 
chased, (while still vociferating for justice to 
Ireland,) and so silenced forever. 

Whatever has been effected for the good 
of the Irish people, whether to promote their 
moral and intellectual culture, or even to 
aid them in saving their lives, has been done 
exclusively by themselves. Two wonderful 
examples of this nature must be mentioned: 
first, the establishment of the Catholic Uni- 
versity ; and second, the immense fund which 
has been systematically contributed lor some 
years by Irish people settled in the United 
States to aid their friends in escaping from 
British government. 

It has already been seen, in the course of 
this history, what rigorous means were used 
during the last century to prevent the Cath- 
olic people, under the heaviest penalties, 
from being educated at all ; and how tuo 
extraordinary eagerness for education on 
the part of those people had impelled them 



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to seek iii foreign schools and universities 
the instruction which none dared to give 
them at home ; although there were both 
great risk and enormous expense incurred in 
these efforts to obtain contraband learning. 
it was the true English horror of "French 
principles," about the time of the great 
French Revolution, which caused the penal 
laws against education to be relaxed ; but 
no measures were taken by the enemy's 
government to supply the place of that con- 
tinental education for many years after, and 
when at last the "National Schools" were 
established, atid, later still, when the three 
" Queen's Colleges" were built and endow- 
ed, it was found that the National Schools 
were so constituted as to be extremely un- 
natioiial, or anti-national ; and that the 
Queen's Colleges were still more adroitly 
arranged to wean Catholic students both 
from national sentiment, and from the faith 
and morals of their church. Such, at least, 
was the judgment of the majority of the 
Irish bishops and clergy ; and when we 
reflect upon the two chairs of history and 
moral philosophy, which must exist in every 
university, and on the effect of training up 
Catholic youth in the British principles upon 
these subjects, and causing them to regard 
human life and history from a strictly British 
point of view, it cannot be matter of wonder 
if the Catholic hierarchy lifted its voice 
against the new plans of education imposed 
on us by a London Parliament, h) short, 
there was a. necessity to provide some other 
and better system for the collegiate educa- 
tion of Catholic youth, ami therefore, in the 
year lsfit, pursuant to a recommendation 
coming from Rome, the Irish bishops form- 
ally instituted a free Catholic University, 
destined, like the Church (whose offspring it 
was,) to subsist only upon the charity of 
the faithful, and to be completely independ- 
ent of the State. Yet all this while the 
wealthy I'roicstaut Corporation of Trinity 
College was maintained in splendor by 
estates plundered from Catholic monasteries, 
and the "Queen's Colleges" were kept up 
at, the public cost, to which the Catholics, 
as tax-payers, of course had to contribute 
their full share. There was nothing, in- 
deed, new in all this: they had been long 
used to maintain schools and churches for 




NATIONAL SCnOOT.S 



others, and to find the means of providing 
for their own religious services, and instruc- 
tion also, as best they could. 

The Hoard of the Catholic University of 
Dublin consists of the four archbishops, and 
two other prelates for each province. The 
institution comprises five faculties : those ot 
theology, law, medicine, belles-lettres, and 
science. Its government is carried on by a 
committee of archbishops and bishops, meet- 
ing once a year. The immediate and ordi- 
nary administration is conducted by the 
" Senate " of the university, consisting of 
the rector and vice-rector, the secretary, the. 
professors, the superiors of certain institu- 
tions dependent on the University, and the 
Fellows.* A yearly collection, made in 
every diocese, provides for the expenses of 
the foundation. The spirit and zeal with 
which this great national enterprise has been 
sustained, form an admirable, illustration of 
the unselfish devotedness of the Irish people 
to an object which they believe to be good, 
or in other words, anti-English. In the year 
1859, they had already bestowed freely — 
and given their blessing along with it — the 
considerable sum of jES%0,00() sterling, for 
promotion of this noble object ; and every 
year, even in the poorest chapels among the 
mountains of remote parishes, the appeal of 
the parish priest in favor of an institution 
blessed by the Pope and the bishops, brings 
forth an offering even from the poorest. 

All this great work has been done, it is 
true, in contravention of the views and 
policy of the British Government, not only 
without its help, lint under the frown of its 
displeasure. The Catholic University has 
no charter of incorporation, ami no legal 
right to confer degrees in arts or laws. h\ 
the eyes of the Government, it is but 
a private association, tolerated but not 
recognized, as indeed the Catholic Church 
itself is. 

Another strange and admirable example 
of the generous zealot' the Irish people in 
resisting the utter destruction of their race, 
is seen in the regular and systemized aid 
furnished by Irish citizens of the United 

* Kules and Regulations. § 7. The institutions 
dependent on the Catholic University arc those of 
St. Patrick, St. Lawrence, (Ilarcourt street,) Carmel 
anil Corpus Christi. 



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States, to assist their friends and relatives 
in withdrawing themselves from the domi- 
nation of England, and establishing them- 
selves in a free country. The emigration of 
what is called the " surplus population " of 
Ireland, has been aided and furthered in 
several ways. The landed-proprietors, with 
a view to facilitate the consolidation of 
farms, and also to reduce the burden of 
poor-rates in their respective " unions,'' have 
largely contributed to help the emigration 
of the poor people whom they themselves 
exterminate ; but this is a matter of private 
arrangement, and no data exist for even 
approximating to the amount, supplied from 
this source. In 1848 the Poor-Law Unions 
were invited by the Government to cooper- 
ate in the movement of deportation, in order 
to furnish a gratuitous passage to such poor 
persons as had no other resource- than ex- 
patriation. But this was to be at the 
expense of the Irish rate-payers, and was, 
moreover, to be in strict accordance with 
the views of the British Government itself. 
The emigration, thus promoted, was, there- 
fore, to be almost entirely to the British 
Colonies, especially Australia. From 1841 
to- 1859 inclusive, the unions contributed 
about £100,000 to the cost of emigration, 
removing from Ireland about 25,000 persons. 
But this was a trifle : the great rush of 
emigrants was to the United States, and the 
cost of the immense exodus was mainly 
provided for by the savings of Irish citizens 
already settled in that Republic. 

The Colonial Land and Emigration Com- 
missioners, in their twelfth report, state that 
they do not believe that "The emigration 
will be arrested by anything short of a great 
improvement in the position of the laboring 
population in Ireland; all those obstacles 
which in ordinary cases would be opposed 
to so wholesale an emigration, appear in the 
case of the Irish to be smoothed away. The 
misery which they have for many years en- 
dured, has destroyed the attachment to their 
native soil, the numbers who have already 
emigrated and prospered, remove the appre- 
hension of going to a strange and untried 
country, while the want of means is rem- 
edied by the liberal contributions of their 
relutions and friends who have preceded 
them. The contributions so made, either in 



the form of prepaid passages, or of money 
sent home, and which nre almost exclusively 
provided by the Irish, were returned to us, 
as in 

1818, upwards of. £460,000 

1849, " 540,000 

1850, " 957,000 

1851, " 990,000 

And although it is probable that all the 
money included in these returns is not ex- 
pended in emigration, yet as we have reason 
to know that much is sent home of which 
these returns show no trace, it seems not 
unfair to assume that of the money expend- 
ed in Irish emigration in each of the last 
four years, a very large proportion was pro- 
vided from the other side of the Atlantic." 

The Abbe Perraud, in his Eludes sur V 
Iiliinde Contcmporaine, says : " From the 
returns furnished by American bankers, the 
Emigration Commissioners give the precise 
amount of those remittances of money ; but 
for North America only. The total for 
thirteen years, (1848-61,) is £11,674,596 
sterling. These statistics apply, indeed, to 
the emigrants from the three kingdoms; 
but as the Irish are in the immense majority, . 
so it is the Irish who remit the far larget 
proportion of the money." It must be add- 
ed, that the reports made up by American 
bankers, can represent only a portion of the 
remittances from Irish citizens to their 
friends at home, because much money ia 
sent through other channels, which cannot 
enter into those returns. Ou the whole, 
however, it is evident that the strong natural 
affection of the Irish for their parents and 
relatives, and their constant and ardent de- 
sire to deliver them from an odious bondage, 
have in this instance materially served the 
policy of the British Government, which is, 
to get rid of the Celtic enemy by any and 
by all means. 

And, for the present, the policy of that 
Government seems to be eminently success- 
ful. The Celtic Irish in Ireland have greatly 
diminished in numbers, and are still diminish- 
ing. Yet there is another aspect of this 
affair : a vast mass of Irish power and Irish 
passion has been gathering and growing in 
the United States, all of it cherishing a 
mortal hatred of the British Empire, and a 
fierce thirst of vengeance on their enemies, 
as well as a loving and generous desire to 



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CONCLUSION, 



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emancipate their native country from the 
bitter thraldom of so many ages. From 
the Celtic Irish on the American continent, 
arises one universal cry of execration againsl 
English dominion and English ideas. With 
independent means, a fair career for industry, 
and an increased and still increasing acquaint- 
ance with the story of their native country, 
there has grown up in their hearts an intense 
desire to right the wrongs of centuries, to 
lift up their kinsfolk and ancient clansmen 
out of the abject misery in which British 
policy requires them to be kept, and to See 
their countrymen in fair and full possession 
of the lovely land where Providence has 
placed them. This is a dangerous matter 
for the British Empire. 

For the present, indeed, it may seem, that 
by the operation of all the well-devised ar- 
rangements for getting rid of the Irish 
people, what used to be called the " Irish 
Difficulty" has become more manageable; 
the " Irish Enemy," if not wholly destroyed, 
is at least disarmed and bound. No way of 
redress is left open except a violent revolu- 
tion ; and for this the people of Ireland and 
their kinsmen in America only await the 
opportunity of a war which shall tax the 
strength of their enemy. 

A tabular summary of the financial con- 
dition of the country, (as furnished by her 
enemy,) up to the year 1852, may fitly 
close this story. It is to be observed upon 
these official returns, that we have no means 
of checking them, because our books are 
kept in England. Yet one or two remarks 
are obvious : — 

Most Irishmen are of opinion that they 
do not receive value for the charge on ac- 
count of "Army, Navy, and Ordnance;" 
believing, in fact, that the money would be 
much better spent in destroying those British 
services [Tabular Summary, see next page.] 



CONCLUSION. 






The compiler of this continuation of the 
Abbe MacGeoghegan's History of Ireland, 
purposely stops short of the most recent 
events which have agitated that country, 
and disquieted and exasperated England 
The time for relating the history of those 
events has not yet arrived. It may be said, 
however, that a powerful illustration has 
been thereby given to the fact, that while 
England is at peace with other powerful 
nations, it is extremely difficult, if not im- 
possible, to make so much as a serious 
attempt at a national insurrection, in the 
face of a government so vigilant and so 
well prepared. 

The high patriotic enthusiasm that im- 
pelled many brave Irishmen in America to 
fly across the Atlantic and devote to the 
rescue of their country that art of war 
which they had learned chiefly to that end, 
their experience in training men, the gal- 
lantry of the peasants, their extensive secret 
organizations — all seemed to break and dis- 
solve away in the very hour of highest hope 
and resolve. All honor be to the men who 
made the daring effort, and staked their 
lives upon it. Whatever judgment may be 
formed of others, they, at least, " stood the 
cast their rashness played," and the best of 
them are expiating in dungeons the crime 
of loving their country and striving to 
serve her — just as Irishmen have generally- 
expiated that offence for many ages. Yet 
no cause is utterly lost so long as it can 
inspire heroic devotion. No country is hope- 
lessly vanquished whose sons love her belter 
than their lives. 



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Account of the Income and Expenditure 
to 1852, inclusive; showing the whole 
together with the application thereof. 
1^0; No. 477, 1851 ; No. 6U4, 1852.] 



of Ireland, in the Years ending 6th January, from 1817 
of the Ways and Means provided within the same period. 
— [House of Commons Papers, No. 528, 1849; No. liUO, 



EXPENDITURE. 

Dividends, Interest, and Management of Public 

Funded Deb', payable in Ireland, 
Other Payments out of the Consolidated Fund, 

Total Payments out of the Consolidated Fund, 

Payments on account of Grants of Parliaments, viz. : 

Other Payments : — 

Money Advanced out of the Consolidated Fund for 

Total Expenditure, 

Application of the Ways and Means provided :— 
Applied to the Redemption of Exchequer Bills, per 

Act 57, Geo. III. .cup. 48 (Deficiency Bills,). 
Sums remitted through the Excise in Ireland, to 

Money remaining in the Exchequer at the end of 
Total 


Net Payments into the Exchequer of the following 
several Duties or Revenues, viz. : — 

Poundage Fee, Pells Fee, Treasury Fees, Hospital 

Total Ordinary Revenue 
Moneys remaining in the Exchequer at the corn- 
Other Receipts : — 

Repayment of Money Advanced for Public Works 

and other Public objects, ..... 

Moneys Repaid by Public Accountants, and other 


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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



FLORENCE O'MAOLCONAIRE, OR CONROY. 

Archbishop of Tnam, Founder of the Irish College, 
Li'uvain, Author of "Compendium of the Works of Saint 
Augustine," " Christian Instruction," "Peregrinus Jeri- 
couthus," &o., &C. 



Florence Coxroy was a native of Gal way — 
it is tlus country of his family. They were in 
Connaught, in earlier days, the crowners of the 
Provincial Kings and bestowers of the white 
wand of dominion. But the office had become 
one of title merely, without duties or emolu- 
ments, and the young members of the crowning 
house were now destined either for the Church 
at home, or for some stranger's service abroad. 
The lot of Florence was cast in the former field 
of duty. 

At au early age he was sent abroad for the 
completion of his studies. His education was 
partly derived from a college in the Nether 
lands, and afterwards from some Spanish semi- 
nary. Before he had ever published, he seems 
to have enjoyed a general reputation for learning, 
and was held to be the best student of Saint 
Augustine's works, then in Europe. Although 
lie entered the Franciscan Observantine Order, 
he did not abandon that favorite author, to whom, 
as his life wore on, he appears to have grown 
attached more and more. 

The question of the Immaculate Conception 
formed at the close of the sixteenth century the 
leading controversy with the Schoolmen. The 
Dominicans and Jesuits were opposed in the 
matter. The debated point was, whether the 
Virgin Mother was conceived without sin, and 
if so, whether this was a received Doctrine of 
the Church of Rome. The Franciscan Order 
contended that it was and should be so. In 
Spain, the affirmative was argui-d with great 
fervor in many publications. It was in that 
country a dispute of old standing. Its char- 
acter, of course, reached Conroy, who at once 
turned for aid to his great authority, Augustine. 
Out of that Doctor's works he drew such reasons 
in its affirmation, as greatly enhanced his own 
fame, and procured him the acquaintance of 
Philip the Second, then fitting out his grand 
Armada against Elizabeth and England. Soon 
alter his introduction at Court he was appointed 
'• Provincial " of the Franciscans in Ireland, and 
prepared to return to his country, at the request 
of the Spanish King, with the royal fleet. 

In 15SS, that tremendous navy lumbered out 
to sea, steering towards the North. In which 
ship our ecclesiastic came we cannot ascertain. 
How he fared in the destruction of the Armada, 
is not apparent ; whether his ship bore him like 
a late to his native shore, or cast him upon the 
less friendly one of the Scots, we cannot decide ; 
but we find him hack again in Spain, in 1593. 
In this year he translated from Spanish into Irish, 



a short work of a religious character, which he 
calls "A Christian Instruction."* 

Conroy continued to reside in the Peninsula, 
ever planning with a loving heart some good for 
Ireland. 

In 1002, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Prince of Tyr- 
connell arrived at Corunna, to seek an interview 
with King Philip to the end that one last grand 
rally should be made for Ireland. He saw the 
king at Zamora, and then retired to Simancas to 
await the lilting out of a new Armada.t Here he 
was attended by Conroy who seems to have acted 
as his chaplain from the date of his arrival in 
Spain until his death. 

In ]li0!)-10, Maolmuire OTIiggin, brother to 
the famed Munster bard of that name, then Arch- 
bishop of Tuam, returning from a visit to Rome 
through the Netherlands, died at Antwerp. To 
the vacant Arcbiepiscopacy, the Propaganda and 
Pope appointed Conroy, with equal wisdom and 
propriety. 

He was one of the first, if not the very first, to 
start the project of au " Irish College " on the 
Continent. His influence with King Philip was 
all exerted for the accomplishment of this scheme, 
and he met with full Bticcess. It was arranged 
that Louvain should be the site of the building, 
and the patron St. Anthony of Padua. In the 
year of grace 1616, the corner stone was laid by 
the Archduke Albert, Governor of the Spanish 
Netherlands, anil his Princess, the Infanta Isabella, 
daughter of Philip the Second. 

The establishment and discipline of the new 
college did not solely occupy the mind of its 
founder. He in common with the Irish then in 
Spain fondly entertained the hope of a Spanish 
alliance, which would restore Catholicism and 
Nationality together. A correspondence between 
them and Aodh O'Neil and his fellow exiles in 
Rome, did but increase their anxiety and industry. 
But still some event or other occured to frustrate 
their plans. In 1618, Conroy presented to the 
Council of Spain, Philip O 'Sullivan Beare'a " Re- 
lation of Ireland and the numbers of Irish therein," 
and in the following year his own '■ statement of 
the severities practiced by Euglaud against the 
Irish Catholics." 

Towards the close of his days he returned to 
Madrid, and took up his abode in one of the 
Franciscan convents of that capital. There he 
remained until the 18th of November, 1629, when 
full of services and of sanctity he breathed his 
last. In 1604 the faculty of the Louvain College 
had his remains transferred from Madrid to their 
Collegiate Chapel, where, under a marble monu- 
ment, with a fitting inscription in Latin, they 
repose, at the Gospel side of the high altar. 

•O'Reilly, in hie Irish Writers, calls it a " Mirror of 
Christian Life," and mentions it as published at Louviau 
in 1626 ; but it is called as in the text in the MS. copy, in 
the Itoyal Irish Academy. 



t ilitchers "Aodh O'Neill,' 



*M 



YC^ 



>'' . 




BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 








FATHER LUKE WADDING. 

Author of "Scriptures Ordinum Mlnornm," "Annals 
of the Friars Minor," and Founder of St Isidore's Col- 
lege Kome. 

Father Like Waddrto whs a native of the city 
of VVaterford. He was born on the sth of Octo- 
ber, 1688. His lather was a merchant in wealthy 
circumstances ; his mother, sister to Peter Lom- 
bard. I lie Catholic Primate of Ireland. An elder 
brother, Matthew, superintended liis preliminary 
studies, until lie was of an a^c to be sent abroad 
for their completion. In 1603, he was placed 
under the tuition of the Irish .Jesuits in Lisbon. 
lie graduated, finally, under the tool's of the ven- 
erable Coimbria. 

In his seventeenth year lie commenced a Jovi- 
tiate. according to the rules of the Friars Minor 
nl St. Francis, ami at twenty-live was ordained by 
John Emanuel, bishop >>f Visco. 

As a priest, the first held of his labors was the 
convent church of l.iria," in whose pulpit lie 
preached with great success, " in the language of 
the country." From Lit-ia, be was called by the 
University of Salamanca, famous all over Europe 
for its learning and munificence, where he was 
successively installed as Master of the Students, 
and as Professor of Divinity. Here the contro- 
versy of the ■■ Immaculate Conception " was stren- 
uously urged to a determination, and by none 
more so than by Madding. In 1618, Philip the 
Third resolved on feuding a deputation on this 
purpose to Kome. at the head of which, was a' 
Trejo, bishop of Carthagena. Wadding was ap- 
pointed theologian to the embassy, and he set out 
with the rest from Madrid lor the eternal city. 

Arrived in Home, the deputation took tip its 
abode in the palace of Cardinal a" Trejo, brother 
to the bishop. The latter, after various inter- 
views with the college of cardinals, effected his 
purpose, and all. l m t Wadding, returned rejoic- 
ingly io Spain. He bad resolved to remain in 
Rome. Here was to him a whole world o! labor, 
and in tin- centre of Christendom, where the 
Chiefs ol the church had their home. Here, in 
innumerable archives, were mouldering manu- 
scripts, passing daily into dust, and thus dissolving 
the labors of many a laborious brain. It would, 
indeed, lie a shame if. while Florence and all Italy 
were raging, iii their Hellenic fever, ot Plato, anil 
Aristotle, and Sophocles, the pious writings of 
Christian saints and fathers, with which the city 
abounded, should know no revival, lie beheld 
herein a great literary province stretched out 
before him. but one totally untrodden and unused 
by man. He, therefore, resolved not to return to 
Salamanca. 

fhe success of the mission of the Immaculate 
Conception had made his name extensively known 
in Catholic countries. From various religious 
bodies in Italy and Spain he received letters of 
thanks for hi.s great exertions, and full of admi- 
ration at his learning. 

Angelo de 1'az. a deceased brother of St. Peter's 
convent, had left behind him several tracts of 
value and learning, which Wadding collected and 
published in successive volumes in the years 1621, 
'2% and '25 successively. In lti'Jit. he also pub- 
lished an edition of the works of St. Francis, the 

* This ancient city is in the heart of the classic ground 
of Portugal. Above it frowna the castle of King Dinis 
" the fai mer, " and a lew hours journey on the one hand, 
conducts io tlie ancient moriastetieB of Bathalla and Aloo- 

hd. .1, and on the other to the University . . t c , nubia. 



founder of his Order, with original annotations. 
In 1624, he edited two separate works on Biblical 
Criticism, which had hitherto lain unknown ; the 
one from the pen of St. Anthony of Lisbon, the 
other composed by an anonymous Irish Franciscan, 
styled Thomas Hibernicus. 

Wadding's industry now took an historical di- 
rection, lie resolved on writing the Annals of 
his wide-spread Order, from its institution to his 
own time. It proposed to inweave the records ot 
its thousands of saints and doctors, its missionaries 
and authors. The design was gigantic, but the 
giant's load is light to the giant's arm. Yet he 
took twenty-six years to tiring out his eight tomes 
of the •• Annals ''—from 1628 to 1651. 

In 1637, he published a "Life of Thoinasius. 
Patriarch of Alexandria," and in 1611. that ot St. 
.lames of I'icenium. In 1660, he wrote the life of 
the Franciscan Gaullousis. and, in 1(137, "A Me- 
moir of Ansel m, Bishop ol Lucca." 

In 1625, when but seven years in Rome, he 
founded on the ruins of a Spanish convent dedi- 
cated to St. Isidore, patron of Madrid, the Irish 
college, which bore and bears the same name. In 
1628, he sueeeeded in inducing Cardinal Loudo- 

visiu- to establish a si lar Irish college. In 1630 

he was elected Procurator of the Franciscans at 
Rome, and in 1645, he was Vice-Commissary ol 
his ( Irder. 

The news of the Irish rising of Hill had no 
sooner reached Wadding than lie exerted himself 
to procure foreign co-operation for the confeder- 
ates. The •• confederate Catholics " aware of his 
anxiety lor their success, appointed him in 1642 
their agent at Kome, at the same time formally 
thanking him for his "past zeal and services* 
Soon after, when Urban VIII., id' the family ot 
Barberini, was raised to the Papacy, his influence 
still increased, ami he obtained the appointment, 
or caused it to be rendered operative, of Nicholas 
Kinnuneinni, Archbishop of Fermo, as Nuncio to 

Ireland. 

The mission of Rinnuncinni failed. While be 
was in Ireland, the sword of Aodh O'Neil came 
into the posse — ion of Father Wadding ; he trans- 
mitted it by the Dean of Fermo to the Nuncio, 
who presented it to Owen Roe O'Neal. 

In 11145, the conledcrates sent Mr. Richard Eel- 
ling, as their ambassador to Kome, to congratulate 
Urban on his elevation to the Papacy, In '46 the 
confederates petitioned his Holiness that he might 
raise him to the dignity of Cardinal. 

Alter the return of the luckless Nuncio to Italy, 
the connection between Ireland mid Kome ceased 
to be official, and Wadding's duties as Irish agent 
became less numerous and pressing. The inter- 
vals of his leisure ho again turned to literary 
account. 

lu his declining years he became for a second 

lime president of St. Isidore's College. Here lie 
had gathered about him Irish professors whose 
names are distinguished in the church literature 
of their age. In 1650, he was seized with an 
illness, from the debilitating effect Of which his 

constitution did not n ot. He lived on for 

seven years more. Buffering in body, yet active 
and industrious in mind. On the 18 th of October, 
1657, he was relieved by death. His funeral w is 
solemnly celebrated : hi- grave is in St. Isidore's, 
and over it a tomb, raised to his memory by a 
noble Roman, who was his friend through life- 
Hercules Rocconii. It bears a brief inscription 
in Latin. 










, . . 





r.^< ,-. J A ■'■ '.n 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



1 er 



OLIVER PLUNKETT, ARCHBISHOP OF 
ARMAGH. 

He was born early in the century of the noble 
house of Fingall. His Btudies were completed at 
the Irish College in Home, from whence he was 
selected, in 1657, as one of the divines of the 
Congregation de Propaganda Fide. On the death 
of Primate O'Keilly, often before mentioned in 
these pages, he was nominated by Pope Clement 
IX. Archbishop of Armagh, the ninety-fourth in 
succession from Saint Patrick. This was in the 
year 1669, while he still was doctor of divinity to 
the Congregation lor the Propagation of the Faith. 

He upheld with firmness, and asserted with 
tempered strength, the pre-eminence of his see 
over all others in Ireland. Not only in the BynodE 
of the clergy but in private life he bore himsell 
as became the successor of Saint Patrick. The 
only work of which he was the author is written 
to the same effect. During the incumbency of his 
Becond removed successor the question was de- 
cided for Armagh, and no rival claim has been 
since revived. 

Doctor Plunkett, beside his acquirements as a 
divine, was also somewhat of a verse-maker. 
There still exists an Irish address or ode written 
by him on the altered fortunes of the royal hill 
of Tara. 

The most instructive and glorious part of Plun- 
kett's life is the manner with which he met an 
unjust and ignominious death. The story of his 
persecutions and his fortitude is, perhaps, the 
most touching and noble that can be told of a 
Christian bishop. 

In December, 1G79, he was arrested and com- 
mitted to Newgate, Dublin. Informations were 
sworn against him by two condemned Friars, 
named Mac Moyar and Duffy; but after they had 
so sworn, they suddenly left the kingdom and 
went over to London, preferring to prosecute 
there. The English Court of King's Bench re- 
ceived their testimony, and Plunkett, in October. 
1680, after Buffering ten months' incarceration, 
was removed to England. After being held seven 
months more in prison, he was, on the 3rd of 
May, 1681, arraigned at the bar of King's Bench, 
bolore the Lord Chief Justice. He then put in 
the plea that he had no notice of his arraignment ; 
that he had been kept close prisoner since Octo- 




ber, and had neither time nor liberty allowed him 
to send into Ireland for witness of his innocence. 
Thereon five weeks' time were allowed him to col- 
lect his witnesses, and on the 8th of June, 1U81, 
he was again summoned to the bar. In the mean- 
while, his messengers, in crossing the channel, 
had been put back by storm to Holyhead, and had 
not time afterwards to gather the scattered parties 
necessary to disprove so extensive an indictment, 
lie asked ten days more, but that was peremp- 
torily denied him. The Chief Justice told him his 
case must go on. aud could not again be post- 
poned. 

The jury were then sworn in, Sir John Roberts 
being foreman. 

The indictment was read, and the counsel for 
the prosecution spoke in succession. These were, 
Mr. Heath, Mr. Sergeant Maynard, Mr. Sergeant 
Jeffries, the Solicitor-General, and the Attorney- 
General. Then were called the witnesses for the 
crown : Wyer, Henry O'Neil, Edmotid O'Murfey, 
and Friars Duffy and Mac Moyar. The sole wit- 
ness that was present in Plunkett's favor was an 
unexpected one. His name is given as Gormar. 
He was a crown agent for procuring convictions, 
yet ''a stranger" introduced him, at his own re- 
quest, just as the trial was about to close. He 
admitted his occupation, but swore that in his 
opinion the primate " had always done more good 
than ill in Ireland." Sergeant Jeffries, in an un- 
merciful tirade, closed the prosecution, when the 
jury retired " for a quarter of an hour," and re- 
tured with a. verdict of •' Gctilty." It was then 
the accused was heard in his own behalf. When 
Sir John Roberts pronounced his doom from the 
jury box, he merely exclaimed — i; Deo gratias. 
God be praised." When asked if he had any rea- 
son to offer why the sentence should not be 
pronounced, he briefly recapitulated the argu- 
ments urged by him at the outset, and again 
asked for ten days' time. The Chief Justice then 
sentenced him to be hung, embowelled, and quar- 
tered on Friday, the 1st day of the succeeding 
month, (July,) at Tyburn. 

On the appointed day of execution, Plunkett 
was carried on a hurdle to Tyburn. " A good, 
religious, quiet man." says Harris. " He suf- 
fered very decently," says Bigot Burnet, " ex- 
pressing himself in many respects like a Christian 
bishop." 



£^ 




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D>, 




V 



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APPENDIX No. 



THE ARTICLES OP UNION. 



t-m 



RESOLVED, I. That in order to promote and se- 
cure 1 tie essential interests of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and consolidate the strength, power, and 
resources of the British Empire, it will be advis- 
able to concur in such measures as may best tend 
to unite the two kingdoms of Great Britain and 
Inland into one kingdom, in such manner, and 
on such terms and conditions as may be estab- 
lished by the acts of the respective Parliaments 
of Great Britain and Ireland. 

lienulced, 2. That for the purpose of establish- 
ing an Union upon the basis stated in the resolu- 
tion of the two Houses of Parliament of Great 
Britain, communicated by His Majesty's command 
in the message sent to this House by his excellen- 
cy the Lord-Lieutenant, it would be fit to propose 
as the first article of Union, that the kingdoms of 
Great Britain and Ireland shall upon the first day 
of January, which shall be in the year of Our 
Lord, one thousand eight hundred and one, and 
forever after, be united in one kingdom, by the 
name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland, and that the royal style and titles 
appertaining to the Imperial Crown of the said 
United Kingdom and its dependencies, and also 
Ihe ensigns, armorial Bags, and banners thereof. 
shall be such as His Majesty by his royal proclam- 
ation, under the Great .Seal of the United King- 
dom shall be pleased to appoint. 

Resolved, 3. That for the same purpose, it 
would be lit to propose, that the succession to 
the Imperial Crown of the said United Kingdom, 
and of the dominions then unto belonging, shall 
continue limited and settled in the same manner, 
as tin- succession to the Imperial Crown of the 
said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now 
stands limited and settled, according to the exist- 
ing laws, and to the terms of the Union between 
England and Scotland. 

Resolved, 4. That for the same purpose, it. 
would be fit to propose, that the said United 
Kingdom be represented in one and the same 
Parliament, to be styled the Parliament of the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 

liesolved, 5. That fur the same purpose, it 
would be lit to propose, that the charge arising 
from the payment of the interest and sinking 
fund, lor the reduction of the principal of the 
debl incurred in either kingdom before the Union, 
shall continue to be separately defrayed by Great 
Britain and Ireland respectively. 

That lor the space of twenty years after the 
Union shall take plaee, the contribution of Great 
Britain and Ireland respectively, towards lie- ex- 
penditure of the United Kingdom in each yeat 
hh ill l>e defrayed in the proportion of fifteen 
parts for Great Britain and two parts lor Ireland, 
that at the expiration of the said twenty years. 
the future expenditure of Ihe United Kingdom, 
other than the interest and charges of the debt to 
which either country shall be separately liable. 




shall be defrayed in such proportion as the said 
United Parliament shall deem just and reason- 
able, upon a comparison of the real value of tilt) 
exports and imports of the respective countries, 
upon an average of the three years next preced- 
ing the period of revision, or on a comparison of 
the value of the quantities of the following arti- 
cles consumed within the respective countries, on 
a similar average, viz., beer, spirits, sugar, wine, 
tea, tobacco, and malt ; or according to the aggre- 
gate proportion resulting from both these consid- 
erations combined, or on a comparison of the 
amount of income in each country, estimated 
from the produce for the same periods of a gen- 
eral tax, if such shall have been imposed on Hie 
same descriptions of income in both countries, 
and that the Parliament of the United Kingdoms 
shall afterwards proceed in like manner, to revise 
and fix Ihe said proportions according to the same 
rules or any of them, at periods not more distant 
than twenty years, nor less than seven years from 
each other, unless previous to any such period 
the United Parliament shall have declared as 
hereinafter provided, that the general expenses of 
the empire shall be defrayed indiscriminately by 
equal taxes, imposed on the like articles in both 
countries. 

Resolved, (!. That for defraying the said ex- 
penses, according to the rules above laid down, 
the revenues of Ireland shall hereafter constitute 
a consolidated fund, upon which charges equal to 
the interest of the debt and sinking fund, shall, 
in the first instance be charged, and the remain- 
der shall be applied towards defraying the pro- 
portion of the general expense of tie: United 
Kingdom, to which Ireland may be liable in each 
year. 

That the proportion of contribution to which 
Great Britain and Ireland will by these articles 
be liable, shall be raised by such taxes in each 
kingdom respectively, as the Parliament of the 
United Kingdom shall from time to time deem lit. 
provided always, that in regulating the taxes in 
each country by which their respective proportion 
shall be levied, no article in Ireland shall be 
liable to !»• taxed to any amount exceeding t hat 
which will be thereafter payable in England on 
the like article.-. 

Resolved, 7. That if at the end of any year, 
any surplus shall accrue from the revenues of 
Ireland, alter defraying the interest, sinking fund. 
and proportioned contribution, and separate 
charges to which the said country is liable, eith- 
er taxes shall be taken oil' the amount of such 
surplus, or the surplus shall be applied by the 
lulled Parliament' to local purposes in Ireland, of 
to make good any deficiency which may arise in 
her revenues in time of peace, or invested by the 
commissioners of tin' national dent of Ireland iu 
the funds, lo accumulate for the benefit of Ire- 
land, at compound interest, iu case of coutribu- 



% 



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PITT 



'?£$, 



9 ff '-. 



AITKNl'TX. 



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Hon in time of war. Pr,>r'ulrd. The surplus so to 
accumulate, shall at bo future period be suffered 
to exceed the sum of five millions. 

Resolved, 8. That all monies hereafter to be 
raised bj loan in peace or war. for the Bervice of 
the United Kingdom by the Parliament thereof, 
shall be considered to be a joint debt, and the 
charges thereof shall In- borne bj the respective 
countries in the proportion of their respective 
contributions. Provided, That if at any time in 
raisin;; the respective contributions hereby fixed 
for each kingdom, the Parliament of the united 
Kingdom shall judge it tit to raise a greater pro- 
portion of such respective contributions in one 
kingdom within the year than in the other, or to 
set apart a greater proportion of sinking fund for 
the liquidation of the whole, or any part of the 
loan raised on account of the one country than 
that raised on account of the other country, then 
Buch pari of the said loan for the liquidation ol 
which different provisions have been made for the 
respective countries, shall lie kept distinct, ami 
shall he borne by each separately, and onlj thai 
part of the saiil loan be deemed joint and cum 
inoii. lor the reduction of which, the respective 
countries shall have made provision in the pro- 
portion ol their respective contributions. 

Resolved, 9. Thai if at any future day, the sep- 
arate debt of each kingdom respectively shall 
have been liquidated, or the values of their re- 
spective debts (estimated according to i he amount 
of the inlet', -st and annuities attending the same, 
of the sinking fund applicable to the reduction 
mil the period within which the whole 
capita! of such debt shall appear to be redeem- 
able by such sinking fund.) shall be to each other. 
in the same proportion with the respective con 
tributions of each kingdom respectively, or where 
the amount by which the vain,' of the larger ol 
such ih'bts shall vary from such pi'oportion, shall 
not exceed one hundredth part of the said value ; 
and it' it shall appear to the United Parliament, 
that the respective circumstances of the two 
countries will thenceforth admit of their contri- 
buting indiscriminately, by equal taxes imposed 

on the Bat u*ticles in each, to the future general 

expense ol the United Kingdom, it shall be com- 
petent to the said United Parliament to declare, 
that all future expense thenceforth to be incurred. 
together with the interest and charges of all joint 
delns contracted previous to such declaration, 
shall be defrayed indiscriminately bj equal taxes 
imposed on the same articles in each country, and 
thenceforth from time to time as circumstances 
in u require to impose and apply such taxes ac 
cordingly, subject only to such particular exemp- 
tions or abatements in Ireland, and that part ol 
Great Britain call d Scotland, aa circumstances 
may appear from time to time to demand, that 
from the period ol Buch declaration, it shall no 
longer be necessary to regulate the contribution 
of the two countries towards the future general 
B, according to any of the rules hcreinbe- 

I pro\ ided. 

Uted, nevertheless. That the interest or 
charges which may remain on account of any 
part lit' the separate debt with which either coun- 
try is chargeable, and which shall not be liquidat- 
ed or consolidated proportionately as above, shall, 
until extinguished, continue to be defrayed by 
Beparate taxes in each country. 

ted LO. That a sum not less than the sum 
which has been granted by the Parliament of lie- 
laud, on the average ol six years, as premiums 




for the internal encouragement of agriculture oi 
manufacture, or for the maintaining institutions 
for pious and charitable purposes, shall be ap- 
plied for the period of twenty years after the Un- 
ion to such local purposes, in such manner as tha 
Parliament of the United Kingdom shall direct. 

Resolved. 11. That from and after the first day 
of January, one thousand eight hundred and one, 
all public revenue arising from the territorial de- 
pendencies of the United Kingdom, shall be ap- 
plied to the general expenditure of the empire, in 
the proportions of the respective contributions of 
tlie tw o countries. 

Resolved, 12. That fur the same purpose it 

would be lit to propose that lords 

spiritual of Ireland, and .... lords tem- 
poral of Ireland, shall be the number to sit and 
rote on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords 
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and 
one hundred commoners (two tor each county of 
Ireland, two lor the city of Cork, one for the Uni- 
versity of Trinity College, and one for each of 
the thirty-one most considerable cities, towns, 
and boroughs,) be tiie number to sit and vote on 
the part ol Ireland, in the House of Commons in 
the Parliament of the United Kingdom. 

Resolved, 13. That such acts aa shall be passed 
in the Parliament of Ireland previous t" the Un- 
ion, to regulate the mode by which the lords spir- 
itual and temporal and the commons to serve in 
the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the 
part of Ireland, shall be summoned ..r returned 
to the said Parliament, shall be considered as 
forming part of the treaty of Union, and shall be 
incorporated in the act ol the respective l'arlia 
incuts, by which the said Union shall be ratified* 
ami established. 

Resolved, 11. That all questions touching the 
election of members to sit on the part of Ireland 
in the House of Commons of the United King- 
dom, shall be heard ami decided in tiie same 
manner a- questions touching such elections in 
tlieat Britain now arc. or at anytime hereafter, 
shall by law be. heard and decided, subject never- 
theless, to such particular regulations in respect 
of Ireland, as from loe.il circumstances the Par- 
liament ol the said United Kingdom may from 
time to time deem expedient. 

Resolved, 15. Thai the qualifications in respect 
of property of the members elected on the part 
ol' Ireland lo sit in the House of Commons m the 
United Kingdom, shall be respectively the same 
as are now provided by law. in cases of elections 
lor counties, and cities, and boroughs. respective- 
ly, in that part of Great Britain called England, 
unless any other provision shall hereafter be 
made in thai respect by act of the Parliament of 
the United Kingdom. 

Resolved, Hi. That when His Majesty, his heirs, 
or successors, shall declare his. her. or their plea- 
sure, for holding the first or an} subsequent Par- 
liament of the United Kingdom, a proclamation 

Shall issue under llie (ileal Seal of tile United 
Kingdom, to cause the lords spiritual and tempo- 
ral and commons who are to serve in the Parlia- 
ment thereol on the part of Ireland, lo be returned 
in such manner as by any act of this present 
session of the Parliament of Ireland shall be pro- 
vided; and that the lords spiritual and temporal 
and Commons of t freal Britain shall together with 
the lords spiritual ami temporal ami commons s,i 
returned as aforesaid, on the part of Ireland, con- 
stitute the two Houses ol Parliament of the United 
Kingdom. 




-'..\„ . 



APPENDIX. 




WM 



~k : r 



Resofotd, 17. That if Hia Majesty on or before 
the tir.-.t day of January, one thousand eight 
hundred and one, "ii which day the 0nion ie to 

take place, shall declare, under the Great Seal 

■ •I Great Britain, that it is expedient that the 
lords and commons of the present Parliament 
of Great Britain should be members of the re- 
spective Houses of (he first Parliament of the 
United Kingdom on the part of Great Britain, 
then the said lords and commons of the present 
Parliament of Great Britain shall accordingly be 
the members of the respective Houses of the Si I 
Parliament of the United Kingdom on the pari of 
Great Britain, and they, together with the lords 
spiritual and temporal and commons so summon- 
ed and returned as above on the part of Ireland, 
shall be the lords spiritual and temporal and 
commons of the first Parliament of the United 
Kingdom ; and such first Parliament may, (in that 

jU ca.se.) if not sooner dissolved, continue to sit so 
long as the present Parliament of Great Britain 
may now by law continue to sit, and that every 
one of the Lords of Parliament of the United 
Kingdom, and every member of the douse of 
Commons of the United Kingdom in the first, and 
all succeeding Parliaments, shall, until the Parlia- 
ment of the United Kingdom shall otherwise 
provide, take the oaths, and make and subscribe 
the declaration, which are at present by law en- 
joined to be taken, made and subscribed by the 
lords and commons of the Parliament of Great 
Britain. 

1!' solved. 18. That for the same purpose it would 
be lit in propose that, the churches of that part of 
Great Britain called England, and id' Ireland, 
should b" united into one Church, and tie' arch- 
bishops, bishops, deans and clergy of the churches 
of England ami Ireland shall, from time to time, 
be summoned to ami entitled to sit in convocation 
of the United Church in the like manner, and 
subject to the same regulations as are at present 
by law established, with respect to the like orders 
of the Church of England, and the doctrine. 
worship, discipline and government of the United 
Church shall be preserved as now by law estab- 
lished tortile Church of England; and the doctrine, 
worship, discipline ami government of the Church 
ol .Scotland shall likewise be preserved as now by 
law established for the Church of Scotland. Ami 
that the continuance and preservation forever of 
the said United Church, as tie' Established Church 
of that part of the United Kingdom called England 
and Ireland, shall be deemed and taken to be an 
essential and fundamental condition of the treaty 
ol Union. 

Resolved, 19. That for the same purpose, all laws 
in force at the time of the Union, and all courts 
of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction withiu the 
respective kingdoms, shall remain as now by law 

■ -i.iblislied, subject only to such alterations and 
regulations, from time to time, as circumstanced 
may appeal- to the Parliament of the United King- 
dom to require, provided that all writs of error 
and appeals depending at the time of the Union, 
or hereafter to I"' brought, and which might now 
be finally decided by the House of Lords of either 
kingdom, shall from and alter (he Union be finally 
decided by the House of Lords of the United 
Kingdom ; and provided, that from and after the 
Union there shall remain in Ireland an instance 
Court of Admiralty, tor the determination of 
causes, civil and maritime only ; and that all laws 
at present in force in either kingdom, which shall 
be contrary to any of the provisions which may 




be enacted by any act for carrying this article into 
effect, be from and after the Union repealed. 

Resolved, 20. That for the same purpose it would 
be fit to propose that His Majesty's subjects of 
Great Britain and Ireland shall, from and aftet 
the first day of January, one thousand eight 
hundred and one, be entitled to the same privi- 
leges, and be on the same footing as to enc 'age- 

ment and bounties on the like articles, being 
the growth, produce or manufacture of eilher 
kingdom respectively and generally in respect 
of trade ami navigation in all ports and places 
in the United Kingdom and its dependencies; 
ami that in all treaties made by Hi, Majesty, 
his heirs and successors, with any foreign power, 
His Majesty's subjects of Ireland shall have the 
same privileges, and be on the same footing as 
His Majesty's subjects of Great Britain. 

Resolved, '21. That from the first day of January, 
one thousand eight hundred and one. all prohibi- 
tions and bounties on the export of articles, the 
growth or manufacture of either country to i he other 
shall cease and determine ; and that thesaid articles 
shall thenceforth be exported from one country to 
the other without duly or bounty on such expot I. 

Resolved, 22. That all articles, the growth, pro- 
duce or manufacture of either Kingdom, not here- 
inafter enumerated as subject to specific duties, 
shall from henceforth lie imported into each coun- 
try from the other free from duly, other than such 
countervailing duty as shall be annexed to tho 
several articles contained m the Schedule No. 1 ;* 
and that the articles hereinafter enumerated shall 
be subject for the period of twenty years from 
the Union, on importation into each country from 
the other, to the duties specified in the .Schedule 
No. II.* annexed to this article, viz.: 
Apparel, Millinery, 

Brass wrought, Paper, stained, 

Cabinet U are, Pottery, 

Coaches and carriages, Saddlery, 



Copper, wrought, 

Cottons, 

Glass, 

Haberdashery, 

Hats, 

Lace, gold and silver 



Silk, manufactured, 

Stockings, 

Thread, bullion for lace, 

pearl, ami spangles, 

Tin plates, wrought iron, 

and hardware. 

gold ami silver threads 

And that the woolen manufacture shall pay on 
importation into each country, the duties now 
payable on importation into Ireland; salt and 
hops on< importation into Ireland, duties not ex- 
ceeding those which are now" paid in Ireland; and 
coals on importation to be Subject to burdens not 
exceeding those to which they are now subject. 

That calicos and muslins be subject and liable 
to the duties now payable on the same, until the 
fifth day of January one thousand eight hundred 
and eight; and from and after thesaid day. the 
said duties shall be annually reduced in such pro- 
portion, ami at such periods as -hall hereafter be 
enacted, so as that the said duties shall stand at ten 
per cent, from and alter the fifth day of January, 
one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, until the 
fifth day of January, which shall be in [he year 
one thousand eight hundred and twenty one; and 
that cotton, yarn, and cotton twist, shall also be 
subject and liable- to ihc duties now payable upon 
the same, until the fifth day of January, one 
thousand eight hundred and eight, and from and 
after the said day. tiie said duties shall be annually 
reduced at such times, and in such proportions, as 

♦Tie refei to Schedules annexed to tho resolutions, 
as originally introduced. 



V^.\ 



ft 




:a>j .;..■-* am -s- 







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APPENDIX. 



(&, 






^f 



^9l 



s> 



shall be hereafter enacted, so as that all duties 
shall cease OD the said articles from and after the 
tilth day of January, one thousand eight hundred 
and sixteen. 

Resolved, 23. That any articles of the growth, 
produce i>r manufacture of either country, which 
are or may lie subject to internal duty, or to duty 
on the materials of which they are composed, may 
he made subject on their importation into each 
country respectively from the other, to such coun- 
tervailing duly as shall appear to lie just and 
reasonable in respect to such internal duty or 
duties on the materials ; and that for the said pur- 
poses the articles specified in the said Schedule 
No. I. should, upon importation into Ireland, he 
subject to the duty which shall be set forth therein. 
liable t<> lie taken nil. diminished or increased in 

the r herein specified; and that upon the 

like export of the like articles hem each country 
to the other respectively, a draw hack shall be 
given, equal in amount tit the countervailing dutj . 
payable en the articles herein before specified, on 
the import into the same country with the other; 
and that in like manner, in future, it shall be com 
petent to the United Parliament to impose any 
new or additional countervailing duties, or to lake 
off or diminish such existing,countervailing duties 
as may appear on like principles to bo just ami 
reasonable, in respect of any future or additional 
internal duty on any article of the growth or 



manufacture of either country, or of any new 
additional duty on any materials of which such 
article may be composed, or any abatement of 
(he same ; and that when any such new or addi- 
tional countervailing duty shall lie so imposed on 
the import of any article into either country from 
the other, a drawback equal in amount to such 
countervailing duty, shall he given in like manner 
on the export of every such article respectively 
from the same country. 

Resolved, 21. That all articles, th e growth, pro- 
duce or manufacture of either kingdom, when ex- 
ported through the other, shall in all cases be ex- 
ported subject to the same charges as if they had 
been exported directly from the country of which 
they were the growth, produce, or manufacture. 

Resolved, 25. That all duty charged on the im- 
port of foreign or colonial goods into either 
country, shall, on their export to the other, he 
either drawn hack, or the amount, if any be re- 
tained, shall be placed to the credit of the country 
to which they shall tie so exported, so long as the 
general expenses of the empire shall he defrayed 
by proportional contributions. Protridad, Nothing 
herein shall extend to take away any dul\ . bounty 
or prohibition which exists with respect to corn, 
meal, malt, flour, and lii-cuit, but that the same 

I may be regulated, varied or repeated, from time 
to time, as the United Parliament shall deem ex- 

I pedieut. 



ORIGINAL RED LIST, 
Or the Members who voted against the Union in 1799, and ISOO, with observations. 

Those names with a (*) affixed to them, are County Members ; those with a (t) City Members; 
and those with a (§) Borough Members. Those in Italics changed sides, and got either .Money or 
Offices. 




NAMES. 

1.* Honorable A. Acheson 

2.* William t'. Alcock . . 

3.* Mervyn Archdall . . 

4.§ W. II. Armstrong . . 

5." Sir Richard Butler . . 

ti.* John Bagwell .... 

7.§ Peter Burrowes . . . 

8.* John Bagwell, Jan. . . 

9.t John Ball 

lO.f Charles Ball . . . . 

ll.f Sir Jonah Harrington . 

12.§ Charles Bushe. . . . 

13. f John C. Beresford . . 

14. Arthur Brown . . . 



15.§ William Blakeney . 

lli.* William Burton . . 

17.* II. V. Brooke. 

18.6 Blayney Balfour. 

19.§ David Babington . 

2u.f Hon. James Hutler . 

21.* Col. J. Maxwell Barry 

22.§ William Bagwell . . 



0BSEKYATI0N. 

Son to Lord Gosford. 

County Wexford. 

Count] Fermanagh. 

Refused all terms from Government. 

Changed sides. See Black List. 

Changed sides rwicts. See Black List. 

Now Judge of the Insolvent Court; a steady Anti-Unionist. 

Cltanged sides. See Black List. 

Member for Drogheda— incorruptiofc. 

Brother to the preceding. 

King's Counsel —Judge of the Admiralty.— refused all terms. 

Afterwards Solicitor-General and Chief Justice of Ireland — incor- 
ruptible. 

Seceded from Mr. Ponsonby in 1799. on his declaration of indepen- 
dence. That secession was latal to Ireland. 

Member for the University, changed sides in 1800; was appointed 
Prime Sergeant by Lord Castlereagh, through Mr. Under-Sec- 
retary Cooke — of till others the most open and palpable case. 
See Black List 

A Pensioner, but opposed Government. 

Sold his Borough, Carlow, to a Unionist (,Lord Tullamore.) but re- 
mained staunch himself. 



Connected with Lord Be) more. 

(Now Marquis of Ormonde.) voted in 1800 against a Union, hnl with 
Government mi Lord Corry's motion. 

(Now Lord r'nrnhuin.) nephew to the Speaker. 

Changed sides twice, concluded as a Unionist. See Black List. 



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NAMES. 

23* Viscount Corry 
24.f Robert Crowe . 



25.* Lord Clements 
26.* Lord Colo . . 



27.§ Hon. Lowry Cole . . 

28.* R. Shapland Carew . . 

Z9.f Son. A. Oreighton . . 

3().f Hon. •/. Oreighton . . 

31.* Joseph Edward Cooper. 

32. t James Cane .... 

33.* Lord Caulfield . . . 



34. f Henry Coddington. 
35.§ George Crookshank , 
36.* Denis li. Duly. . . 
37. f Noah Dal way. 
38.* Richard Dawson. 
39.' Arthur Dawson . . 
4u.* Francis Dobbs . . 



41. f John Egan , 



42. R. L. Edgeworth. 

43.f George Evans. 

44.* Sir John Freke, Bart., . 

4i.* Frederick Falkiner . . 

4(i.§ lit. Hon. J.Fitzgerald. 



47.* William C. Fortescue, 

( Poisoned by accident.) 

48.* Rt. Hon. John Foster . 

4H.* Hon. Thomas Foster. 

60.* Sir T. Fet/ierston, Bart. 

51.* Arthur French . . . 

52.§ Chichester Fortescue . . 



63.§ William Gore .... 
54. § Hamilton Georges . . 

55. § Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan. 
6il.§ Thomas Goold . . . 
,"'7.f Hans Hamilton . . . 
58.] Edward Hardman . . 
59. ij Francis Hardy . . . 

«).§ Sir Joseph Hoare . . 
61.* William Hoare Hume . 
02. § Edward Hoare . . . 



C3.6 Bartholomew Hoare 
iii.tj Alexander Hamilton 
C5. ^ Hon. A. C Hamilton. 
GU.§ Sir F. Hopkins, Bart. 

67.t H. Irwin. 

68.' Gilbert King. 

69 t Charles King. 

70.* Hon. Robert King. 

71.* Lord Kingsborough 

72. Hon. <■ - ge Knox . 

73.f Francis Knox . . . 

7 1.* Rt. Hon. Henry King 

75.f Major King . . . 

7i- .§ Gusravus Lainbert . 

77.' David Latouche. jim., 

78.6 Robert Latouche 

79. § John Latouche, sen., 



OBSERVATIONS. 

(Now Lord Belmnre.) dismissed from his regiment by Lord Corn- 
wallis — a zealous leader of the Opposition. 

A Barrister, bribed by Lord Castlereagh. See his Letter to Lord 
Belvidere. 

(Now Lord Leitrim.) 

(Now Lord Enniskillen,) unfortunately dissented from Mr. Ponson- 
by 's motion for a declaration of independence in 17!)!), whereby 
the Union was revived and carried. 

A General ; brother to Lord Cole. 

Changed sides, and became a Unionist. See Black List. 
Changed sides. See Black List. 

Changed sides. See Black List. 

(Now Earl Charlemont.) sou to Earl Charlemont, a principal leader 
of the Opposition. 

A son of the Judge of the Common Pleas. 

Brother-in-law to Mr. Pousonby ; a most active Anti-Unionist. 

Formerly a Banker, father to the late Under-Secretary. 

Famous for his Doctrine on the-Mlllennium ; an enthusiastic Anti- 
Unionist. 

King's Council, Chairman of Kilmainham ; offered a Judge's seat, 
but could not be purchased, though far from rich. 



(Now Lord Carberry.) 

Though a distressed person, could not be purchased. 

Prime Sergeant of Ireland ; could not be bought, and was dismissed 

from his high office by Lord Comwallis : father to Mr. Vesev 

Fitzgerald. 
One of the three who inconsiderately opposed Mr. Ponsonby, and 

thereby carried the Union. 
Speaker; the chief of the Opposition throughout the whole contest. 

Changed sides. See Black List. 

Unfortunately coincided with Mr. Fortescue in 1799, against Mr. 
Ponsonby. 

King at Aims ; brought over in 1800, by Lord Castlereagh ; voted 
both sides ; ended :i Unionist. 

Sought by Lord Castlereagh in 1*00. 

A distressed man. but could nut be purchased ; father-in-law to Un- 
der-Secretary Cooke. 

Now .Sergeant, brought into Parliament by the Anti-Unionists. 
Member for Dublin County. 
City of Drogheda ; the Speaker's friend. 

Author of the Life of Charlemont ; brother-in-law to the Bishop of 
Down. 

Wicklow County. 

Though very old, and stone blind, attended all the debates, and sat 

up all the nights of debate. 
King's Counsel. 
King's Counsel ; son to the Baron. 

Prevailed on to take money to vacate, in 1800, and let in a 
Unionist. 



(Now Earl Kingston.) 

Brother to Lord Northland ; lukewarm. 

Vacated his seat lor Lord Castlereagh. See Mr. Crowe's Letter. 

He opened the Bishop of Clogher's Borough in 1800. 
Brother to Countess Talbot. 
A Banker. 

Ditto. 

Ditto. 






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NAM |,;s. OBSERVATIONS. 

80.§ John Latouche, inn., . . A Banker. 

81.* Charles Powell Leslie. 

82.* Edward Lee Member for the County of Waterford ; zealous. 

88.1 Sir Thomas Lighten, Bart, A Banker. 

84.* Lord Maxwell .... Died Lord Farnham. 

b'5.' Alexander Montgomery. 

86.8 Sir J. M'Cartney, Bart, . Much distressed, but could not be bribed; nephew, by affinity, td 

the Speaker. 

87. & William Thomas Munsel . Actualh purchased by Lord Castlereagh. 

.--s ^ Stephen Moore .... Changed sides on Lord Corry's motion. 

89 § John Moore. 

90. Arthur Moore .... Now Judge of the Common Pleas ; a staunch Anti-Unionist 

91.* Lord Mathew .... (Now Earl Llandaff,) Tipperary County. 

92.6 'I I Et8 Malum. 

H'i.ts John Metge Brother to the Baron of the Exchequer. 

94.6 Richard NeviUe . . . . Had been a dismissed treasury officer; sold his vote to be reinstated , 

changed sides. See Black List. 
95.§ Thomas Newenham . . Tlie Author of various Works ou Ireland; one of the steadies! 

Anti-Unionists. 
96.' Charles O'Hara . . . . Sligo County. 
97.* Sir Edward O'Brien . . Clare County. 
98.§ Col. Hugh O'Donnel . . A most ardent Anti-Unionist ; dismissed from his regiment of Mayo 

militia. 
99. § James Monro O'Donnel . Killed by Mr. Bingham ill a duel. 
100.§ Hon. \V. O'Callaghan . . Brother to Lord Lismore. 
101. Henry Osborn .... Could not be bribed ; his brother wasi 
102.' Right Hon. Geo. Ogle . Wexford County. 

103.6 Joseph Preston in eccentric character ; could not be purchased. 

104." JohnJPreston .... Of Belintor, was purchased by a title, (Lord Tara,) and bis brother, 

a Parson, got a living of £700 a year. 
105.* Bt Hon. Sir J. Farnell . Chancellor of the Exchequer, dismissed by Lord Castlereagh; in- 
corruptible. 
10U.6. Henry Parnell.* 

1 07.§ W. C. Plunkel .... Now Lord Plunket 

10S.* Rt. Hon. W. B. Ponsonby Afterwards Lord Ponsonby. * 

109.5 J. B. Ponsonby .... Afterwards Lord Ponsonby. 

110.5 Major XI. Ponsonby . . A General, killed at Waterloo. 

111." Rt. Hon. <i Ponsonby . Afterwards Lord Chancellor; died of apoplexy. 

112.* Sir Lawrence Parsons . Kings County; now EarlofRosse; made a remarkably fine speech. 

113.§ Richard Power . . . . Nephew to the Baron of the Exchequer. 

111.' Abai Sam Clianged sides. 

115.* Oustavus Uochfort . . County Westmeath; seduced by Government, and changed sides in 

1800; See Black List 

116.§ John S Rochfort . . . Nephew to the Speaker. 
117. Sir Win. Richardson. 

118.§ y Changed sides. See Black List. 

1 19. William E. Reily. 

120.6 Charles Ruxton. 
121.6 William F. Buxton. 

122.* Clolvxirthy Rowley . . . Changed sides. See Black List 
1 — .'■§ William Rowley . . . Clianged sides. See Black List. 

124.fi ./. Rowley Changed sides. See Black List 

l ■ . ■ Francis Saunderson. 

1 Jt..* William Smyth .... Westmeath. 

127.* James Stewart 

128.§ Hon. W. J. ^kuffington. 

129." Francis Sa\ age, 

130.6 Francis Si n ;e, 

131.5 Heory Stewart 

132 S Sir R. St George. Bart. 

]33.§ lion. Benj. Stratford . . Now Lord Aldborough; pained by Lord Castlereagh; ett.utjtj 

sides. See Black List 

l.i' Nathaniel Sneyd. 

135.* Thomas Stannus . . . Changed sides. Lord Portarlington's Member. See Black List. 

136.6 Robert Shaw A Banker. 

137. .s Rt Hon. Win Saurin. . Afterwards Attorney-General ; a steady but calm Anti-Unionist. 

138 6 William Tighe. 

138 5 Henrj Tighe. 

1 10.6 John Taylor. 

141.§ Thomas Townshend. 

* sir John Parcel] w.is one of the. ablest supporters ol Government of his day. His son tins taken assiduously a 
more extensive and deeper fr M of business iu ineiice, Uut iu anj other point, pnblla or private* baa no advatdu,;a 
over lus father 




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. n. .... -J.;. 




OB i.KV.vnoxs. 
Voted against the Union in 1799 ; was gained by Lord Castlereagh, 
whose relative be married, and voted for it in 1800, was 
created an Earl, and made an Ambassador to Holland; one of 
the Vienna Carvers ; and a Dutch Marquess. 

(Now Lord Gort,) City Limerick 



First voted against the Union ; purchased by Lord Castlereagh; 
was Lord Clare's brother-in-law. See Black List 



he 



9. Joseph II. Blake . 
10 sir J. (;. Blackwood 

11. Sir John Blaquiere 

12. Anil y Botet . . 

13. Colonel Burton . . 

14. Sir Richard Butler 



15. Lord Boyle 



16. Rt. Hon. D. Brown 

17. Stewart Bruce . . 
1 8 I ge Burdet . . 

19. George Bunbury . 

20. Arthur Brown . . 



Bagwell, sen.,. 
I. jun., . 



21. 

22. 
23. 
21. 
25. 
26. 
27. 
2.-. 
VJ. Thomas Casev 



William Bagwell 
Lord Castlereagh . 
George < !avendish . 
sir ll. Cavendish . 
Sir R Cbinnery 
James I lane . . . 



30. Colonel C. Pope 

31. General Cradock 

32. .I.uii' - < !ro by . 



Member for the County Wieklow ; Colonel of the Kildare Militia ; 
refused to vote for Government, and was cashiered ; could not 
be purchased. 






'£'■',. lid uard Cooke 



ORIGINAL BLACK LIST. 

OBSERVATIONS. 
English Clerk in the Secretary's office; no connection with 
Ireland. 

Chairman of Ways and Means ; cousin of Lord Caledon ; his broth- 
er mole a Bishop ; himself a Colonial Secretary at the Cape of 

G I Hope. 

Commissioner of the Board of Works. 
Commissioner of the Board of Work-. 

fust Commissioner of Revenue ; brother-in-law to Lord Clare. 

Then Purse hearer to Lord Clare, afterwards a 1 'arson, and now 
Lord Decies. 

A Colonel in the Army, son to the Bishop, Lord Clare's nephew. 

Created a Peer; got £8,000 for two seats ; and £15,000 compensa- 
tion for Tnam This gentleman first offered himself for sule to 
the Anti-Unionist ; land Clanmorris. 

Oreaied a Peer — Lord Wallscourt, &c. 

('faled a Peer — Lord Dufferin. 

Numerous Offices and Tensions, and created a Peer — Lord De Bla- 
quiere. 

Appointed Commissioner of the Barrack Heard, £."'110 a year. 

Brother to Lord Conyngham ; a Colonel in the Army. 

Purchased and changed sides ; voted against the Union in 1700, and 
for it in 1800. Cash. 

Son to Lord Shannon : they got an immense sum of money lor their 
peats anil Boroughs ; at £15,000 each Borough. 

Brother to Lord Sligo. 

Gentleman Usher at Dublin Castle ; now a Baronet. 

Commissioner of a Public Board, £500 per annum. 

Commissioner <>l a Public Board, £500 per annum. 

Changed sides and principles, and was appointed Sergeant ; in 1700 
opposed the Union, and supported it in 1800; be was Senior 
Fellow of Dublin University ; lost his seat the ensuing election, 
and died. 

Changed twice: got half the patronage of Tipperary ; his son a 
Dean, Ac. Jtc. 

CI, ami,, I i h rcK ; got the Tipperary Regiment, &c. 

His brother. 

The Irish Minister. 

Secretary to the Treasury during pleasure; son to Sir Henry. 

Receiver General during pleasure ; deeply indebted to the Crown. 

Placed in office after the Union. 

Reoegaded. and ^nt ;] pension, 

A Commission ol Bankrupts under Lord Clare ; made a City Mag- 
istrate. 

Renegaded : gol a Regiment, and the patronage of his county 

Returned bj Government ; much military rank ; now Lord Howden. 

A regiment and the patronage of Kerry, jointly ; seconded the Ad- 
dress. 

Under-Secretary at the Castle. 






,«.; 



-e> 



* The Author of this work was deputed to learn from Mr. Bingham n ba( hia expectations from Government for his 
«*;ttn irore ; he proposed to take from the Op] e tbi I'aiuu. Gov- 

eminent afterwards added a Peers . . rough. 




35. Rt. lion. I. Cony . 





" 



•r 



i J. Cotter. . . 

87. Richard Cotter. 

88. Hon. 11. Creighton [ 
S9. Hon. J. Creighton ) 
10. W. \ Crosbie . . 
41. James Cuffe . . . 



General Dunne. 



48. William Elliot . . . 

■I i. General Eustace . . 

45, l.onl C. Fitzgerald 

■It'.. Rt lion. W. Fitageiald. 

47. Sir c. Fortesone . . 

48. A. Fergusson . . . 
v.*. Lnke Fox .... 



BO. William Fortesone 



51. J. Galbraith . . 

52. Henrj D. Grady* 
63. Richard Hare . 

54. William Hare . 

65. Col. 1>. Henniker 



66. Peter Holmes . 

.'■7. George Union . 

58. Hon. •' Hutchinson 

63. Hugh 11. ovar.l . . 

60. \\ m. Handcock, (Athlone 



til John Hobson .... 

o'.'. O -on . . . 

S3. Denham Jephson . . . 

64. Hen. <;. Jooelyn . . . 

65. William Jones. 

66. Theopbilns Jones . . . 

67. Major-General Jackson . 

68. \\ illiam Johnson . . . 

69. Robert Johnson . . . 



7 John Keane , 

7 1. Jamea Kearny .... 

7 ! Henrj Kemmis ... 

7:'.. \\ illiam Knot . . . . . 

71. Andrew Knox. 

'.'. Colonel Keatinge. 

76 Rt Hon Sir 11. L&ngrishe 

77. T. Lingray, son 

7S. T. Lindsay, jun., ... 

7i> J. Longfield 

80. Capt J. Longfield. . . , 



OBSERVATIONS. 

Obtained a Regiment (which was taken from Colonel Warburton,] 
patronage of Queens County, and a Peerage, (Lord Castle- 
coote.) and £7,600 in cash for bis interest at the Borough of 
v tryborough, in which, in fact, ii was proved before the Com- 
missioners that Sir Jonah Barrington bad more interest than 
his Lordship, 

Appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, on dismissal of Sir John 
Parnell. 

Privately brought over by cash. 

Renegaded (see Rod Listl privately purchased. 

Comptroller to the Lord-Lieutenant's Household. 

Natural son to Mr. Cuffe of the Board ol Works, his fathei created 

Lord Tyrawly. 
Returned for Maryborough by the united influence of Lord Castle- 

oooio and Government, to keep out Mr. Barrington ; gained 

the election by only one. 
Secretary ai the Castle. 
A Regiment 
Duke of l.oinstor's brother : a Pension and a Peerage ; a Sea Office! 

of no repute. 

Rei egaded (see Red List) Officer, King at Arms. 

Got a place at the Barrack Board, £500 a year and a Baronetcy. 

Appointed Judge of Common Pleas: nephew by marriage to 
Lord! 

(.let a secret Pension, out of a fund (£3,000 a year,) intrusted by 
Parliament to the Irish Government, solely to reward Mr. Rey- 
nolds, Cope, &c, Ac. and those who informed against rebels. 

Lord Abercorn's Attorney : got a Baronetage, 

First Counsel to the Commissioners. 

Put two members into Parliament, and was created Lord Ennismore 
for their \ 

His sen. « 

A regiment and paid £3,600 for hi- Seat bj the Commission 
Compensation. 

A Commissioner of Stamps. 

Appointed Commissioner of Stamps, 

\ General lend Hutchinson. 

Lord Wicklow's brother, made Postmaster-General. 

An extraordinary instance; lie made and sang Bongsagainsi th* 
Union in 1799, at a public dinner of the Opposition, and made 
and sang BOIlgS for it in 1800 : he get a Peerage, 

Appointed Storekeeper at I Irdnance. 

A Regiment 

Master ol Horse to the Lord-Lieutenant. 

Promotion in the Army, and his brother consecrated Bishop of Lis- 
more. 

Collector of Dublin. 
A Regiment. 

Returned to Parliament by Lord Castlereagh, ns he himself de- 
clared. - to put an end to it :" appointed a Judge since. 
Seceded front his patron, Lord Dow nshire. aud was appointed a 

Judge. 
\ Rei i a Pension; See Red List. 

Returned b\ Lord Clifton being his Attorney ; got an office. 
Son te the Crown Solicitor. 
Appointed a Commissioner of Appeals £S00 a year. 



A Commissioner of the Revenue, received £15,000 cash for his pat- 
ronage at Knoctopher. 

Commissioner of Stamps, paid £1,500 for his patronage. 

Usher at the Castle, paid £1.500 for his patronage. 

Created a Peer ; Lord Longueville. 

office ot Ship Entries of Dublin taken from Sir 
Jonah Barrington. 



•Tins gentleman was known te i„- entirety indisposed to a CTnion, bnt peculiar dnunutancea prevented him 
I but honorably from following bis own impression, sir.' 

is be thought It but justice to Mr. Grsdj, who. on aomi 

2nd ..cud l-urly. 



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NAMES. 

81. Lord Loftus . 

82. General Lake . 



83. Rt. Hon. David Latouche. 
8 1. ( teneral Loftus . . 

85. Francis M'Namara . 

86. Ross Malum . . . 

87. Richard Martin . . 

88. I.'t. Hon. Monk Mason 

89. II. I). Massy . . . 

90. Thomas Mabon. 

91. A. E. M'Naghten. . 

92. Stephen Moore . . 

93. N. M. Moore. 

'.» I. Rt. Hon. Lodge Morris 
l 1 ".. Sir R. Musgrave . . 
96. Ja s M'Cleland . 



97. Col. C. M'Dimnel. . 

98. Richard Magenness . 

99. Tl as Nesbit . . 

lUII. Kir II'. <!. \, „■,;-„„,„., /;, 

101. Richard Neville . 

102. William Odell. . 
108. I IbarleS < Isborne . 
loi. C. M. Ormsby . . 
105. Admiral Pakenham 
10B. Col. Pakenham . 

107. 11. S. Prittie . . 

108. I.'. Pennefather. 
1U9. T. Prendergast . 



I Ki. Sir Richard Quin , 

1 1 1. Sir Boyle Ruche . . 

112. R. Rntledge. 

1 13. Hon. C. Rowley . , 

114. Hon. II. Skefflngton. 

115. William Smith . . 

116. II. M.Sandford . . 

1 17. Edmond Stanley . . 

1 18. John Staples. 

1 19. John Stewart . . . 

120. John Stratton. 

121. linn. B. Stratford . 

122. ;/.)/(. J. Stratford . 

1 23. Richard Sharkey . . 

1-1. Thomas Stannus . . 

125. J. Savage. 

126. Rt Hon. J. Toler . 



127. 
128. 



Frederick Trench 
lion. R. Trench . 



129. Charles Trench 

130. Richard Talbot. 

131. P. Tottenham . 



132. Lord Tyrone 



133. Charles Tottenham 

134. Townsend 

1 35. Robert Tighe . . 

136. Robert Dniack 

137. James Velller . . 

13a J. O. Vandeleur . 
139. I lolonel \\ eiuyss . 
llu. Henry Westenraw 



art 




APPENDIX 



OBSERVATIONS. 

Son to Lord Ely, Postmaster-General ; got £30,000 for their Bor- 
oughs, and created an English Marquis. 

An Englishman (no connection with Ireland ;) returned by Lord 
Castlereagh, solely to vote for the Union. 

A General ; got a Regiment; cousin to Lord Ely. 
Cash ami a private pension, paid by Lord Castlereagh. 
Several appointments and places by Government. 
Commissioner of stamps. 

A Commissioner of Revenue. 
Received £4,000 cash. 

Appointed a Lord of the Treasury, &o. 
A Postmaster at will. 



Created a Peer. 



Appointed Receiver of the Customs, £1,200 a year. 
A Barrister— appointed Solicitor General, and' (hen 

l.'v..l,,„ 



Exchequet 
sioni 
Commission) 



a Baron of the 



...v....... 

missioner of Imprest Accounts, £500 per annum. 
ssioner of Imprest Accounts, £50U per annum. 
A Pensioner at will. 



Bought, tsei' Memoir ante.) and a Peerage for his wife. 

Renegaded ; reinstated as Teller of the Exchequer. 

A Regiment, and Lord of (he Treasury. 

A Barrister; appointed a Judge of the King's Bench. 

Appointed First Council Commissioner. 

Master of the Ordnance. 

A Regiment ; killed at New Orleans. 

A Peerage — Lord Dunalley. 

An office in the Court of Chancery, £500 a-year; his brother Crown 

Solicitor. 
A Peerage. 
Gentleman Usher at the Castle. 

Renegade, 1, and appointed to office by Lord Castlereagh. 

Clerk of the Paper Office of the Castle, and £7,500 lor his patronage. 

A Barrister; appointed a Baron of the Exchequer. 

Created a Peer; Lord Mount Sandford. 

Appointed Commissioner of Accounts. 

Appointed Attorney-General, and created a Baronet. 

Renegaded to get £7.500, his half of the compensation for Ballinglass. 
Paymaster of Foreign Forces, £1,300 a-year, and £7,500 for Bal- 

tin glass. 
An obscure Barrister; appointed a County Judge. 
Renegaded. 

Attorney-General ; his wife, an old woman, created a Peeress ; hini- 

Belf made Chief Justice and a Peer. 
Appointed a Commissioner of the Board of Works. 
A Barrister ; created a Peer, and made an Ambassador. See Red 

List. 
His brother; appointed Commissioner of Inland Navigation — a new 

office created by Lord Cornwallis, for rewards. 

Compensation for patronage ; cousin, and politically connected with 
Lord Ely. 

101 offices in the gift of his family; proposed the Union in Parlia- 
ment, by a speech written in the crown of his hat. 

In office. 

A Commissioner. 

Commissioner of Barracks. 

A Commissioner ; connected with Lord Clare. 

Called the Prince of Orange. 

Commissioner of the Revenue; his brother a Judge. 

Collector of Kilkenny. 

Father of Lord Rossmore, who is of the very reverse of his father's 
politics. 



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Nv 



Whereas, in pursuance of His Majesty's most 
graoious reoommendation to the two house 
Parliamenl in Great Britain and Ireland respec- 
tively, i" oonsider ol such measures as mighl besl 
tend in strengthen and consolidate theconneol m 
between the two kingdoms, the two houses of 
the Parliament Of Great Britain and the two 
houses of the Parliamenl of Ireland have several 
ly agreed and resolved that, in order to pro 
and secure the essential interests of Greal Britain 
and Ireland, and to consolidate the strength, 
pow er, and resouroes of the British empire, ii \\ ill 
be advisable to concur in such measures as maj 
besl tend to unite the two kingdoms of Greal 
Britain and Ireland into one kingdom) in suoh 
manner, and on suoh terms and conditions, as may 
be established bj the acts of the reapeotive Par- 
liaments of Great Britain and Ireland. 

And whereas, in furtherance of the said resolu- 
tion, both houses of the said two Parliaments 
respectively have likewise agreed upon certain 

les, for effectuating aud establishing thi 
purposes, in the tenor following: — 
Aktici e I. Thai ii be the Ural artiole of the 
■ ii of the kingdoms of Greal Britain aud 
Ireland, that the said kingdoms of Greal Britain 
and Ireland shall, upon the first day ol January, 
which shall be in the year of Our Lord one thou- 

i eight hundred and one, and forever 
be uuited into one kin dom .by I be a ime of The 
United Kingdom of Great Brits li eland : 

.1 id thai tl royal style and titles appertain!] 
the imperial crown of the Baid Uuited Kingdom 
and its dependencies ; and also the ensigns, armo- 
rial Bags and banners thereof, shall be suoh as His 
Majesty, bj his royal proclamation under the 
■ I Seal of the I oited Kingdom, Mull be 
pleased to appoint 

\ ii Le 11 I'ii.u it be the second article, of 
I on. that the succession to the imperial crown 
.■I thesaidUnil . a, and of the dominions 

thereuuto belonging, shall continue limited and 
settled in the same manuer as the succession to 
the imperial crown of the said kingdoms of Greal 
Britain and Ireland now Btands limited and settled, 

i existing laws, and i" the terms 

ol 1 nion between England and Scotland. 

Article 111 Thai it be the third article of Union, 
that the said United Kingdom be represented in 
one and the same Parliament, to be styled " The 
Parliamenl of the United Kingdom ol G 
Bi itain and Ireland." 

Article IV. Thai it be the fourth arl 
I niiii. tint four lords spiritual of Ireland bj ro 
tation ol sessions, and twentj eight lords temporal 
elaud elected for life bj the peers ol Ireland, 
shall be the number to mi and vote on the part of 
Ireland in the Bouse of Lords of the Parliamenl 
of tin' United Kingdom; and one hundred com- 
moners (two for each county ol Ireland, two for 
the oitj ol Dublin, two for the oitj ol Cork, one 




for the University of Trinity College, and one foi 
each of the thirty one mosl considerable cities, 
towns, and boroughs.) be the number to sil and 
vote mi the pan of Ireland in the Hon-.' of Com- 
mons ol the Parliament of the United Kingdom. 

Thai such act as -lull be passed in the Parlia- 
menl ol Ireland previous to the Union, to regulate 
the mode by whiob the lords spiritual and temporal 
and the commons, to serve in the Parliament of 
the United Kingdom on the pari of Ireland, shall 
be summoned and returned to the said Parliament, 
shall be considered as forming part of the u i j 
ol Union, and shall be incorporated in the acts 
of the respective Parliaments by which the Baid 
Union shall be ratified and established. 

T'h i rotation or elec- 

tion ol lords spiritual or temporal of Ireland to 
sit iii the Parliamenl ol the I nited Kingdom, shall 
be decided bj the House of Lords thereof; and 
whenever, bj reason ol an equality of votes in 
the election ol anj suoh lords temporal, a conii 
mi shall pot be made according to the 
true intent of this article, the names of those^ 
peers for whom such equality of votes shall In -,» 

i i. shall be written op pieces of paper of a 
similar form, and shall be put into a glass, by the 
clerk of the Parliaments al the table ol the House 
"i Lords « bilst the house is sitting : and the peer 
or peers whose nana' or names shall be first drawn 
out by the olerk of the Parliaments, shall be 
deemed the peer or peers eleotcd as the onse may - 

la'. 

Thai any person holding any peerage of Ireland 
now subsisting, or hereafter to be created, shall 
not thereby be disqualified from being elected to 
serve il lie shall bo think fit, or from serving or 
continuing to serve, if he shall so think fit, for 
iinj county, city, or borough of Great Britain, in 
the House of Commons oj the United Kingdom, 
unless he shall have been previously elected an 
above, to sil in the House of Lords of the United 
Kingdom ; but thai so long as Buch peer of 
Ireland shall bo contiuue to be a member of the 
Huns!' ,.i Commons, he shall not be entitled lo 
the privilege ol peerage, nor be capable ol being 
elected to serve as a peer on the part o\' Ire! 
or of voting al any such electiou; and that he 
shall be liable to be sued, indicted, proceeded 
against, and tried as a commoner, for any offence 
with which he may be charged. 

i it shall be lawful for His Majesty, his heirs 
and successors, to create peers of that part of the 
l nurd Kiugdom called Ireland, and to moke pro- 
motions in the peerage thereof, after the Uuiou; 
J Yuen 1 1. /. That no new creation of anj such peers 
shall lake place after the I ttii three ol tho 
is nf Ireland, which shall have been exist- 
the time of the Union, shall have beco 
extinot ; aud upon such extinction ol three p i 
ages, thai it shall be lawful for His Majesty, his 
i successors, to create one peer oi ihat 



,1 



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AI'I'KNDIX. 



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pari of the United Kingdom called Ireland ; and 

in like manner no often n three p 'ages of that 

part ol the United Kiugd called Ireland shall 

become extinct, it shall be lawful for HI Mnji tj 

bis heirs and successors, i" create 01 ther peer 

of the naid pari of the I nitcd Kingdom ; and if 
ii ^h.ill happen that the peers "I thai pnrt of 
tho United Kingdom called [reland shall, by ex- 
tinction ol peeri or otherwise, bo reduced to 

the number of one hundred, exclusive of all bucIi 

peers of thai part of tho United K ;dora called 

Ireland, as shall hold an] i i of Greal Brltnln 

Bnh isting at the tin f the Union, or of tho 

United Kin [dom created i i the I nion, by 

which such peers sbull be en titled to an hereditary 
seat in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, 
then and i" thai case it shall and may be lawful 
for Hie Majesty, lii^ heirs and successors, to create 
one peer of that part of the United Kingdom 
called Ireland as often ns any one of such one 
hundred peerages slnill 1'uil by extinction, or as 

often iiH any one i r of that pnrt of the United 

Kingdom called Ireland h ill i" 1 ' ic entitled, bj 

descent or creation, to an hereditary Beat in the 
[louse of Lords "I the United Kingdom ; it being 
i in- true intenl and meaning ol thi arl cle, thai 
al nil times after the I nion il i hall and may be 

law in! for His Majesty, his heii - I n ci 

to keep up the i rage of thai pari of'be United 

Kingdom culled Ireland to ilii' number ol one 
hundred, over and above the number of such of 
the said peers as -1ml I be entitled by descent or 
i r iiiuii in in hereditary Beat in the Hon e ol 
Lords ni the I id K ingdom. 

Thai II anj peer hall at any time bo in 

abeyance, such peerage shall i>" dee I and 

taken < an c i i ting peerage ; and no peei igc 
shall be deemed extinct, unless on default of 

claimants to the inheritance of Biich i i age Cor 

the Bpacii ol ear from the death of the person 

u liu shall lini D In ''ii lu i po '■ ''il thereol ; I 

ii mi claim shall be i le to the inheritance ol 

Kim Ii peerage, in such form and manner > may 
from time to time be pre cribed by the House of 
Lord - ni the United Kingdom, before the i cpii 
limi ni the -ml pei iod "i a yeai . then and in 
thai Ca •■ ncli peei age hall bt deemed extinct j 
Provided. Thai nothing herein Mini exclude any 
person from afterwards putting in ;c claim to the 

I r iv ' i" 1 'i extinct ; and If such claim 

shall in- allowed valid, by jud ; menl of the 
House "l Lord of the I niled K ingdom, rcpoi ted 
to Ih- Maje i) mil pi ragi hull bo i on iden d 

ns revived; and in ens ly new creation of n 

peerage of that pari ol United Kingdom 

called [reland mall hai e taken place in the iuti i 

val, in con equei ol the i uppo "■! extinction 

,,i -mil peerage, then no new right ol creation 

shall accrue to Hi Majo t ■. . hi hei 

soi . i lence ol the next extinction w liich 

shall take i ol any p ei ia pai t of 

the I uitod Kingdom called In 

Thai .ni qui tion touching the election oi 
n,i mini' to it on the pari ol [reland in the 
I louse of • lommons of the United Kingdom h:i I 
be heal I and dei ided in the same m uini 

question tounhi ion in ( rreal Hi ituin 

i . or nl mi time lici eafti i shall 1 »_% law be 

heard and dec I ; ibject m ertheii to icl 

I articular reguli in pect to Ireland u 

I i.iii loi al ci e l'arl ol the 

i i ;dom may from time to l e di 

• xpedii 

tliflcationB in re pi ct ol prop 




of the members elected on tho pari nf Ireland to 

ii in tho House or Commons nf the United 

Kingdom, shall !"■ respectively tho is are 

m.u provided by law In the cases of el ction ror 

counties and cities, and borough re i \\ ely In 

that part of Greal Bi italn calle l England, unle < 
any other provision shall hereafter be made In 
that respeel bj act ol Parliament of the United 
Kingdom, 

That when His Majesty, bis heir oi sue i, 

slinll declare lii". her, or their pleasure for holding 
a first or any subsequent Parliament ol the United 

K i lorn, ii priH I iiii.H hall i , lor the 

< [real Seal of the United Kii gd , to run.- the 

lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, who 
are to serve in the Parliament Ihei eol on the pnrt 
nl Ireland, to be returned in Much manner m l>y 

any act of this present i e ion of the I 'aril nt 

nl [reland Bholl be provided ; and that the lords 
spiritual and temporal and commons of Great 
Britain shall, together with the lord piritua] and 

temporal and comn s so returned n afore aid 

mi the purl nl' [reland, constitute tho two hou es 
of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. 
Tbnl il Hi- Majesty, on or before the Hi i day 

of J tnuary. one thousand eight h Ired and one, 

mi which day the Union le to lake place hnll 
deel " '■. under the Greal Seul of Greal Bi il tin, 
iliii ii is expedient that tho lords and commons 

ni the present Parliament of Greal Britain si Id 

I"' Me- members of the respective boil ol the 

in i Parliament of the United K ingdon tho 

part of Grcul Britain; then the said lords and 

1 ""'ii i the |ir i. I'M liamcnl of Great 

U shall accordingly !"• the members of the 

i" pi ctive hou " of Hi" in i I'm litmenl of Ilia 
l nited I. ingdom on the pai t of Greal Britain ; 

and in" 1 , , i ther with the lord i ph itual and 

temporal and commons o itmmoned and return- 
ed ae aboi the pari of ii eland, shall bo the 

lords spiritual and temporal and con n ol the 

first Parliamenl of the United Kingdom ; and ic i 
fir i Parliamenl may (in that case) if not soonor 
dissolved, continue to sit bo long as the present 
Parliament of Great Britain ma; bj lawnow con- 
tinue i" -n ii in, i iei di oh "<1 : Provided 

always, 'I hal until an ai I hall liavi pn ed In the 
Parliament of the United Kingdom providing in 

what ni ■■ pel "'i ii" r place ol 

profll undei the cro« n of Ireland, hall be incap i - 

ble "l being ml I the I lou >e of Commons 

"i the Parli unent ol the i niti 'l Is ingdom 

greater nuinber of membei than I ■ enl . ho 

mil offices or placi I ifon aid ihall i apable 

of sitting in the laid 1 1"" •■ ol < ommon of l 
I'm liamenl "I the I nitcd K ingdom ; and ii such 
a number of •members shall be returned to sei a 

in Me- - tid hou ' i ,, hole number "I 

"" ni- 1 i "i ii" lid hou - hold h oflii i or 

place " ifon aid moi u than twenty . then and In 

-I lie eal oi placi ol neb membei a 

hi-. " mi accepted uch offices or j'l ici 

shall be vac I, at ilm option "l such membei . 

io to red i ci the Dumber ol members Inditing 

"i. "in.' or place to the number of twen 
hi i no i ' ' "ii holding uny such ofHi e or pi 

hall he i iji iblc "I In ing elected or "I Itting in 

tlie iid i while i here ai e twenl ■ p 

holdin uch office oi placi itting in the I 
hou e; and I it every one i ol pai lia- 

menl of Hi" Uuited Kingdom . id ever] momb i" 

"I III" I i I ' "ililie.il. in Mi" I ini.il kin;"|i in, 

. | I'll liulm il hull, 

. P liameut oi the United Kingdo u .. II 



: . J 






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otherwise provide, take ths oaths, and make and 
subscribe the declaration, and take and subscribe 
the oath now by law enjoined to be taken, made. 
and subscribed bj the lords and commons of the 
Parliament of t treat Britain 

fhal the lords of Parliament on the part of 
Ireland, in the House of Lords of the United 
Kingdom, shall at all times have the same privi- 
leges of Parliament which shall belong to the 
lords of Parliament on the part of Great Britain : 
and the lords spiritual and temporal respeotivelj 
on the part of Ireland shall at all times have the 
same rights in respect of their sitting and vi 
upon the trial of peers, as the lords spiritual and 
temporal respectively on the part of Greal 
Britain; and that all lords spiritual of Ireland 
shall have rank and precedency next and imme- 
diately after the lords spiritual of the same rank 
and degree of Great Britain, and shall enjoy all 
privileges as fully as the lords spiritual ol Greal 
Britain do now or may hereafter enjoj the same 
(the right and privilege of sitting in the House of 
Lords, and the privileges depending thereon, and 
particularly the right of Bitting on the trial of 
peers, excepted); and that the persons holding. 
any temporal peerages of Ireland, existing at the 
time of the Union, shall, from and alter the Union, 
hue rank and precedency next and immediately 
after all the persons holding peerages of the like 
orders and degrees in Greal Britain, subsisting at 
the time of the Union: and that all peerages ol 
Ireland created after the Union shall have rank 
and precedency with the peerages of the United 
Kingdom, so created, according to the dates ol 
their creations; and that all peerages both ol 
Great Britain and Ireland, now subsisting or here 
after to be created, shall in all other respects, from 

the dale .if the I llion, he Considered as peerage, 

of tin- United Kingdom; and that the peers ol 

Ireland shall, as peers of the United Kingdom, he 
sued and tried as peers, except a- aforesaid, and 
shall enjoy all privileges of peers as tally as the 
peers ol t.reat Britain; the right and privilege ol 
fitting in the Hon e ol Lords, and the privilege 
dcpcuding.thei'cou, and the right of silting- on the 
trial of peers, onlj excepted. 

Article V. 'I hat" it he the lii'lh article ol' Union, 
thai the churches ol' l'.ngland and Ireland, a- now 
by law established, be united into one Protestant 
Episcopal Church, to be called, 

,d ; and that the doctrine. 
worship, discipline, and government of the said 
United Church shall In' an. I -hall remain in lull 
forever, as the same are now by law estab- 
lished for the Church of England; and that the 
continuance and preservation of the said United 
t hurch as the Established > burch of England and 
Ireland, shall he deemed and taken to he an essen- 
tial and fundamental part of the Union ; ami that 
in like manner the doctrine, worship, discipline, 
and government ol" the Church of Scotland, shall 
remain and he preset \ i d a, the same are n..w i 5- 
tablished bj law, and bj the acts tor the Union ol 
the two kingdoms ol l'.ngland and Scotland. 

Article VI. 'I hat it he ihe sixth article of Union, 
thai llis Majesty's subjects of Great Britain and 
Ireland shall, from and after the firsl on ol Jan- 
nary, one thousand eight hundred ami one. be 

entitled to the same pri\ llegeS. and he ^n the -ante 

ajj . a- to em nis and bounties on the 

like to tides beii rwth pn luce or manu- 

facture of eithci i spectn ely, 

ally in respect of trade and navigation in all 
P its a in the United Kingdom and its 



dependencies ; and that in all treaties made by 
His Majesty, his heirs and successors, with any 
foreign power. His .Majesty's subjects of Ireland 
shall have the s privileges, and he on the sa in-' 

footing, as llis Majesty's subjects of Great Britain. 

That, from the first day of January, one thou- 
sand eight hundred and one. all prohibitions and 
bounties on the export of articles, the growth, 
produce, or manufacture of either country, to the 
other, shall cease and determine; and that the 
said articles shall thenceforth be exported from 
one country to the other, without duty or bounty 
on such export. 

Thai all articles, the growth, produce, or manu- 
facture of either country, (not hereinafter enume- 
rated as subject to specilic duties,) shall from 
thenceforth be imported into each country from 
the other, free from duty, other than such counter- 
vailing duties on the several articles enumerated 
in the Schedule Xuniher (lite. A. and 1!.. hereunto 
annexed, a- an' therein specified, or to such other 
countervailing duties as shall hereafter be impos- 
ed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, in 
the manner hereinafter provided; and that, lor 
the period of twenty years front the Union, the 
articles enumerated in the Schedule NumberTwo, 
hereunto annexed, shall be subject on importation 
into each country from the other, to the duties 
specified in the said Schedule NumberTwo; and 

the woolen manufactures, known by ti ames ol 

., shall pay, on importation 
into each country from the other, the duties now 
payable on importation into Ireland: Sail and 
hops, oil importation into Ireland from Great 
Britain, duties not exceeding those which are 

BOW paid on importation into Ireland ; and fo.ulri 

on importation into Ireland from Great Britain 

shall he subject to burdens not exceeding i 
to which the) are now subject. 

That calicoes and muslins shall, on their impor- 
tation into either country from the other, be sub- 
ject and liable to the duties now payable mi the 
same, on the importation thereof from Great 

Britain into Ireland, until the fifth day of January, 
one thousand eight hundred and eight ; and from 
and alter the said day, the said duties shall be 

annually reduced, by equal proportions, as near 

as may he ill each year, so as that the said duties 
-hall stand -at leu per centum from ami alter the 
tilth day of January, one thousand eight hundred 
ami sixteen, until the fifth day of January, one 
thousand eight hundred and twenty-one ; ami that 
cotton vara ami coiioti twist shall, on their impor- 
tation into either country from the other, be 
subject aud liable to the duties now payable upon 
the same mi the importation thereol from Great 
In itain into Ireland, until the li'th day of January, 
one thousand eight hundred and eight, and from 
and after the said day. the said duties shall be 
annually reduced by equal proportions as near 
as may he in each year, so that as that all duties 
shall cease on the said articles from and after the 
n oi January, one thousand eight hundred 

.icon. 
That any articles of the growth, produce, or 

i. 'lure ot either country, which are or may 
be subject to internal duty, or to duty on the 
materials Ol which they are composed, may be 
made subject, on their importation into each 
country respectively from the other, to such 
countervailing duty as shall appear to be just ami 
reasonable in respect ol such internal duty or 
- on the materials ; and that for the said 
purposes the articles specified in the said Schedule 



) 



is o : 



2& 



(g 



?4< 







5$% 






-»* »..* .* . 




APPENDIX. 



C27 



TP* 



Number One, A. and 15. Bhall be Bubject to the 
dutios Bet forth therein, liable to be taken off, 
diminished, or Increased, in the manner herein 

specified; and that upon U sport of the said 

articles from each country to the other respective- 
ly, a drawback shall be given equal in amounl to 
the countervailing duty payable on such articles 
on the import thereof into the Bame country from 
the other ; and that, in like manner in future it 
shall be competent to the United Parliament to 
impose any new or additional countervailing 
duties, or to take off, or diminish such existing 
countervailing duties as may appear, on like 

principles, to be just and reasonable in res] I of 

any fnture or additional internal duty on any 
article of the growth, produce, or manufacture of 
either country, or of any new or additional duty 
on any materials of which such article may be 
composed, ot of any abatement of duty on the 
Bame ; and that when any such new or additional 
countervailing duty shall be so imposed on the 
import of any article into either country from the 
other, a drawback, equal in amount to such coun- 
tervailing duty, shall be given in like manner on 
the export ol everj Bnch article respectively from 
the same country to the other. 

That all articles, the growth, produce, or manu- 
facture ol' either country, when exported through 
the other, shall in all cases be exported subject to 
tin- same Charges as if they had been exported 
directly from the country of which they wen' the 
growth, produce, or manufacture. 

That all duly charged on the import of foreign 
or colonial goods into either country, shall on 
their expert to the other, be either drawn back, 
or the amount, if any be retained, shall be placed 
to the credit of the country to which they shall be 
so exported, so long as the expenditure of the 
United Kingdom Bhall be defrayed by proportion- 
al contributions: Provided aluvn/s. That nothing 
herein shall extend to take away any duly, bounty, 
or prohibition, which exists with respect to corn, 
meal, malt, Hour, or biscuit; but that all duties, 
bounties, or prohibitions, on the said articles, may 

be regulated. l.U'ied. or repealed, from line- to 

ti , as the United Parliament shall deem expe- 
dient. 

Article VII. That it be the seventh article ot 
Union, that I he charge arising from the payment 
of tin' interest, and the sinking fund for th.- reduc- 
tion of the principal, of the debt incurred in 
cither kingdom before the Union, shall continue 
to be separately defrayed by Great Britain and 
Ireland respectively, except as hereinafter pro- 
vided. 

That for the space of twenty years alter the 
Union shall take place, the contribution of Great 
Britain and Ireland respectively, towards the ex- 
penditure of the United Kingdom in each year, 
shall be defrayed in the pro]. onion ot fifteen parts 

for Groat liritaiu and two parts for Ireland; and 
that at the expiration ol Ihct said twenty years, 
the future expenditure of the United Kingdom 
(Other than tie- interest and charges of lie; debt 

to w hich either country -hall l.e separately Liable,) 
shall bedefrayed in such proportion as the Pai 

liament of the United Kingdom shall deem just 

and reasonable upon a c parisou of the real 

vab f tie- exports and imports of the respective 

countries, upon an average ol the three years next 
preceding the period of revision; or on a com 

parison of the value of the quantities of the 
billowing articles consumed within the respective 
countries, on a similar average ; viz., beer, spirits, 



sugar, wine. tea. tobacco and mall : or according 
io die aggregate proportion resulting from both 
these i siderations combined; or on a compar- 
ison of the amount of income- in each country, 

estimated from the produce for the same pet iod ol 

a general lax, if such shall have been imposed on 

the same descriptions of income in both countries ; 
and that, the Parliament of the United Kingdom 
shall afterwards proceed in like manner to revise 
and fix the said proportions according to the Bame 
rules, or any of them, at periods not more distant 
than twenty years, nor less than seven years from 
each oilier; unless, previous to any such period, 
the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall have 
declared, as hereinafter provided, that the expen- 
diture of the United Kingdom shall be defrayed 
indiscriminately, by equal taxes imposed on the 
like articles in both countries: that, lor the de- 
fraying the saiil expenditure according lo the rules 
above laid down, the! revenues of Ireland 'hall 
hereafter constitute a consolidated fund, which 
shall be charged, in the first instance, with the 
interest id' the debt of Ireland, ami with the sink- 
ing fund applicable to the reduction of the said 

debt, and the remainder shall be applied towards 

defraying the proportion of the expenditure ot 
the United Kingdom, lo which Ireland may ho 
liable in each year: that the proportion of con- 
tribution to which Great Britain and Ireland will 
he liable, shall be raised by such taxes in each 
country respectively, as the Parliament of the 
United Kingdom shall from time to time deem til ; 
Provided always, That in regulating the taxes in 
each country, by which their respective propor- 
tions shall be levied, no article in Ireland shall be 
made liable to any new or additional duly, by 
which the whole amount of duty payable thereon 
would exceed the amount which will be thereafter 
payable in England on the like article: thai, if at 
the end of any year any surplus shall accrue from 
the revenues of Ireland, alter defraying Ihe 
interest, sinking fund, and proportional contribu- 
tion and Beparate charges to which the said country 
shall then be liable, taxes shall be taken oil' lo Ihe 
amounl of such surplus, or ihe surplus hill he 
applied by the Parliament ol tie- United Kingdom 
to local purposes in Ireland, or to make g,„„l any 
deficiency h hich may arise in the revenues of Ire- 
land in time of peace, oi' be invested, by the 
commissioners of the national debt of Ireland, in 
the funds, to accumulate hu- the benefit of Ireland 
at compound interest, in case of the contribution 
ol Ireland in lim" of war ; /'/ore/../. That the sur- 
plus so to accumulate shall at no future period lie 
Buffered to exceed the sum of five millions: that 
all moneys lo be raised alter the Union, by loan, 
in peace or war, for the service of the United 
Kingdom by the Parliament thereof, shall be con- 
sidered to be a joint debt, ami the charges thereol 
shall be borne by the respective countries in the 
proportion ol their respective conn 1 1) ii I io,,,; Pro- 
vided, That, if at any tunc, in rairing their respect- 
ive contributions hereby fixed lor each country, 
ihe Parliament of tie- United Kingdom shall judge 
i, in p, raise a greater proportion ol such respect- 
ive contributions in one country within the year 
than in the other, or lo set apart a greater propor- 
tion of sinking bind lor the liquidation ol the 
whole or any part ol the loan raced on account 
of the one country than that raised on account of 
l|„. other country, then such part of the said loan, 

lor the liquidation "l which different provisions 
shall lea.- been made for the respective countries, 

no by each 



% 



v 



I 



4k 




^LNC, iL-JUil.il 







4 



aitendix. 




K&KL v : 



ossaa 






.v 



separately, ami only that pari of the said loan be 
deemed joint and common, for the reduction of 
which the lespective countries Bhall have made 
provision in the proportion of their respective 
contributions: that, if at any future day the ep i 
rate debt of each country respectively shall have 
been liquidated, or, if the values ol their respect- 
ive debts (estimated according to the amount of 
the interest and annuities attending the same, and 
of the sinking fund applicable to the reduction 
thereof, and to the period within which the whole 
capital of such debt Bhall appear to be redeemable 
by such sinking fund) shall be to each other in 
the same proportion with the respective contribu- 
tions of each country respectively : or if the 
amount by h hich the value of the larger of such 

debts shall vary ft such proportion> shall not 

exceed hundredth part of the said value; 

and if it shall appear to the Parliament of the 
1 nited Kingdom, that the respective circumstances 
of the two countries will thenceforth admit of 
their contributing indiscriminately, bj equal taxes 
imposed on tit" same articles in each, to the future 
expenditure of the United Kingdom, it shall be 
competent to the Parliament of the Dnited King- 
dom to declare, that all future expense thence 
forth to be incurred, together with the interest 
and charges of all joint debts contracted previous 
to such declaration, shall be so detrayed indis 
crimiuately by equal taxes imposed on the same 
articles in each country, and thenceforth from 
time to time, as circumstances may require, to 
impose and apply such taxes accordingly, subject 
only to such particular exemptions or abatements 
in Ireland, and in that part of Great Britain called 
Scotland, as circumstances may appear from lime 
to time to demand : that, rrom the period of such 
declaration, it shall no longer be necessary to 
regulate the contribution of the two countries to 
wards the future expenditure of the United King- 
dom, according to any specific proportion, or 
according to any ol the rules herein before de 
sei ibed ; /' ■ erffteii se, Thai the iuteresl 

or charges which may remain on account of any 
p nt ol the separat <• debt with which either country 
shall be chargeable, and which shall not be liqui- 
dated or consolidated proportionably as above 
shall, until extinguished, continue to be defrayed 

li\ separate taxes ill eaeh country ; that a BUU), 

ii.it less than the ^iiiu which has been granted by 
the Parliament of Ireland on the average ol six 
years immediately preceding the first d.\y of Jan 
nary, in the year one thousand eight hundred, 
in premiums for the internal encouragement of 
agriculture or manufactures, or for the maintain- 
ing institutions for pious and charitable purposes, 
shall be applied, for the period of twenty years 
alter the Union, to snob local purposes in Ireland, 
in such manner as the Parliament of the United 
Kingdom shall direct; that, from and alter the 
firs! day ol January, one thousand eight hundred 
and one, all public revenue arising to the United 



Kingdom from the territorial dependencies thereof, 
and applied to the general expenditure of the 
United Kingdom, shall lie so applied in the pro- 
portions of the respective contributions of the two 
countries. 

Article VIII. That it be the eighth article o! 
the Tit ion. that all laws in force at the lime of the 
Union, and all the courts of civil and ecclesiastical 
jurisdiction within the respective kingdoms, shall 
remain as now by law established » ithin the same, 
subject only to such alterations and regulations 

from time to time as circumstances may appear lo 

the Parliament ol the United Kingdom to require. 
Provided, That all writs of error and appeals de- 
pending at the time of the Union or hereafter to 
he brought, and which might now lie finally de- 
eded by the House of lands of either kingdom, 
shall, from and alter Ihe Union, he finally decided 
by the House of Lords of the United Kingdom; 
.i»i/ prtnirfnl. That from and after the Union, there 
shall remain in Ireland an instance Court of Ad- 
miralty, for the determination of causes, civil and 
maritime only, and that the appeal from sentences 

Of the said Court shall fie to His Majesty's dele. 

gates in his Court of Chancery in that part of Ihe 
l nited Kingdom called Ireland ; and that all laws 
at present, in force in either kingdom, which shall 
be contrary to anj of the provisions which may 
lie enacted by any act for carrying these articles 
into effect, be from and after the Union repealed. 
And whereas, the said articles having, by ad- 
dress of the respective Bouses of Parliament in 
Great Britain and Ireland, been humbly laid 
before His Majesty. His Majesty lias been gracious- 
ly plea-ed to approve the same; and to recom- 
mend it to his two Houses of Parliament in Greaf 
Britain and Ireland, to consider of such measures 

a- may he i -sary forgiving elfeel lo the said 

articles; in order, therefore, to give lull effect 

and validity to the same, lie if enacted by the 

King's Host Excellent Majesty, by and with the 
advice and consent of the lords spiritual and tem- 
poral, and commons, in this present Parliament 
assembled, and by the authority of the same, that 
the said foregoing recited article-, each and every 
one of them, according to the true import and 

tenor thereof, be rat died, confin I, and approved, 

and he and they are hereby declared to lie the 

allele- ot the I'llioll ol '(ire.lt I In l.li II a nd Ireland, 
and the same shall lie ill force and hue effect for- 
ever, from the first day ol January, which shall 
lie in the year ol our Lord, one thousand eight 
hundred and one. Pmvided, That before that 
peii.nl an act shall have been passed by the Par- 
liament of Ireland, for carrying into effect, in the 
like manner, the said foregoing recited articles. 

| Here rollows the supplementary enactment for 
regulating the mode ol summoning the Irish lords 
an. I commons to sit in the then current United 
Parliament. This enactment is sufficiently de- 
scribed iu the text.] 






W\ 



j 






W>':^ 



Al 



. 






APPENDIX No. IV. 



PROCLAMATIONS FOUND IN EMMETS ARMS-DEPOTS, INTENDED 
TO BE ISSUED ON THE DAY OF THE OUTBREAK. 



>!■:• 



«:. 



,£ ^3 o.a 



/ Provisional Government to the People of 
Treland : — 
" Yon are now called upon to show lo the world 

thai yon are < ipetent to take your place among 

nations, that you have ;i right to claim their re- 
cognizance "I yon as an independent country, by 
the only satisfactory proof you can furnish of your 
capability of maintaining your independence, 
vour wresting it from England with jonr own 
hands. 

••In the development of this system, which lias 
been organized within the last eight months, at 

the c of internal defeat, and without the hope 

of external assistance; which bas been conducted 
with a tranquillity, mistaken ror obedience ; which 
neither the failure ol a Bimilar attempt in England 
bas retarded, nor the renewal of hostilities lias 
accelerated ; in the development of this system, 
you will show to the people of England, that 
there is a spirit of perseverance in this country 

beyond their power to calculal ' repress. You 

will show tin-in. that as long as they think to hold 
unjust dominion over Ireland, under no change of 

circumstance: can they i it upon its obedience ; 

under no aspect of affairs can they judge of its 
intentions ; yon will show in them, that the ques- 
tion, which it now behooves them to take into 
mil instant consideration, is not, whether 
tbey will resist a separation, which it is our fixed 
determination to effect, but whether or not they 
will drive us beyond separation; whether they 
will, by a sanguinary resistance, create a deadly 
national antipathy between the two countries, or 
whether they will take the only means still left 
of driving such a sentiment from our minds— a 
prompt, manly, and Bagacioua acquiescence in our 
ju i and unalterable detei initiation. 

•■ If the Bccrecy, with which the present effort 
bas been conducted shall have led our enemies to 
suppose, thai it - extent mnst have boon p u tial, 
a lew days will undeceive them. That confidence, 
which was once lost by trusting to external sup- 
port, and Kuffering our own means to be gradually 
undermined, has been again restored. We have 
bi en mutually pledged to each other, to look only 
al our oh ii strength and thai the first introduction 
of a system of terror, the firsl attempt to execute 
an individual in one county, should i»- asignal for 
insurrection in all. We have now, without the 

with our ans of communication 

nigh! our plans to the moment when 
for execution, and in the prompti- 

ich nineteen counties will co 

i- in execute them, it will be found 
unfidonoo inn' communication are 
people of Ireland. 
a our coiinti \ men to come forward, 
.ves bound at the Bame time, to 
m in their confidence by a precise 

mi- i iews. We, theref Bolemnly 

r object is to i stabli b a free and 

, ublic in Ireland ; thai the pursuit 

we will relinquish only with our 

ill never, but al the express call 

abandon our post till theackuowl- 

iud pendence U obtained from 

that wu will enter into uo negotia- 

7U 




tion (but for exchange of prisoners) with the 
government of that country, while a British army 
remains in Ireland. Such is the declaral ion H bich 
wo cull on the people of Ireland to support. 
And we call first on that pail of Ireland which 
was once paralyzed by the wani of intelligence, 
to show thai to thai cause only was its Inaction to 
be attributed; on that pail of Ireland which was 
once foremost by iis fortitude in suffering; on 
that part of Ireland which once offered to take 
the salvation of the country on itself; on that 
part of Ireland where the Same of liberty lir.st 
glowed; we call upon the North to stand up and 
shake off their slumber and oppressions. 

" Citizens of Dublin : 

"A band of patriots, mindful of their oath anil 
faithful to their engagement 08 United Irishmen, 
have determined to give freedom to their country, 
and :i period to the long career of English op- 
pression. 

"In this endeavor they are now successfully 
engaged, and their efforts are seconded by com- 
plete and universal cooperation from the country, 
every part of which, from the extremity of the 
North to that of the South, pours forth its warriors 
in support of our hallowed cause. Citizens of 
Dublin, we require your aid ; necessary secrecy 
has prevented, to many of you, notice of our 
plan, but the erection of our national standard, 
the sacred, though long degraded, Green, will Iw 
Sufficient to call to arms and rally round it every 

man in whose breast exists a spark of patriotism 

or sense ol duly. Avail yourselves of your local 
advantages — in a city each Btreet becomes a defile, 
ami each hou e a battery- impede the march of 
your oppressors -charge them with the arms of 
the brave — the pike — and from your windows and 
tools hurl stones, bricks, bottles ami all oilier 
convenient implements, on the head of the satel- 
lites of your tyrant, the mercenary, the sanguinary 
soldiery of England. 

'•Orangen ! add not to the catalogue of your 

follies ami crimes ; already have you been duped 
to tlie ruin of your country, in the legislative 
union with its tyrant attempt not an opposition, 
which will carry with it your inevitable destruc- 
tion. Return from your pal lis of delusion, return 
to the arms of your countrymen, who will receive 
and hail your repentance. 

"Countrymen of all descriptions, let us act 
with union and conceit. All -eels. Catholic, Profc- 
e unit. Presbyterian, are equally and indiscrim- 
inately embraced in ihe benevolence of your 
object. Repress, prevenl and discourage excesses, 

pillage and intoxication ; let each mall do Im 
duty, and remember, that during public agitation 
inaction becomes a crime, lie no other competi- 
tion known than thai of doing good; remember 
against whom you fight ; your oppressors lor six 
hundred years. Remember their massacres, their 
tortureB— remember yourmurdered friends your 

burned I see your violated females keep in 

mind your country, to whom we are now ghing 
her high rank among nations, ami in Ihe honest 
tenor of feeling, let us exclaim, that as in the 
hour of her trial we Berve Ibis country, so may 
God serve us in that, which will be lu.tl of all." 



N 



f, 



rU' 



IP 



it 



-tbSHLU. ^-'iUKfi ,CeUNKw*.i(, 








INDEX. 



K 



5 



R? 






W 




A message of peace to Ireland 
Abb£ MacGeoghegan 

Abbe 1 'it llilil 

Abolition of negro slavery . 
Absenteeism .... 
Account of lirst rising . 
Acl repealed .... 
Act dI Union .... 

Acts hi attainder . 

Address of the American Congress 

Address of tbe Catholics received 

Address to the patriot minorities 

Address to the King 

Addresses .... 

Addresses of loyalty 

Adopted precautions 

Adi erse winds 

Affidavits .... 

Agber, rector of 

Agit ition lor Septennial Parliaments 

Agitation apon Catholic claims 

Ajax 

Alarm in England . 

Alarms 

Alarms got np by (government 
Albermarle's battalions 
Alliance with Austria 
Almanza, battle of . 
Alms, repudiation of 
American affairs 
American corn 
American revolution 
American slavery . 
Amiens, peace of . 
Amnesty act .... 
Ancient Britons at Ballyellis . 
Ami I'm a hundred and eleven 
Anderson .... 
Anglo-Irish nationality . 

Anne of Denmark . 
Anne's brother 

Announcement of compensation 
Answers ..... 

Anti-Gallican .... 

Antrim 

Antrim, earls of 

Arachue ..... 

Aragon, troops of . 

Arch-agitator .... 

Archbishop Burnet 

Archbishop of Canterbury 

Archibald Hamilton Rowan, escape 

Archibald Hamilton Rowan, prose 

Archibald Hamilton Rowan, treaso 

\rchly dropped 

Arguments of Macaulay 

Ark of salvation 

Arklow, Bgbt at 

Armagh assizes 

Armagh county, reign of terror in 

Armed force, efforts to establish 

Armed force opposed 



of 
in in 
n of 



n of 



paqp: 
. 70 
. 4 
. 699 
. 517 
. 63 
. 312 
. 152 
. 884 
. 848 
. 116 
. 78 
. 145 
. 151 
. 211 
. 283 
. 553 
. 275 
. 201 
. 88 
. 91 
. 215 
. 53 
. 68 
. 177 
. 177 
. 34 
. 24 
. 83 
. 552 
.114 
. 5(i8 
. 114 
. 649 
. 415 
. 389 
. 830 
. 376 
. «1 
. 18 
. 22 
. 3(i 
. 390 
. 216 
. 201 
. 882 
. 43 
. 46 
. 34 
. 610 
. It) 
. 669 
. 284 
. 282 
. 234 
. 310 
1 
. 435 
. 822 
. 265 
. 258 
. 25!) 
. 26>J 



Armed negotiators . • 

Arming . . ... 
Arms act .... 

Armstrong, informer 

Arrest of Arthur O'Connor . 
Arrest, of chiefs In Dublin 
Arresfcand death of Edward Fitzgerald 
ArreBt of the Sheares 
Arrests ..... 
Arrests of Bond and liutler . 
Arthur Wellesley . 
Arthur Young, testimony of . 
Articles ..... 
Articles, Castlereagh proposes 
Articles exported Irom Ireland 
Articles Finally adopted . 
Articles imported into Ireland 
Articles of Limerick, act to confirm 

Arts of governi it 

Ascendancy, iu.Milcnce of the 

Asks indemnity 

Assurance of protection 

Athy barracks 

Atrocious bill 

Attack on Carlow . 

AtWOpd and Carey . 

Augbrim', avenge the carnage of 

Augmentation of the army . 

Avesncs 

Baltina 

Ballinahinch .... 
Ballycannoo, actions at . 
Ballyellis, combat at 
Banishment bill . . . 
Bank of Ireland 

Bank of Ireland, no Catholics in 
Bantry l!ay expedition . 

Bar n ling .... 

Barcelona, siege of . 

Baron Macaulay 

Barry Vclverlon 

Batai ian expedition, disastrous fate of the 

Batavian republic . 

Bailie of Dettingen 

Battle of the Diamond . 
Battle of Landen . . . 

Battle of Meeai . 

Battle of Steinkirk 
Bear arms .... 
Beaucliamp Bagenal Harvey . 
Beggarly Corporation, a 
Belfast mob .... 

Belfast, Tone goes to 
Belfast, town council of. 
Bereslord Burton . 
Beresford, dismissal of . 
Bereslord, John Claudius 
liurestord's riding house 
Bernard Crosson of Mullanabrack 

Berkeley 

Berkeley's querist . 



Ka 




,i . . _ — . . ■ _ _ 



' 



' ,-^Vn 



w 



632 



IN D 



Berwick-upon-Tweed 

I: i w ick'a array 

i lieo Inform^ .... 

Bill ol resumption . 

Hill of righto .... 

Bi iop Aiiorlinry . 

Bishop of Cloj ue . 

op of Derrj . George Stone 
Bishop of Quimper, the . 
Black li-t .... 
Bloody riot .... 
Boia ile Barri .... 
Bolingbroke impeached . 
Bond dies in pi ison 
l;. 'ill.' riot, ilio 

Ion bons, restoration of tho . 
I"'\ le ainl Matone . . . 
Bradstreel the reoordei . 

Bi mded 

Bra ''ii bead hotel . 
lir. mi in the ecclesiastical historian 
Brian boru .... 
Kill..' the priests, new attempt to 
Briberies of Buckingham 
Bring in tin- Pretender . 

Bl' li-li famine policy 

British museum 
I'm isl) i ''.rails 

Brother! .1 .... 

Broth' i ires h mged 

Bi othei - She ires, the 
Brothers She ires 1 1 ied . 
In ,n il treatment ol pri 
Buckingham leaves Ireland . 
Buonaparte al foulon 
Buonaparte, hh-.v.-.'s of 
Pin ke'a book .... 
ll\ mo hanged 

Caithness Legion . 

i ' ledouia .... 

Calm in Ireland 

i . ttdon and I larbampton 

Camperdowi 

(.'.uimul:. death of . 
Capitulation <'t I limeriok 
i laptaiu Luke Law less . 
C.ipinr.- ..I Namur . 
Caravata .... 
Cardinal Iberoni . 

. ;i tl \\ i-em.iu . 

Carrickshook .... 

tile, nobles of . 
< lastle press .... 

. eagli cuts ins throat 

Castlereagh's explanation 
Castlereagh's judicious measures 
. 

ilic, Protestant marrying a 
c liolio address 
■ itholio address nol noticed . 

i. commencement 
Catha ." .hi. .n. action of mo 
Cathol oialion formed . 

olic bishops loj al . 
i board 

C« iM. clergy, preoarious condition o 
Catholic com ention 
C i i >n. deputation to 

Cull'.'::.' emancipation . 
Catholic general committee . 
Catholic general committee, progr 




of 



the 

ja oi' 



PAQX 

. 257 

I 

. '.': I' 
. 'J I 
. l.'l 

. 42 

. CO 

. 62 

. -tr.ii 

. 407 



429, 



. in 

. 42 

. 335 

. 494 

. -is:; 
. 71 
. no 
. 628 
. 21U 
. -II 

. 112 
. 13!) 
. 196 

19, ." I 

. ."...t 

. '.' il 

. SS5 

. 294 

185 
193 
27li 

in. 
202 
S3 i 



:;:;i 

;ii. 

43 
284 
27 (i 
502 

li. 
I-.. 

13 
461 

•17 
CO I 
516 

:;i 
■j 1 1 
622 
i;i.; 
:;7i 

48 

7 

■ 

56 

78 

499 

194 

283 

7 

in;. 

220 

220 

■110 

•J J: i 

207 



. ; ■. 



ilio 



Catholio meeting in Dublin 

Cull.. in- in etings . 

Catholic officers' bill 

Catholic petition . . . 

Catholic petition presented 

i ittholio petition, refusal to present 

Catholic question in the \\ big club 

Catholic relief 

Catholic relief bill, provisions of 

i latholic relief immediately proposed 

Catholic relier, trifling measure ol 

Catholio rout .... 

Catholio tradesmen ami artificers 

i latholic university 

os an.l Dissenters 

Catholics, oivil an.l religious liberties ol 

Catholics duped, i ho 

i latholics excluded . 

< 'nil. .lios exoluded by a resolution 

Catholics, t'xtei mination of . 

Catholics, liumiliation ol' the . 

Catholics, loyaltj ..I tho 

i ' uh .il, -. iii i" istratos marrying 

i ' itholics, pin. us gh on io 

Catholics, promises i" the 

Catholics, rage against the 

i ' itholics, temporary toleration ol 

i Jeltio oloiiioni 

Celtic race, plen lor the . 

Censuring the Irish government 
" dj misty in France . 
■I dust Sarsfiold . . 

Charlemont .... 

Cbarlemont's intolerance . 

Charles B ill, ••: Clogher 

i ihateau Renault 

Chatham, conquests of . 

i Iheap ejectmenl laws passed . 

i ihevalier ,!' Rntrngues . 

('hio: Justice Robinson . 

( Ibiefa exeouted in \\ exford . 

Cholera 

Christ church cathedral . 

Church in dauger . 

Church, Km;; head of tho 

Church ..i En 'land, rites of tho 

Church rates .... 

Church temporalities act 

. .'I' 

c,\ il constitution . 

eagh . 

Clare constantly employed 

Clare election .... 

Clare's dragoons 

Clonmeljail .... 

Clontarf war .... 

Coal-porters .... 

Cockayne .... 

Coercion an.l anarchy, beginning o 

Coercion, preparing for . 

Colonel irw in .... 

Colouy oi the Palatines . . 

Commissioners, betrayed by . 

i ',.iii:iii doners of public accounts 
public M orks 

Committee on grievances 

Commodore Bompart 

Comp i pi isoners ami go 

■ i i \ olated bj government 
' irisoo between Ireland ami 

Compensation not . 

ition hall . . . 
■ <n\ .... 



I,,, 



VOl'lltllOIlt 

olonies 



222 

•j i.i 
495 

s 
607 

112 

17 

11.1 

I GO 

7 
■Jin 

I I 

17 

,' :■ . 

S81 
58 
72 

189 

too 
II 1 

,' 16 

i' 

138 

170 

I,.* 

12 

i. li 
:'.-• 

41 
S27 

61t:- 

4 

4 CI 

t 
,'.il 

t". : 7 

.".17 
L'I:' 



50 i 
S '• 
689 
5 16 
11 
234 
2IH 
532 
143 

oil 



1 1 



11 1 

107 
637 
609 



'■'> 




--■■S..V 



r i 




& 






/ 






% 



y 



v 



^ 



f®. 






%€<h 






INDEX. 



C33 



69, 1!) 



Concordat .... 

Condition of the country 

i null cated e tab . commission of 

i lonflicl "i jurisdiction . 

i longress al Philadelphia 

Conolly 

( lonsolidated, farms to be 
ConBtantine Pbipps 

Constituti i mies of tin! . 

Constitution in church and state 
Contagion of American opinions in Ireland 
i oiihiiiliI defeats oi patriots . , 

< lorn ention oci 

i lonvention dissolved .... 

Convention in Dublin 

( lonvictt bung at Clogheen 

Cornwall is and Custlereagb, labors of 

i !ornwallis collects an army . 

Cornwallis encounters them at BalUnamuck 

Cornwallis marches to meet the Preach 

< lornwallis on a tour 
Cork constitution . 
Corn laws, repeal of the 
Corruption 

Corry attacks Grattan . 
( iounci! of three hundred 
i 'ountess "i t irkney 
I lountry not dead, tlie 
Country, Btate of the 
County Cavan, Quiloa's retreat in 
( lourt and country parties 
Court, influence of the . 
Courl majorities 
( 'uuii of Delegates 
i .mi i of Exchequer 
( lourt of St. GermaiiM . 
( 'ourl martial 
i Ireating influence . 
Cremona ..... 
Cromwellian Bquires 
Cromweliian, the stern . 
< Iroppie lie down .... 
Culloden ..... 

<n i I Hook-vogue and Monageer 

Curfew 

Curran 

Curran in court .... 
Curran'a description of informers . 
< 'urran'e promotion 
Curran's speech .... 



I'AOC. 

486 

60fi 

20 

46 

118 

171 

.',17 

-111 

44 

80 

115 

. 192 

. 227 

. 168 

159, 219 

. 103 



884, 365 



Daly's attack 

Daniel O'Connell .... 
Dead majority .... 
Dean oi St. Patrick's 

1 lean Swift 

Dean Swift, perils of 

Dean Swift's Irish patriotism . 

Dean Synge 

Death by starvation 

Death of Boulter .... 

I >.- .til oi Hocbe 

Death of Lucas .... 

Death of Sarsflcld .... 

Debates on money bills . 

Debal the nipplies . 

Debt, rapid increase of . 

i lei ■ p i engers .... 

Declaration 

Declaration defeated in Parliament 
Declaration of right 
Declaration uci essful in the country 
Decline of trade . . 



885, 897 
. 369 
8. r >4 
. 368 
. 886 
. 66 l 
. 663 

887, 4 li!) 
. 895 
. 548 
. 20 
. 405 
. 4:t 
. 62 
. in 
. 85 
. 17(1 
. 20 
. 46 
. II 

369, 864 
. 214 
. 32 
. 142 
. 6 
. 600 
. 71 
. 310 
. 286 
. 167 
. 336 
. 2*1 
. 449 
. 281 

. 393 
. 888 
. 201 
. Ill 
. :\'.) 
. 41 
. 89 
. 5 
. 662 
. 62 
. 275 
. 112 
. 12 
. 59 

'. 45 i 
. 668 
. 11 
. 13« 
. 186 
. [36 



Defeat or the French 
Defenceless state of the country 

Defenders 182,195, 

Defenders, trials of. 

Demand tor reform . 

Depopulation .... 

i lepre Ion of Catholics 

De olatlon of the country 

Despnrd's conspiracy In England 

Devon commission 

Dige "i the evidence . 

Digest of the ropery laws 

Dingle bay . . ... 

Disaffection .... 

Dissensions .... 

Dissensions as to rights of CaMiol 

l ii enters, agitation ol . 

Dissenters, clause against the 

i >i .Hi. 'i . |, i h eness of the 

Dissenters, Swift's virulence against the 

Dissenters, the 

Distinctions kept up 

Distress of the country . 

hi .I.' of the people 

Distribution of Beats 

Dii i ion 

Dizoi 

Doctor Dopplng, Bishop of Meath 

Doctor Doyle ; "J, K. I,." . 

Doctor Duigenan 

Doctor Duigenan privy-councillot 

Doctor Lucas .... 

Doctor Madden 

Doctor Mmcioii 

Doctoi Newman 

i loctor Reynolds 

Doctor Sacheverell . 

Doctor Samuel Johnson . 

Doctor Wbateley, archbishop of Dublii 

Dolly's Brae .... 

Dominant nation, the 

Donegal to Kerry, from . 

Down county. Castlereagb defeated 

Drapier's Idlers 

Dublin Catholics against union 

Dublin, decline of . 

Dublin grand jury, advice to the 

Dublin police bill . 

Dublin, reign of terror in 

Dnblin, riot in 

Dui, liu. torpor and gloom in . 

Dublin, toi ture In . 

Dublin university . 

Dublin eolunteei j under arms 

Duel oi t.i attan and Corry . 

Dully, trial of .... 

Duke of Bedford's coach 

Dui. i- of Berwick . 

Duke of Cumberland 

Duke oi Dot et, unpopularity of 

Duke of Richmond's policy . 

Duke of Rutland, death of 

Duke of Savoy 

Duke of Wellington 

Dnmouriez and Jemappes 

Dnie .in'.- fleet 

Dungannou convention, ti i -it . 

Dungannon convention, second 

Dangannon, meeting in church at 

Dm bam i-cur,ii,ies . . . 

Karl (jf Drogheda . . . 
Earl ol KilcUre 



* 



;? 



% 










PAGK 




r. 



w 






Earl of Kildare's address 

Earl of Mar . 

Earl of Shannon, death of 

Earnest language . 

Ecclesiastical tilles bill . 

Edicl <>l Nantes, recall of the 

Editors bribed 

Edmund Burke 

Educated classes bought 

Edward Fitzgerald . 

Edward Sprag 

Edward Sullen 

Effort i" save Byrne and Bond 

Efforts of patriots . 

Efforts of patriots all in vain . 

Efforts to delay explosion 

Eighteen persons banged 

Eighty two club 

Elections, interference in 

Emancipation act, passage of the 

Emancipation refused 

Embezzlement 

Emigration .... 

Emigration agent . 

Emmet arrested 

Emmet, examination of . 

Gunnel executed 

Emmet retires to Wicklow 

Emmet returns to Dublin 

Emmet, Thomas Addis . 

Emmet's evidence . 

Encouragement to fisheries 

End devastations 

Ktal of insurrection of 1798 . 

England against repeal . 

England yields at once . 
English commercial policy 
English interest, triumph of . 
English parliament, decisive action of the 
English parliament, predominance of tho 
English parliament, the Union in 
Enmity of Flood and Grattan 
Enuiscorthy, storm of 

Eniiiskillen y< ten infantry . 

Enthusiasm of the people 
Erin s" bragh .... 
Escheatorship of Minister 
Essex Fencibles 
Established church . 
European revolutions 

E\ idence extorted . 
Excitement against Catholics . 
Excitement in Dublin 
Executions .... 
Executed in Wexford, loyalists 

Exodus 

Expedition of Dutch government 

Expenditures of the kingdom 

Explosion in Patrick street . 

Exterminating, necessity of . 

Extermination 

Extinction of civil existence lor Catholics 

Extravagance and corruption 

Failure of Forbes' motion 
Failure of Grattan's efforts . 
Failure of the patriots . 
Famine ..... 
Famine carnage, progress of . 
Famine carnage, statistics of . 
Famine, cause of the 
Famine, horrors of the . . 
Famine of 1S17 ... 



,647 



;;:;; 



42 

95 
4U6 
60S 

31 
575 
142 
511 
222 

14 
530 
335 
189 
190 
294 
429 
561 

4:)S 

508 

441 

107 

,697 

626 

426 

368 

426 

426 

426 

217 

300 

117 

340 

355 

533 

, 151 

, (II 

111 

, 18 

17 

, 40 

. 155 

, 313 

262 

. 543 

, 330 

. 373 

. 2(12 

. 51)5 

. 580 

. 304 

. 231 

. 374 

. 305 

. 321 

. 698 

. 2li9 

. 141 

. 42:'. 

. 544 

. 02."> 
. 8 
. 91 

. 180 
. 178 
. 92 
. 57 
. 560 
. 592 
. 491 
. 491 
. 489 



'^u . .;i uNbgVi 




Famine of 1822 . 

Famines, other 

Father John Murphy 

Father John Murphy, fate of . 

Father Maguire 

Father Philip lioche . . 

Father Tyrrell 

Faulkner's journal . 

Fenian 

Fermanagh yeomanry . 

Fighting men .... 

Financial distress . 

Financial frauds 

First act in violation of the treaty 

First octennial parliament dissolve 

First parliament in this reign 

First recognition of the Catholics as 

First Ulster regiment 

First united Irish club . 

First whisper of repeal . 

Fitzgerald and Ay liuer. surrender 

Fitzgerald, treatment of 

Fitzgerald's Bpeech on pension list 

Fitzgibbpn's speech on the regency 

Fitzwilliam recalled 

Fitzwil liam's administration 

Five years of independence 

Fleet anchors in Bantry bay 

Flesh brush 

Flogging sheriff of Tipperary 

Flood and the patriots 

Flood's reform bi" 

Flood's reform bill rejected 

Fontainbleau . 

Foutenoy 

Forbes and the pension list 

Forfeitures of rich estates 

Forged assassination list 

Formation of an Irish character 

Fortj -shilling freeholders 

Four thousand 

Foxliuulcrs' corps . 

Fox's martyrs 

France' and England in India 

France, coalition against 

Francis Bacon 

Flee parliament 

Free trade 

Freer trade act 

Freeman's journal . 

French and Americans at Yor 

French, conduct of the . 

French, disasters of the . 

French give a ball . 

French government, designs 

French lauding under llumbci 

French principle 

trench republic declares war 

French revolution . 

French revolution, progress of the 

Galling ascendancy of privileged neighbors . 

Gardiner's measure 

Gardiner's measure, Burke's opinion of 

Gardiner's measure, debate on 

Gardiner's measur 

Garrett Fennel] 

General Abercrombie 

General Abercroinbie, resignation 

General corruption . 

General Daendels . . . 

General determination . 

General lioche 




A 






of 






•;0 



General Lake in the rili 

General order, remarkable 

< reogbegans, the 
George I 

1 1 ge I., death of. 

i re Ill 

Germanic empire, power of the 
Gibbet Rath of Kildare, massacre at 
Giukell, ai my of 
Ginki'U's camp ... 

Glenlyon .... 
Godericb cabinet . 
Good effects in the south 

< rovernment funds . 
Government intention at, Clontarf 
Government, majority for . 

Governments] i feeding 

Government supporters, discipline 
Grain, Btopping export of 
( rrand scale of bribery 
Gratitude and affeotion 

Grattan 98, 11 

Grattan advocates coercion . 

Grattan on tithes 

Grattan's emancipation * > 1 1 1 . 

Grattan's financial expose" 

Grattan's motion for free trade 

Grattan's picture of the times 

Grattan's revenue bill 

Great despondency 

Great di>iress .... 

Great majorities 

Grievances of the Protestant colonies 

Growing liberality . 

Gunpowder act 

i runpowder plot 

Habeas Corpus act 

Habeas Corpus, suspension of 215, 41 
493, 617, 52 
Hague, the .... 
Halt-banging .... 
Hamilton Rowan . 
Haudcock of Athlone 
Handcock's son;; and palinode 
Hanging of Father Redmond 
Hans Hamilton 
Hapless enthusiasm 
Harcourt Lees 

Hardy 

Harvey, Beancbamp Bagenal. 

Harvey commands insurgents 

Harvey shocked 

Harvey summons New Ross to sui 

Head pacificator of Ireland . 

Hell or Connaught. to . 

Hercules Langrisbe 

Heroism of Catholic priests . 

Hessians' free-quarters, the 

Hoadley appointed to the sec of A 

lloche captured, the 

Hochstet, battle of . 

Holj wells, laws againsi meeting at 

Horrible atrocities in Wexford 

Horror of French principles . 

House of Hanover, loyalty to the 

House "f Hanover, toleration and 

House of Tbomond 

1 1 ue and Cry 

Hugh M'Fay, of Seagoe 

Hunter Gowan 

Hnssey Burgh . 

Uyberuicuj 



ender 



rmagh 



r the 



123 



261 

288 

81 

•12 

51 

85 

22 

305 

1 

2 

10 

602 

207 

52:; 

535 

395 

573 

122 

577 

391 

188 

120 

. 489 

. 178 

. 481 

. HI 

. 130 

. 291 

. 100 

. 239 

. 53 

. 442 

. 13 

. 403 

. 227 

. 001 



428 
578 



140 
4 30 
580 
270 
295 
193 
387 
387 
334 
370 
159 
40-1 
107 
310 
319 
321 
310 
537 
240 
171 

47 
280 

62 
357 



30 
2:il 
202 
218 
105 
537 
400 
203 
201 
131 
413 



up the English 



Illegal combinations 

Imperial standard, a now 

Impression of horror 

Imprisoned without charge 

Improvement "I the country . 

Income ami expenditure of Ireland, accou 

Incumbered estates act . 

Indemnity act 

Independence, claim of . 

Independence of Curran 

Independent kingdom . 

Individual representative 

Informers honorable, making 

Ingratitude "I the Irish '. 

Inquiry demanded . 

Insanity of the king 

Insolence of ministers . 

Insolence of the castle . 
Insult, to tin' crown . 
Insurgent camp at Gorey 
Insurgents defeated 
Insurrection act 
Insurrection breaks out . 
Insurrection first 
Insurrection in Scotland . 
Interest, new plan of keepin 
Intimidation . 
Invasion, alarm about . 
Invasion, apprehensions of an 
Inverriggen and MacDonalds 
Ireland, address to the people 
Ireland, distress in . 

Ireland, laudable efforts for poor . 
Ireland loyal ..... 
Ireland on her smaller end 
Ireland, peace in 
Ireland, promises of gain to . 
Ireland, resolutions adopted in every 1 
Ireland, supremacy of England over 
Ireland to save a million a-year 
Ireland, unhappy Catholics of 

Irish act fur electors 

Irish army, uniforms of the . 
Irish articles, nun confirmation of . 
Irish brigade, casualty in the 
Irish brigade, the .... 
Irish Catholics, divisions amongst . 
Irish Catholics, reliance in 
Irish confederation, end of 

Irish debt 

Irish debt, history of 
Irish exiles in France 
Irish families suffering . 

Irish Felon 

Irish harvests go to England . 

Irish House of Lords favor an Union 

Irish independence .... 

Irish independence, effects of. 

Irish legion in France . 

Irish on the Continent . 

Irish I Irangemen .... 

Irish parliament .... 

Irish parliament, corruption of 

Irish parliament, declaratory act of 

Irish parliament, degraded condition 

Irish peerage 

Irish Protestant nationality . 
Irish railroad companies 

Irish Tribune 

Irish tricolor 

Irvine's address .... 
Is it possible 



178 
409 
839 
420 
168 
lit of 010 
691,593 
. 243 
. 51 

. na 
. 9 



. 8 
. 34 

. 500 
. 287 
• 182 

. 280 

. 201 
. 214 
. 200 
. 333 
. 243 
. 301 
. 237 
30, 4 2 
111 
3.-7 
435 
4 10 
10 

no 

417 
75 

407 

08 
1 

396 

167 
. 173 
. 300 
. 12 
. 403 
. 135 
. 15 
. 07 
. 64 
. 202 
. 435 
. 573 
. 409 
. 400 
. 430 

. 585 
. 553 
. 36 
151, 152 
. 152 
. 185 
17, 32 
. 001 
. 43 



\! 



irt of 



I 



I 






151 
45 

II I 
397 
H 
557 
, 
5 -2 
145 
69 







' A * f ?^9 t 






w 





INDEX 



ncobina .... 

.ttiu-s 111. 

nmestown in Cork harbor 

ohn Blaquiere 

ohn Ulaudiiu Beresford 

uhn Keogb . 

<ilni Locke . . • 

ohn Mitchel . 

ohn i I'Coimell 

nun Piuuell . 

ohn Philpot I'lirnvn 

• ii. ili Barrington . 
ouutbuu S« iit 
oy of iln' people . 

i i . ' Ihaiuberlaine 

udge Fox, prosecution of 

udge Johuson, prosecution of 

ndicature bill 

uries, ( Jatholios excluded from 

in > . packing of tho 

uverna .... 



Kaisarswart, siege of 

K. ■ ■ i • [ > peace with nil men 

Keogb lodged in jail 

Kiloullen 

Kilkea castle . 

Killala .... 

Killcavan bill . 

King congratulates parliamen 

King Frederick the Greal 

King i Stiorge II.. death of 

King George II.. on the French frontier 

i. ig ( leoi ;e IV. 

King George l\'., death of 

k n . in miiv of the 

King Louis and the young dauphi 

reluctance of the . 
K i ■ W illiam, death of . 
King William, vexation of 
k ig William IV. . 
King William IV. death of 
King William's birthday. 
Kiug's friends. 

lugu n prisoner 
Kuighl of Gliu 
Kuights of >i. Patrick . 

l.ili .r-ratc act 

I i i\ Hester Stanhope . 
Lady Pamela Fitzgerald 
1, ike's proclamation 
Lally .... 
1 .ally's campaign in India 
Land tenure commission 
Landlord and tenant commission 
Lasl lose ol summer 

session of the Irish parliament 
Laws againsl eduoation . 
Laws against priests 
Leech murdered 
1. n wheel 
Lvitrira grand jury 
Lew ins . 

Liberator, the . • 
..... 
u the Netherlands 
I. ^ . . . . 
l ,ord I lee creates alarm 
Lord ci no. death ol 
I ird Clare, (irallan's reply to 
Lord Fingal . 
L 1.1 Godulphin 




1- v. . i 

201 
42 

.'0,7 
370 
337 
203 

18 
6G1 
681 
171 
1711 
828 

38 

97 
278 
442 
llo 
161 

87 
538 
■HI 



827 

802 

S37 

349 

331 

408 

HI 

80 

62 

489 

6 1 'J 

178 

ol 

507 

22 

21 

51 ' 

619 

198 

414 

327 

663 

161 

UJ 

848 

802 

63 

87 

ol I 

640 
266 

14 

15 
424 
584 
217 

268 

202 

II 

in 

oi>2 

411 
234 
461 



Lord Grey's coercion bill 
Lord Hardwioke, duplicity of 
Lord John Russell .... 

Lord K i ire dis ivowed 

Lord Kilwarden, murder of . 
Lord-Lieutenant, Bolton 
Lord-Lieutenant, Buckingham 
Lord-Lieutenant, Capel . . ■ 
Lord-Lieutenant, Dorset . 
Lord Lieutenant, Duke of Bedford 
Lord. Lieutenant, Duke of Devonshire 
Lord-Lieutenant, Duke ol Portland 
Lord-Lieutenant, Duke of Richmond 
Lord-Lieutenant, Duke of Rutland 
Lord Lieutenant, Duke of Shrewsbury 
Lord-Lieutenant, Earl of Northumberland 
Lord-Lieutenant, L.ul of Westmoreland 
Lord-Lieutenant, Grafton 
Lord-Lieutenant, Uarcourt 
Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Anglesen . 
Lord Lieutenant, Loi l I lamden 
Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Carlisle 
Lord Lieutenant, Lord Carteret 

Lord l.ieulenailt. Lord Clarendon . 

Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Fitzwilliam 
Lord- Lieutenant, Lord Halifax 
Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Hardwicke 
Lord Lieutenant, Lord Hartford . 
Lord Lieutenant, Lord Tow nshend 
Lord Lieutenant Marquis Cornwullis 
Lord-Lieutenant, Marquis of Buckingh 
Lord Lieutenant. Marquis of Xorui.uil.y 
Lord-Lieutenant, Marquis Wellesley 
Lord Lieutenant, Ormoud 
Lord-Lieutenant, Pembroke . 
Lord-Lieutenant, Rochester . 
Lord Lieutenant, Wharton 
Lord Middleton and Justin MaeCarthy 
Lord North's first measure favoring Catholics 
Lord North j ields .... 
Lord Polmerston .... 

Lord Sydney 

Lord Sydney's administration 

Lord remple 

Lord i ol\ erloii .... 
Louis the MV 

Louth election .... 

Lo\ es ol the angels, (he 

Loyalty of the Irish .... 43. 

Lucas and the [' ttriots . . 

Lucas, the failure uf ■ . 

Lucasiau mobs .... 

M. de L-iln ai line .... 

MacUonalds, ol Glenooe 
MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam 
Mi, l in. oi Glencoe 
M.n l iii's » do. murder of 
MacNeven 

.MaeNeven and O'Connor in Franco 
M u Neven, examination of 
MucNeven's memoir 

Macomores 

Magn i aharta 

UacNamara .... 

Vliihony 

Major Kial 

M yoi 's people, the .... 
rity ol ono .... 

Malta 

m in ol the people .... 
Marechal de Noaillea 

M. ire. Hal de SoXfi .... 



63 



< ! 



*-> 




-«^>^ 



, \-» » ' ,-i 





PI . $WBfflffl 



•r _f ,.„ ■ , {ar*r 









INDEX. 



037 






m,v- 






PAOK 




FAUIfi 


Marquis Cornwallis .... 


. 838 


New arms bill 


. 629 


Marquis of Breadalbane .... 


. a 


New election 


. L99 


Marquis of Buckingham .... 


. 184 


New era 


. Ill 


Marquis of Buckingham, unpopularity of 


. 18!) 


New insurrection act .... 


. 468 


Marquis of Downshire .... 


. :;m; 


New Jerusalomites 


. 1 1 3 


Marquis of Drogbeda at Clogheen . 


. 100 


New oath, the ...... 


. 609 


Marshal Boufflers 


. 13 


New peers 


. 199 


Marshal Broglie 


. 61 


New propositions of Mr. Pitt ■ 


. 17:; 


Marshal Luxembourg .... 


. 10 


New reformation ..... 


. 500 


Martello towers 


. 434 


New Ross, battle of .... 


. 320 


Marl ill law ...... 


. 428 


New system 


. 96 


m <m Mi \\ ackea's letter 


. 278 


Newenl . . . . , 


. 167 


M i on'E argument 


. 94 


Newgate keeper 


. 301 


Mason'e argument rejected 


95 


' i ■■ election, Currant at 


. 479 


M:i I'M' al Peterl 


489 


lew p ipers of Dublin .... 


. 98 


Massacre of Glencoe .... 


10 


Newtownbarry :si7 


,515 


Mas i'H'.- 


. 291 


Never 


684 


Massacres, rm 's of idols uml 


. 240 


No C ttholics exist io Ireland . 


6, 4 1 


Master of the rolls 


. 539 


No-Popery pledge, a . . . . 


456 


Material prosperity .... 


198 


Noailles In the Netherlands . 


68 


Mauvaise honte ..... 


81 


Nun impoi tation agreements . . . 


129 


Maynooih college, board of . 


466 


North Cork militia 


. 304 


M ij i ili gran I curtailed 


463 


Northern Star ...... 


200 


Maj ili grant enlarged 


. 283 


Not conquered ..... 


405 


M.u nooth grant, increase of . 


454 


Numerous, wealthy and strong 


. 9 


M i j i ih professors loyal 


195 






McCracken and Monro banged 


334 


Oak-boys 


. 89 


Meagher, trial of 


582 


Oaths of allegiance and upremaey 


3 


Meaning of free trade .... 


128 


oilers of protection .... 


841 


Meeting al Belfast 


166 


Oilers of protection not efficacious 


841 


Meeting dispersed 


889 


O.iver li.iiid 


232 


Meeting in Dublin dispersed . 


288 


1 Inslaughl ol troops in Dublin 


:; U 


Meeting of parliament .... 


212 


Opinions of grand juries 


217. 


Meeting prevented 


637 


Opposition to convention 


21f 


Memoirs 


266 


1 Ippression ..l the farmers 


81 


M of peace 


548 


Orunge boys 


289 


Mih" Byrne 


266 


< 'i tnge eh ti ter toast .... 


489 


.Mill's Byrne and his friends . 


485 


Orange convention 


471 


Mil'"< Byrne in Franco .... 


430 


' >range in the north .... 


25 


Military system 


127 


1 'i ai outrages and murders 


468 


Militiabill 123 


. 229 


Orange purple man .... 


472 


Millenarians 


412 


1 Iraogemen, address of the . 


2!I2 


M i"i trj . change of .... 'l.'ii 


. 50 i 


Orangemen ever punished, no 


267 


Mirabeau ...... 


201 


Orangemen Sourish, iho .... 


46' 


Misery 


120 


Orungi men, Grattan on iho . 


243 


Mitehcl, trial of 


• r >-:; 


i )rangemen, Insolence of 


458 


Mitchel, sentence of ... . 


Oh:-, 


Orangemen, the 




Mol ■ neaux ...... 


18 


i li angemen, the Armagh 


460 


Mon ter meetings 


533 


1 »i iu' commercial propositions . . 172 


, li i 


Montchevreuil ..... 


12 


Oregon 


6 l i 


Moore hall 


35!) 


i ii ■■.in "i the castle . . . 


■ 


Morning Star 


2<ll 


1 ii ;aniziug 


137 


J/-., /"'m7 .s/./c office wrecked . 


261 


Ormond impeached .... 


12 


Mi . Elizabeth Villiers .... 


20 


Orr, account of ..... 


278 


Mrs. Gerard 


559 


* taborue house ..... 


670 


Municipal reform ..... 


521 


Oulard 


:•. 1 3 


Mini ter, reign of (error in 


99 


Out-door relief 


571 


Murder ol $ ather Sheeny . . 


90 


Outrages in the year 1797 


263 


Mutiny bill i;j| 


. 1 10 


Outrage In W exford county . 


:);!) 


K' '.n 


208 


' mir.i ■' - mi the people .... 


'■'■■ , 






Ovidstown 


:;i2 


Naas 


301 


Oxford impeached ..... 


i 1 


Namur 


18 


O'Brien attempts insurrection 


687 


Napper Tandy 


17:: 


O'Brien, demands of .... 




Nation ....... 


628 


i I'Brien, impi isoument of . 


561 


Jiational congress 168 


. 171 


O'Bi i'n iHie, e- for inquiry 


531 


mal debt, the 


176 


O'Brien, sentence of 


■ ' 


National edncation 


5 1 5 


O'Bl ii'H. trial of 




onal guard, the .... 


219 


O'Brien 1 lasl appearance . . . . 


681 


National Bchools 




i I'Connell and the com enlion act . 


■171 


Naval engagement 


:.. 


i ii lonnell and the w liig ' . . . . 


498 


Navigation laws . . , 


19 


hi lonnell al the bar ol the house . 


608 


Neerwiuden .... . 


11 


O'Counell, demands of . . . . 


551 



^ 



c 



.; 







INDEX. 



O'Connell in court . 

( 1*1 Ionnell, influence of . 

O'Connell Lord Mayor of Dublin . 

1 1 'i 'limn '11 reelected for Clara 

( i'i ionnell returned 

O'Connell, the Pope and the devil . 

( i'i lonnell's audacity 

O'Connell's duel with d'Ksterro 

( I'Connell's leadership . 

O'Connor committed to the tower . 

O'Connor, examination of 

(i Doherty, trial of . 

O'Mahony 



:V 



Packing 'juries .... 
Palace oi St Germain en-lave 
Panic and rout of the British 
Papal aggression .... 

Papal brief 

rapists, act against intermarrying with 
Papists, act for disarming 
Papists, Boulter's policy to extirpate 
Papists deprived of eleotive franchise 
Papists, no faith to be kept with . 
Papists the I-. million enemy . 
Parade in Dublin .... 

Pariahs 

Parliament 

Parliament, last days of . 
Parliament prorogued . 

363, 109 
Parliamentary reform, last effort of 
Parliamentary reform, motion rejeoted 
Parliamentary reform, petitions for 
Patrician preeminence in Ireland . 
Patriot party ..... 
Patriots defeated .... 
Patriots in power .... 
Peace of Ryswick .... 
Peace of, Utrecht .... 
Peel and his new police bill . 
Peel and Wellington 
Peel prime minister . . . 
Peel resigns otlice .... 

Peelers 

Peep of day boys . . . , 
Pel ham quits Ireland 
Penal laws, effort lor mitigation of 
Penal laws, enforcement of the 
Penal laws, object of the 
lvii.il laws, operation of the . 
Penal laws, working of the . 

Pension list 

People, havoc of the 
Perceval administration • . 
Perry's address on pension list 
Petition of the Catholics . . 
Petition of the Catholics rejeoted . 

Pitch-caps 

Pitt, death of 

Pitt, great speech of . . 
Pitt, resignation of .... 
Pitt resumes office .... 
Pitt's power, decline of . . , 
Placeholding members . 
Plan oi -Mr. Pit t . 
1'livlair and Liuilley . , 
Police bill .... 
Police bill, motion against 
Political position anomalous . 
Ponsouby's resolution . . , 
Poor law 

Pope and Maguire . . . 



181 



r wi 

; 487 

. Illl 
. 524 
. 61t) 
. 603 
. 494 
. 487 
. 488 
. 47t> 
. 285 
. 863 
. 590 
. 591 

. 232 

. ll 

. 852 

. 601 

. 601 

. 15 

. 11 

. 6s 

. 6a 



. 89 
. 138 
. 17 
. 139 
. 406 
109, 191 
129, 46J 
. 233 
. 169 
. 169 
8 
. 59 
. 17(i 
. Tti 
. 21 
. 40 
. 483 
. 603 
. 524 
. 551) 



. 483 
L95, 239 
. 288 
. 94 
. 31 
. 31) 
. 81 
. 10G 
76, 194 
. 557 
. 4. r )5 
. 94 
. 218 
. 214 
. 295 
. 447 
. 383 
. -Ill) 
. 417 
. 446 
. 214 
. 236 
. 661 
. 17.'. 
. 201 
. 168 
. 377 
. 5111 
. 5U1 



of the 



Popery bill, Catholic laws against the 

Popery bill passed .... 

Popery, bill to prevent the further growt 

Popish conspiracy, a 

Popish massacre 

Population 

Population of Ireland 

Portuguese Jew, I rorzia the 

Post office espionnage 

Potato blight . 

Poyning's law 

Practical toleration for four years . 

Pragmatic sanction 

Prashagh 

P-reoursor society . 

Presentment session 

Press prosecution . 

pretender, the 

Pti'vot prison . 

Priest catchers 

Priests, courag 

Primate Boulte 

Primate Boulter ruler of Ireland 

Primate Boulter's policy 

Primate Stone 

Primate Sunn', death of . 

Primates in hiding . 

Prince Charles Edward, expedition i 

Proceedings of convention 

Process Ben er 

Proclamation .... 

Proclamation of the people . 

Progress of union conspiracy 

Projected massacre, the . 

Prosperous .... 

Protection .... 

Protective duties demanded . 

Protestant ascendancy . 

Protestant boys, the 

Protestant charter schools 

Protestant coal porters . 

Protestaut succession, act for establishing 

Protesting peers, the 

Purchasing votes 




Quarantotti .... 
Queen Anne .... 
Queen Victoria's accession 
Queen's colleges 
Queen's speech 
Queen's \ i-it to Ireland . 
Questions to Catholic universities 
Quilca in the County Cavan . 

Races of Castlebar. 
Rackrents .... 
Rage and impatience of Tone 
Rage in England 
Rage of tin' bigots . 
Rage ol the English 
Rath of the Curragh of Cildare 
Rathcormack, tithe carnage at 
Rathfarnham .... 
Ravages of famine . . 

Reappearance ol Grattan 
Rebel disqualification bill 
Reclaim bogs, bill to 
Reconciliation of differences . 
Recovery ol Ballina . . 
Rector of Agher 

Red list 

Redoubt of Ell 

Regency act .... 



of 



. 40 
. 336 
. 44 
. 47 
. 51 
. 64 
. 64 
. 112 
. 95 
. 106 
. 68 
. 161 
. 664 
. 634 
. 824 
. 391 
.>H7 
. 302 
. 839 
. 170 
. 358 
. 500 
. lit) 
. 14 
. " 21 
. 4117 
. 1U0 

. 481 
. 22 
. 619 
. 549 
. 503 
. 595 
. 216 
. 52 

. 361 
. 63 
. 275 
. 801 
. 505 
. 131 
. 342 
618 
. 302 
. 565 
. 394 
. 378 
.113 
. 220 
. ; is i 

. 38 

. 41)7 

64 

. 380 



w 



& 



a 



/-6 



TO 



) 




' i Nfi .. t/h sus.v. 






H 

§ 



Wi! 




INDEX. 



GIJ'J 





- 



Regency, the . . . 

Regium donum 

Relief aet, meaning of . 

Relief iict. results of 

Belief bill with wings, a 

Belief measures 

Relief measures, pretended 

Relief lo Catholics, paltry 

Remember Limerick 

Remember Orr 

Renunciation act . 

Repeal association, decadence of 

Repeal of Poj [ling's law 

Repeal of the test act . 

Repeal year, the 

Reproductive committee 

Republican . . . 

Republicanism 

Resolutions 

Retaliation 

Revenge .... 

Reve and debt of Ireland 

Revenue, the . 
Revenues of the kingdom 
Reversal of (lie sentence 

Re\ ieu'H .... 

Rewards for discoverers 
Rej Holds, the informer . 
Richard Brinsley Sheridan 
Richard Johnson 
Richard Lalor Shiel 
Richard O't Gorman . 

Richi id penitentiary . 

Rights of man 
Riots .... 
Robert Emmet . . 
Robi it Holmes . . 
Rockwell . . 

Roscommon . . . 
Round Robin . . . 
Royal speech . 

Rumors oi disturbances. 

Rump of an aristocracy . 

■Sacramental test 

Saintfleld 

Sale of peerages 

haul, case of . 

Savings banks 

Scottish insurrection, the 

Secret committee of the lords 

Secret committee, report of 

Secret Bervice money 

Secretary Pelham . 

Sedition .... 

Selling seats, charged with 

Septennial bill changed into Octennial 

Settlement not liual 

Shanavests 

Sherlock and Anuesley, cause of 

Simon Butler . 

Sincere friend, a 

Sir Robert Walpole's policy 

Sir Toby Butler, pleading of 

Sirr, Swan and Sandys . 

.- ituation of the Catholics 

Slanderous report . 

Slaughter 

Slaughter of prisoners . 

Slaughter on Tara bill . 

Sligo volunteers 

Sowing disseusions . 

Specie payments, suspension of 



TAOIC 

. 188 
. 138 

. fill!) 
. 510 

. 188 
. 556 
. 5110 
. US 
. 12 
. 277 
. 156 
. 643 
. 152 

. mi 

. 525 
. 5 (if, 
. 201 
. 212 
. M4 

. 82:; 
. 196 

. 451 
. 88 
. Ml 
. 642 
. 137 
. 37 
. 298 
. 17;s 
. 142 
. 4110 
. 568 
. 541 
. 201 
. 80 
. 418 
. 683 
. 578 
. 584 
. 11)2 
. 431 
. 178 
. 3U5 

. 57 
. 333 
. 20IJ 
. 77 
. 623 
. 72 
. 221 
. 413 
. 277 
. 288 
. 634 
. 169 
. 97 
. 153 
. 4lil 
. 45 
208, 232 
. 438 
. 02 
. 24 
. 336 
. 6 
. 2115 
. 355 
. 321 
. 30(1 
. 142 
. 282 
. 2G0 



Speech from the throne . 
Speecb, George Ill.'s 
Speech of Plunket . 
Spensonians . 

Spies . . ' . . 

Spiked heads . 
Spying in the post office. 
Stag house 
Star and garter 
State of Ireland 
Staunch bloodhounds 
Steady majority 
Steel-boys 

Stipendiary magistrates' . 
Striking terror 
-nil criptions . 
Subsistence money . 
Successes of the Americans 

Successes of the French, fortunate 

Successes under Marlborough 
Suicide in prison . 
Supersedeas 

Swift and Wood's copper 
Swift popular with the Catholi 
Swin- feeling towards Catholii 
Swift's modest proposal . 
Swift's pamphlet 

Sysie r conciliation . 

System of terror 

Tabular statements . 
Talent of Parliament . 
Tux absentees, proposal to 
Te Di van 

Temperance hands 
Tenant right disallowed 

Testimony ot Lord .Moira 

The i.uh of February . 

The I '.nli of April . 
The 23d of July . 
Tie- 23d of May . 
Theobald Wolfe Tone . 
Thomas Davis, death of . 
Thomas Francis Meagher 
Thomas Russell, late of . 

Three evils 

Three hundred, council of 

Three majors . 

Three rocks 

Threshers hanged . 

Threshers, the. 

Tliurot's expedition 

Tipperary Free- Press 

Tithe-law 

Tithe-tragedies 

Tithes .... 

Tollymore park 

Tom the devil 

Tone allowed to quit the country 

Tone at I lie Tcxcl . 

Tone in Paris . 

Tone on board the Vryheid 

Tone's negotiations in France 

Tone's pamphlet 

Tone's uneasiness . 

Torture in Wexford 

Tory ministry . 

Tournay .... 

Townshend's golden drops 
Trade, distress of . 
Treatment of Catholic soldiers 
Treatment ot women 
Treaty of Limerick 




h 



m\ 






.vJ 



s& 



&th% 



% 



12 



'.»". '. J",M(»ui,fl, 



m 



•> 1 



rx<2 





rvt, ; 



^C^ ■ 



;jpwI% 



INDEX. 



Tiench and Fox 

Troubles in County Armagh . 

Tubberneering 

Twenty-fourth light dragoons 

Two columns . 

Typhus fever . 



Ulster, emigration from . 
Ulster, presbyterians of . 
lister, rising in ... 

Ultimatum 

Unavailing efforts against corruption 

Under-secretary Cooke . 

Undertakers ..... 

Union, barristers who supported the 

Union declines 

Union denounced . 

Union, effects of the 

Union, English plots for the . 

Union, first year of the . 

Union jack .... 

Union of England and Scotland 

Union, project of . 

Union proposed 

Union proposed in British parliament 

Union, repeal of the 

Union, ruinous effects of the . 

Unionism, methods of conversion to 

United Irish society 

United Irish society, constitution of 

United li ish society, principles of . 

United Irishmen .... 

United Irishmen, association of 

United parliament, first measure of 

United parliament, proposed constitution 

Unlawful assemblies, act against . 

Unlawful assemblies, act to suppress 




Verdict of guilty 278. 

Veto, debate in parliament oti 

Veto offered, the 

Veto, unanimity against the . 

Vicar apostolic 

Viceroy, equivocation of the . 

Viceroyalty of Chesterfield 

Vigor beyond the law 

Vigor, Lord Carhampton's 

Vinegar hill, battle of . 

Vinegar hill, camp at 

Vinegar hill, troops concentrating at 

Violation of treaty .... 

Violated or not .... 

Volunteers, Catholics desirous to join the 

Volunteers, end of the .... 



PAGE 

. 373 
. '210 
. 318 
. 264 
. 319 
. 553 

. 90 
. 434 
. 332 
. 529 
. 197 
. 336 
. 90 
. 306 
. 282 
. 405 
. 480 
. 152 
. 417 
. -lull 
. 35 
79, 365 
. 367 
. 381 
. 477 
. 483 
. 373 
. 246 
. 264 
.211 
. 167 
. 192 
. 412 
397 
222 
198 



of 



415 
. 475 
. 4'. I 
. 482 
. 601 
. 419 
. 71 
. 241 
. 241 
. 326 
.817 
. 325 
. 418 
. 1 
. 126 
. 167 



Volunteers get the militia arms 
Volunteers, loyalty of the 
Volunteers, numbers in 1780, of 
Volunteers Protestant at first 
Volunteers, thanks to the 
Volunteers, the 
Volunteers, the arms of the . 
Volunteers, uniforms of the . 
Vow of the Cave hill 

Wake in Monaseed chapel 

Wales, disturbances in . 

Walpole, fall of . 

War, close of the . 

\\ ar in the Netherlands . 

War on the continent 

Wuterford election. 

Waterloo .... 

\\ at kin William Wynne . 

Welsh cavalry 

Wexford county 

Wexford county, insurrection iu 

Wexford evacuated 

Wexford, massacre of the bridge of 

Wexford occupied by insurgents 

Wexfodr, popuhtti.ni ol county 

Wheatly, the perjurer 

Whig club .... 

\\ big club. Lord Clare on 

Whig ministry 

Whigs, support to the . 

White-boys . . . . i 

Wild alarm, country in . 

Wilson, the magistrate . 

Willful murder 

William Brabazon Ponsonby . 

William Convugham l'lunket. 

William Jackson, Rev. . 

William Orr, execution of 

William Orr, of l"'ei ranshaue . 

William Smith O'Brien . 

William III. an usurper . , 

Williams, trial of . 

Windmill hill .... 

Wolfe Tone a prisoner . 

Wolfe 'I'oue carried to Dublin 

Wolfe Tone recognized by George Hill 

Wolfe Tone tried by court-martial 

Wolfe Tone's autobiography . 

Woolen manufacture, suppression of 

Yeomanry corps, Catholics driven out of 

Young Ireland 

Younger uatiouists, the . . 



Vo; 






307 
648 
627 



